Was Tyson-Spinks fixed?

Tyson would ko spinks any night, unless spinks ran and ran to survive.

 

Buster Douglas was far from scared of him and we all know what happened there.....

 

Spinks was always jittery in the first round.

A recipe for disaster against a prime Tyson.

 

Please see the right hand Tyson landed on Spinks that ended the fight. You don't just fake that.

 

Bob Arum: Spinks can run but he cant hide, and when he realises he cant hide, it will make for an interesting but short fight. As soon as Tyson nails him and trust me he will NAIL him, the fight in essence will be over

 

I dont exaggerate his accomplishments at all. Tyson-Spinks didnt get to be the biggest fight monetarily of all time to that point with daily televised commercials across several sponsors on terrestrial TV by Tyson fighting some bum. Spinks was considered the best HW in the world with the possible exception of Tyson at that point and the only guy with a chance of upsetting Tyson. To characterize him as anything else is revision. Period.

 

Agreed,

There were few who actually favored Spinks, but he at least had the full respect of any true boxing fan as being a highly competent professional. Regardless of what people expected, the event was taken seriously as being the most important heavyweight bout in years.

 

Not fixed

 

Spinks did not look confident at all. His bandaged knee and body language combined with almost every major boxing writer picking Tyson did not help.

On the way to the ring a fan shouted knock him out! Spinks quietly said he'd try.

Spinks manager Butch Lewis did not feel confident either. Was Spinks scared? Heck yes. Almost all fighters are scared. I think Tyson's intimidation was a factor as well.

No fix here, but I do think Spinks wilted a bit too soon for a variety of reasons.

 

Spinks did well vs an older Larry Holmes. In truth Holmes hurt Spinks in the second fight and was robbed. Then Spinks beat an inactive an alcoholic Gerry ****ey.

Yes-- smaller boxer types in their 30's almost always have trouble with fast handed and more powerful punchers who fight aggressively.

I think that Tyson beats Spinks 10 times out of ten.

 

I have a magazine preview of the Tyson-Spinks fight somewhere. The entire magazine is devoted solely to that fight (when was the last time you saw that) and there is a lengthy section where boxing experts around the world are asked to make their pick. Its split nearly down the middle. This fight was viewed at the time as being very similar to Ali-Frazier 1. Its only been downgraded in that estimation historically because Tyson took care of business so quick. I remember very well the stories from multitudes of fans who said "Man I paid $50 for that fight, went to the bathroom or to get my popcorn, and when I came back it was over."

 

Yes, the fight was huge, the biggest in boxing at the time. Fact is Spinks was THE linear champ, and he was undefeated. He was a former Olympic gold medalist. He was the guy with fast hands, fast feet, great condition, skill, solid power, and proven winner's attitude. So yes the fight had an aura. That said, despite so many folks hyping it, there were several insiders, including Holmes, Tyson's managers, trainer Kevin Rooney, Tyson, possibly Larry Merchant, who thought the fight would be over relatively quickly. But you never know when two undefeateds go up against one another.

 

It was way over-hyped! Many were duped. Tyson was ready to steamroll the light heavyweight Spinks and some thought Spinks would box his way out of it. No way!

 

I guess Spinks was resigned to lose to ****ey and Tangstad as well because he had the exact same body language and knee brace in those fights.

I find it funny that the one quote anyone can find of Spinks saying he was scared was:

"fear was knocking at my door big time."

Do a google search on that quote. There is absolutely no provenance for it and it always appears in exactly the same manner, sentence, and presentation. Meaning its simply one of those internet quotes that people continue to cut and paste but have never actually searched for its veracity. In reality if you look at actual citeable quotes of michael spinks he says he came to fight, tried to get Tyson's respect early (which is what you are supposed to do against a supposed bully) and got caught.

 

Actually Tyson's people delayed taking that fight at least a year giving rise to the opinion that his handlers werent so sure about the outcome. It was certainly the most competitive HW bout out there for Tyson, monday morning quarterbacking notwithstanding. Everybody has their opinion, especially those close to a fighter, but the bottom line is that nobody KNEW what the outcome was and this was THE fight at the time. Its easy in hindsight to say it was overhyped, or Spinks wasnt a good match for Tyson, but thats the beauty of hindsight. In reality prior to the match it was the most eagerly anticipated fight in nearly 20 years due expressly to just how competitive a match it appeared on paper. Nevermind the fact that had Tyson just said "oh poo, Spinks is just a LHW, Im not going to fight him" he would have been laughed out of the sport and never had the legitimacy that he cemented with that performance. Its just sad that some (who probably werent alive or at least dont remember) continue to mischaracterize that fight because it was THE EVENT at that time and it got that way because of Spink's standing vs. Tyson's emergence.