The truth about Michael Spinks - Boxing Documentary 

it's crazy! it's like the boxing world dismisses the guy and forgets about the brutal competition he had to go through to get to where he did. i can kinda understand, though, he was post ali AND had to deal with the tyson mystique. but, that's why Rummy is here. to edify us all.

I didn't even know he was good until recently! A new fan that got lucky finding this channel to help ease me into the sports "golden age" history.

You good Sir, are EXACTLY the kind of person this video was meant for. Thanks Rummy for spreading the good word to good people like Tuukka here. Mike Spinks is a legit Legend.

Yes 1976, Ray Leonard ,Leon Spinks ,Howard Davis,John Tate,Michael Spinks

😳😳😳😳😳

But damn did he look like a weakling against Tyson. He Looked so weak and scared and pathetic. Tyson was like a 1,000 times stronger than the gangly awkward Spinks.

Massively over matched. Spinks would have had to massively hydrate to reach heavyweight. Must of been under on fight night, by the look of him. No way was he only 3 kilos less than Tyson.

@@ckobo84 That was prime Tyson. Everyone at the time looked weak against him.

He's great. But Tyson DID destroy him. Utterly.

He didn't beat Holmes... He was handed the wins until they couldn't overturn a TYSON knockout

Plus, when fighting Tyson, Spinks didn't have a bad strategy. Lewis replicated the strategy when he defeated Tyson

@@EverettBurger how do you know the strategy. It was only 91 seconds

Aa

@@EverettBurger Lewis beat a hollow shell of his former self, in Tyson.

@@Gamevet Ali was a shell when he beat George,Angelo did not want to fight him, he was in decline,and George lasted 8 rounds,I'm tired of the oh Mike was not the same,save it,Ali did it in 8,Mike oh well.

If not the greatest 175 boxer.

@@anthonymcken6050 that was Holyfield

@@antaresblazewar9083 indeed

Criminal was his decision over Holmes.

@@antaresblazewar9083 james toney

Coulda, woulda shoulda. But he didn't. He never beat any good heavyweights who were old or failing.

@@robertthomas8653 he only fought 4 heavyweights; all were at least "good" and none were old, or "failing." (We could argue that Holmes was old, at 36....but he was the undefeated HW Champion of the world, so....) He took Larry's zero, and handed both Cooney and Tangstad their second defeats. I recall seeing an interview with Spinks where he said he was looking to retire prior to the Tyson fight, just didn't want to fight anymore, so he took the Tyson fight as a final payday. Spinks lives in DE; he managed to keep both his health and his millions, unlike most boxers from his era. He goes to local schools to give motivational speeches to students. Rummy's right about Spinks; he's an all-time great who is largely underrated and underappreciated by most fans.

@@fatrobdouble Spinks beating Holmes twice is really something. I don't know about Tangstad, but Gerry Cooney was overrated, didn't like fighting, and when Spinks beat him, it was near the end of his career. It was his final fight, many thought, until he was lured out of retirement by Foreman.

If he didn't maybe we would've seen a Spinks vs Holyfield, or a Spinks vs Bowe. Those would've been epic.

@@presence5426 overrated is a matter of opinion, as is "good" i suppose...but when Spinks beat Cooney, he was a respected contender who had lost only to Holmes and who had KOed a few fading big-name heavyweights in spectacular fashion. He was at least as "good" as the average Tyson opponent throughout the 1980s.

Mike tyson kill him🤣🤣🤣

I tell ya, If I were in Holmes' corner for their first fight, when Marciano's record was on the line... I would have told Larry to go out there and mug Spinks. The HELL with the jab & counter right. Lead right to the head and body. Left hook to the body, over and over again. Uppercut the hell out of Spinks in the clinch. Holmes needed to make it a war, but he was so married to his style that he didn't.

@@presence5426 Holmes lost the chance to match Marciano by taking a year off while arguing with the alphabet groups. In the fall of 1985 he was sluggish and tired and he simply didn't take Spinks seriously enough. Of course if he had the Floyd Mayweather mentality he would have defended against an Eddie Gregg or Tony Tubbs and won easily.

How small all fighters were compared to the giants that fight for heavyweight champion belts today. Like a different categorie the super heavyweight at 270 pounds

So what! You think they didn't have big guys in the Past? Buster Mathis, Jess Willard, The Giant Carnera, Abe Simon. The bigger they are the harder they fall. Small guys are more agile and quick. Some of the best champs were smaller, Dempsey, Rocky, Patterson, Joe frazier.@@stemac110

Agree. Qawi was dangerous and mean. I'd have thought he would give Spinks more trouble.

That's what made me discover the channel. It was like a documentary. It will be great if he could do it for the 2000s.

Agreed

I want the 1980s. Total alphabet soup during that time. I need it sorted out.

Thank you! Cheers!

Remember micheal drinks only loss was to Tyson over a hall of fame career. Undefeated at LHW and ten consecutive title defenses. Mathew sadd Muhammad and Eddie Mustafa Muhammad were two of the strongest lwh when it was strongest division during Micheal Spinks reign. It had some great fighters in a division often overlooked.

It's because the contrarians love to discredit Tyson. In doing so, they have to downplay how good Spinks was.

@@perpetualmotion357 buster douglas is all you need to discredit tyson, spinks not showing up ready to fight is just an unfortunate detour before tyson got destroyed by buster

@@simonjames1604 Discredit? That was a good fight though. Tyson showed heart in that fight despite being out of shape, it took a beating to finally knocked him out. Tyson is still the better fighter and objectively p4p better than Douglas lol. Tyson already beat better fighters than Douglas. Tony Tucker, Tyrell Biggs (Olympic gold medalist) Pinklon Thomas and Carl Williams.

I think that urban myth of Spinks was scared beaten before he got in the ring is part of it. But I think that was just that, an urban myth. Sure he would have been nervous going in against Mike at that time, who wouldn't, but i don't think he was scared, he was just overwhelmed immediately and in survival mode straight away. In fact, I bet he would have done a lot better in a rematch!

I agree. Having watched a lot of Spinks bouts in their entirety, including ring walks, he had often had a similar look and demeanor just before a fight. I'm just speculating of course, but I tend to believe you are correct regarding the urban myth.

@@samueldowney2806 I disagree... check out Spinks' interview with Letterman soon before the fight. The guy was speaking like he had already lost, whether you call it "scared shitless" or just "hopeless", it certainly was a defeated mentality in him.

​@RummysCorner I agree that the stuff about Michael Spinks being "scared" before the Tyson fight (in a way that other boxers are not), is an urban myth. However, as I commented in another post under this thread, Michael was a good interview. He was very confident in a lot of those interviews. Before he won the LH title from Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, he told Howard Cosell in the pre-fight interview that he was going to "put a whooping" on Eddie. Also, on the way to the title, immediately after he knocked out Marvin Johnson in what was Marvin's worst defeat ever, Michael was interviewed again by Cosell, this time with light- heavyweight champion Matthew Saad Muhammad right there with them, and he called him "Sad" Muhammad and kept telling Matthew to sign the contract and let's fight. He commented about how he had worked with Saad in 1977 when Saad was a top contender and Michael was a new pro-- that Saad thus knew that Michael would beat him. EDIT a few minutes after originally posted: When Saad yelled, "I knocked Johnson out twice, I knocked Johnson out twice!" Spinks retorted "But he almost killed you each time!!!" (which was true) Michael was fairly confident in an interview I saw before he challenged Larry Holmes in their first fight. And on the way to his LH title, he said that he wanted top contender (and Rahway Prison inmate, for murder) James "Superman" Scott, a scary intimidator whom Michael said he'd "go there and fight him in his cell." So, all in all I would say that Michael was relatively quite subdued when he went up against Tyson, and he probably didn't want to offend the guy, as he knew he was fighting the most dangerous guy that he ever walked in the ring against, particularly since Spinks was an overachiever at heavyweight whose best days were at light-heavyweight. When the division was historically extremely strong, he was the unquestioned best. Scared of Tyson? I surely doubt it. Expecting that he was likely to lose? Probably. In fact, Michael being as honest as he was, he probably was boastful before those other fights because he was quite certain he'd win, and was quite subdued in comparison before the Tyson fight because he may have expected to lose, or at least appreciated the fact that the odds weren't with him for this one. He had a decent run at heavyweight, but he was an absolutely outstanding, all-time great, first-ballot Hall-of-Famer at light-heavyweight.

what a weird man 😅 think that a man who has won golden medal but he want to clean floor 😅😅 probably he concerned about that getting serious damage.

I remember after Tyson-Spinks, people said he threw the fight. Not sure I believe that. But my father and I were watching news coverage of Spinks training before the fight. Spinks was doing situps lazily. My Dad exclaimed "look at him, he's not even trying!" I thought, nah. How could Spinks not train hard for TYSON? But hey, who knows? Maybe Spinks knew he couldn't beat Tyson. But for several million dollars, oh well!

Much appreciated, thank you!

Much appreciated, thank you!

Solid points! Agreed.

@@RummysCorner thanks Rummy. I really appreciate your work. Sorry for my post in Spanish. I know a few words in English

@@RummysCorner lol 😂 I am,of course, being an idiot and assuming you don’t know Spanish that’s why it would be funny 😁 but sorry if you do know Spanish didn’t mean to assume even tho I did. You kno what they say, it makes an ass out of you and me but in this case pretty much just me.

@@JohnJohnson-fr5cx Rummy is clearly Italian American, so if he actually grew up speaking Italian to either his parents, his grandparents or both to the point where he is fluent, he can read and understand Spanish, although he won't be able to write or speak it himself. My dad is Mexican and he can have a conversation with Italians easily, it's fascinating to watch.

Ja zu dis durben und goysen werden ein cannibal

I agree. I was totally disappointed with his performance also, against Tyson. I remember watching that fight as a kid and saying to myself.."Spinks looks scared". To me he fought like it. And that's why I think most point to that fight as career defining moment.

I think it's tough because although Mike is a Champ in a couple divisions which is to be RESPECTED.... he also gave not only the undisputed title to a prime Mike Tyson but a beautiful KO that EVERYONE remembers and watches to this day

If it had gone to the cards, I believe they would have given the win to Spinks no matter what. He was a HEAVILY PROTECTED Fighter.

@@SaunKrystian That makes no sense.

Bob Foster. Got whacked by Ali and Forster was a great LH

Out of interest, how could someone with that many title defences not even make the top twenty of anyone's list? Even if they don't like him?

Please reconsider. If Spinks is not in your top 20 lol..Who do you rank ahead of him? The man was undefeated as a lightheavyweights champion unified lightheavyweights champion 10 tittle defenses, then made history and moved up to heavyweight and became champion . The man is in my top 1 to 3 easy

If Spinks ain't in your top 5, you not a boxing fan and clueless or u prolly didn't like his style which is still being disingenuous

Imo I have Michael Spinks top 5 in my LHW list 1. Ezzard Charles 2. Archie Moore 3. Gene Tunney 4. Sam Langford 5. Michael Spinks. Very worst is top 10. Ain't no fucking way he is outside of that since he nearly cleaned nearly the entire LHW that was of note, moved up to HW, beat Holmes twice (thou the 2nd fight is debate of who really won imo) and also put Gerry on his ass as well (albeit he was also on the decline with coke and self confidence) Keywords cleaned nearly the entire LHW of note. Bob Foster was a monster at LHW but couldn't beat any of the greats at HW while Spinks did.

@@granddya5323 Excellent comment. Many forget Tunney started at light heavyweight; grossly underrated as well. Langford was just a beast. Imagine if Sam fought today? Sadly, the casual boxing fan knows nothing about him. Someone should make a documentary on him.