Michael Spinks

Spinksc. 1982
Personal information
Nickname	Jinx
Born	Michael Spinks (1956-07-22)July 22, 1956 (age 69)[2][3] St. Louis, Missouri, U.S
Height	6 ft2+1⁄2 in (189 cm)[1]
Weight	Light heavyweight Heavyweight
Boxing career
Reach	76 in (193 cm)[1]
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	32
Wins	31
Win by KO	21
Losses	1
Medal record Men'samateur boxing Representing United States Olympic Games 1976 Montreal Middleweight

Michael Spinks (born July 22, 1956)^[a] is an American formerprofessional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1988. He held world championships in twoweight classes, including theundisputedlight heavyweight title from 1983 to 1985, and thelinealheavyweight title from 1985 to 1988. As anamateur he won a gold medal in themiddleweight division at the1976 Summer Olympics.

Nicknamed "Jinx", which spawned the nickname of hisstraight right hand, "the Spinks Jinx",^[7][8] Spinks is the brother of former world heavyweight championLeon Spinks, and uncle ofCory Spinks, a formerwelterweight andlight middleweight champion.

After a successful amateur career, which culminated in his Olympic gold medal win, Spinks went undefeated in his first 31 professional fights, beatingDwight Muhammad Qawi,Eddie Mustafa Muhammad,Marvin Johnson andEddie Davis en route to becoming the undisputed light heavyweight champion. After defending the title against 10 different fighters, Spinks moved up to heavyweight, and as an underdog defeated long-reigningIBF heavyweight championLarry Holmes (whose own 48–0 record up to that point was one victory short of tyingRocky Marciano's 49–0 unblemished record); in doing so, Spinks became the first reigning light heavyweight world champion to win the heavyweight title. In his final fight, Spinks wasknocked out byMike Tyson in 91 seconds, the only defeat of his professional career.

Spinks has been inducted into theInternational Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame. The International Boxing Research Organization andBoxRec rank Spinks among the 10 greatest light heavyweights of all time.^[9][10]

Spinks won the 1974 156-poundGolden Gloves Light Middleweight Championship by defeating Wilber Cameron inDenver, Colorado, and then took the silver medal in theNational AAU 165-pound Championship Competition in 1975, losing in three rounds to Tom Sullivan inShreveport, Louisiana.^{[citation needed]} He rebounded to take the 1976National Golden Gloves Middleweight championship with a three-round victory over Lamont Kirkland inMiami, Florida, and that same year captured the United States Olympic Trials Middleweight Championship by defeating Keith Broom inCincinnati, Ohio. At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Spinks benefited from a favorable draw. Due to a bye and two wins by walkover, he was only required to box two opponents to win the gold medal in the middleweight division. He went on to defeat theSoviet Union'sRufat Riskiyev in the final.^[11]

• Compiled an amateur record of (93-7)^[12]
• Won the 1974 Light Middleweight (156 lb.) National Golden Gloves Championship.
• Made it to the finals of the 1975 National AAU, losing toTommy Brooks^[13]
• Won the 1976 Middleweight (165 lb.) National Golden Gloves Championship in Miami, Florida.
• Won the Middleweight Gold Medal for the United States at the 1976Olympic Games in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

 Gold at the XXI Summer Olympics (165 lbs),Montreal, Canada, July 1976:

• Round of 32: bye
• Round of 16: Defeated Jean-Marie Emebe (Cameroon) by walkover
• Quarterfinal: DefeatedRyszard Pasiewicz (Poland) by unanimous decision, 5–0
• Semifinal: DefeatedAlec Năstac (Romania) by walkover
• Final: DefeatedRufat Riskiyev (Soviet Union) RSC 3(Riskiyev knocked down in the 1st rd, referee stopped the fight at 1:54)

Spinks finished his amateur career with a record of 93 wins (35 knockouts,) 7 losses.^[12]

With the Olympics behind him, Spinks returned to work at a chemical factory inSt. Louis,Missouri, "scrubbing floors and cleaning toilets," as one source tells it. He had no big contracts awaiting him and, while Michael appeared to experts to be the more promising of the two brothers, Leon was at that time the big shooting star, a television staple ofABC Sports, on his way to a shot at heavyweight championMuhammad Ali. Michael had their mother to care for, and he was intent on helping Leon prepare for Ali. All of this pushed Michael's career to the back burner. It wasButch Lewis in 1977 who convinced Michael to turn professional.^[8][14][15]

Spinks then turned professional with a win over Eddie Benson, knocking him out in one round on April 17, 1977, inLas Vegas. With that, Spinks began a 31 fight winning streak that would almost extend to the end of his career. After four more wins, Spinks finished '77 with the first fight that began a gradual ascent in opposition quality: an eight-round decision over Gary Summerhays, a popular young boxer of the time.

In 1978, Spinks won two fights, including an eight-round decision over former world Middleweight title challenger Tom Bethea, in the same undercard where his brother Leon dethroned Ali as world Heavyweight champion in Las Vegas.

1979 saw Spinks get less than three minutes of boxing action inside a ring, with his only fight ending in a first roundknockout of Marc Hans, but in 1980, Spinks took his ascent towards the top to another level, when he beat future IBF super-middleweight champion Murray Sutherland, David Conteh, and fringe contenders Ramon Ronquillo and Alvaro Yaqui Lopez (who challenged for a world title four times). Of his five wins that year, three came by knockout, Sutherland and Johnny Wilburn being the only ones who lasted the distance.

By 1981, Spinks was already a top ranked contender, and after beating former and future world light-heavyweight championMarvin Johnson by a knockout in four rounds, theWBA made Spinks their number one challenger, and so, on July 18 of that year, he met WBA light-heavyweight championEddie Mustafa Muhammad, once again in Las Vegas. Spinks dropped Mustafa Muhammad in round 12 and went on to become the WBA light heavyweight champion with a 15-round decision win. He defended the title once in '81, beating Vonzell Johnson by a knockout in seven.

1982 began with a knockout victory over Mustafa Wassaja. Spinks had become a superstar, at least in the boxing world. He began appearing on the covers of boxing magazines and boxing fans started clamoring for a unification fight withWBC championDwight Muhammad Qawi. Tragedy struck his life, however, when in January 1983, his 24-year-old wife, Sandy Massey, died in a car crash, leaving Spinks the single parent of his two-year-old daughter, Michelle.

Meanwhile, the fight all the fans wanted was being asked for by boxing critics and magazine editors, too. On March 18, two months after his wife's death, Spinks and Qawi met in a boxing ring for the undisputed light heavyweight championship.^[16] The fight was broadcast byHBO World Championship Boxing, and, according to the bookThe Ring: Boxing the 20th Century, Spinks had a very tough moment to overcome before it even started: His daughter asked him, while he was in his dressing room, if her mother would come to watch the fight. After breaking into tears he composed himself and dominated the fight with his jab and plenty of strategic hooks and crosses. He repeatedly stopped Qawi in his tracks over the first 11 rounds but cautiously waited for Qawi to come out of his crouched defense to resume his assault. Qawi scored a knockdown in round eight. The official scores were 144–140, 144–141, and 144–141, all for Spinks, who was now the undisputed world Light Heavyweight champion. He defended the title one more time before the end of the year, againstOscar Rivadeneira, whom he beat by a ten-round knockout.

Spinks fought only once in 1984, retaining his crown with a twelve-round majority decision overEddie Davis. He and Qawi were only a couple of weeks away from fighting a rematch in September of that year, but that fight got called off when Qawi was injured during training. Spinks also was recognized as IBF Light heavyweight champion in 1984.

In 1985, Spinks beat David Sears and Jim McDonald, both by knockout, in title defenses, before challengingLarry Holmes for theIBF and lineal heavyweight championship.^[17] Holmes was trying to tieRocky Marciano's record of 49–0 as the heavyweight champion, but it was Spinks who made history that night, winning a controversial and narrow fifteen-round unanimous decision and becoming the first ever world light-heavyweight champion to win the world heavyweight title. His controversial victory over Holmes was namedRing Magazine Upset of the Year. With this, Michael and Leon had also become the first pair of brothers ever to be world heavyweight champions, followed two decades later by Wladimir andVitali Klitschko.

In 1986, Spinks and Holmes fought a rematch as part of theheavyweight unification series, and had nearly the same result, this time Spinks winning by a 15-round split decision. After that, he retained the world heavyweight championship once again, by a knockout in four againstSteffen Tangstad. In 1987 he was stripped of the crown by the IBF for refusing to fight theirmandatory challenger,Tony Tucker, and accepting a higher offer to fightGerry Cooney instead. Spinks knocked out Cooney in five rounds, and afterMike Tyson had unified the heavyweight belts, fans started clamoring for a fight between them as many still recognized Spinks as the legitimate lineal champion.

The fight between Spinks and Mike Tyson took place in June 1988, with Tyson knocking Spinks down twice on his way to a first-round knockout. Tyson andDwight Muhammad Qawi were the only fighters to officially floor Spinks. It was Spinks's first defeat in the professional ring, and his last, as he retired following the fight. In this fight he was badly affected by fear.^[18]

Spinks had a record of 31 wins and 0 losses, prior to the fight, with 21 wins by knockout as a professional, and still heldThe Ring magazine heavyweight title, and had a legitimate claim to theLineal heavyweight championship, for he never had been beaten for his title before them being stripped from him. And he only lost recognition for both when he lost to Tyson.

In addition to his success as a heavyweight, Spinks is generally considered one of the greatest light-heavyweight champions and fighters of all time. He was the only light-heavyweight champion to remain undefeated in the entire history of the division since its inception in 1903 (untilJoe Calzaghe), as well as the only reigning light-heavyweight champion to win the heavyweight title.

The Ring Magazine in 2002 ranked Spinks as the third greatest light-heavyweight of all time, behindEzzard Charles andArchie Moore, but ahead ofTommy Loughran,Bob Foster,Harold Johnson,Maxie Rosenbloom andBilly Conn. Furthermore, Spinks did what no other light-heavyweight champion had ever done up to that point: move up to win the world heavyweight championship, by decisioning IBF championLarry Holmes in 1985.^[19]

OnThe Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time, Spinks was ranked 42nd.^[20]

OnThe Ring Magazine's list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years, released in 2002, Spinks ranked 41st.^[21]

East Side Boxing said in its tribute to Spinks, "Michael Spinks went undefeated fighting during the deepest era in Light Heavyweight history. And he beat the real heavyweight champion to win the title, who was also undefeated. Michael Spinks is the most accomplished light heavyweight champion in history."^[22]

Spinks was once believed to be one of the few top fighters who left the sport of boxing with both a decent amount of money and being seemingly unharmed, free of permanent injuries. However he has shown signs of slurred speech since the 2020s, and he has been in litigation over the loss of his $24 million fortune. Aside from a rare event honoring him and occasionally attending fights, Spinks has largely remained off the boxing scene and out of the public eye.Ken Hissner reported that, "In October 2007 he was introduced into the ring at the Legendary Blue Horizon in Philadelphia. He seemed quite at home in the ring waving and talking to the fans."^[23]

Spinks lives on a five-acre spread inGreenville, Delaware. However, he has been known for visiting schools—carrying his gold medal and four title belts—where he tells kids to pursue their dreams. "Most of the kids don't have a clue who I am," he says, "but they listen when they see all the gold."^[24]

For years he remained close to his former promoter,Butch Lewis, training fighters and making rare public appearances at events promoted by Lewis.^[25]

In 2011, however, after Lewis died from natural causes,^[26] it was reported that Spinks had sued Lewis's estate in a Delaware Chancery Court, alleging that the promoter had failed to properly manage more than $24 million Spinks had earned in the ring and had violated their agreements that Lewis would continue to manage Spinks's money and pay his living expenses for the rest of the boxer's life. The lawsuit alleged that he commingled his personal funds with Spinks's and used Spinks's money to pay his and his children's own personal and business expenses. Also named as a defendant wasRobert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, head of the real estate firm of RLJ Development LLC, in Bethesda, Maryland, and one of the executors of Lewis's $8.5 million estate.

According to Spinks's lawyers, following Lewis's death Johnson and attorney Leonard Williams stopped the payments without telling him, which in turn caused Spinks's health insurance to lapse and bills totaling up to $50,000 a month to go unpaid. "Spinks had to invade his pension and retirement funds and incur significant taxes and penalties in order to meet these obligations," the boxer's lawyers added in the filings.

Spinks asked that the court bar Johnson and Williams from transferring any further assets from Lewis's estate until there can be a full accounting and payments to Spinks are resumed.^[27]

• WBA light heavyweight champion (175 lbs)
• WBC light heavyweight champion (175 lbs)
• IBF light heavyweight champion^[b] (175 lbs)
• IBF heavyweight champion (200+ lbs)

• The Ring light heavyweight champion (175 lbs)
• The Ring heavyweight champion (200+ lbs)

• Undisputed light heavyweight champion

• List of heavyweight boxing champions
• List of light heavyweight boxing champions
• List of WBA world champions
• List of WBC world champions
• List of IBF world champions
• List ofThe Ring world champions

• Florio, John; Shapiro, Ouisie (2013).One Punch from the Promised Land: Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, and the Myth of the Heavyweight Title. Lyons Press. p. 279.ISBN 978-0-7627-8300-7.

• Boxing record for Michael Spinks fromBoxRec(registration required)
• Michael Spinks profile at Cyber Boxing Zone
• Boxing Hall of Fame

• 1956 births
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• Boxers at the 1976 Summer Olympics
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