Michael Spinks

Michael Spinks (born July 13, 1956) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1988.

Spinks won the 1974 156-pound Golden Gloves Light Middleweight Championship by defeating Wilber Cameron in Denver, Colorado, and then took the silver medal in the National AAU 165-pound Championship Competition in 1975, losing in three rounds to Tom Sullivan in Shreveport, Louisiana.

As an amateur he won a gold medal in the middleweight division at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Nicknamed "Jinx", which spawned the nickname of his straight right hand, "The Spinks Jinx", Spinks is the brother of former world heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, and uncle of Cory Spinks, a former welterweight and light middleweight champion.

After a successful amateur career, which culminated in his Olympic gold medal win, Spinks went undefeated in his first 31 professional fights, beating Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Marvin Johnson and Eddie 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-reigning IBF heavyweight champion Larry Holmes (whose own 48–0 record up to that point was one victory short of tying Rocky 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 was knocked out by Mike Tyson in 91 seconds, the only defeat of his professional career.

Spinks has been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

The International Boxing Research Organization and BoxRec rank Spinks among the 10 greatest light heavyweights of all time.

He rebounded to take the 1976 National Golden Gloves Middleweight championship with a three-round victory over Lamont Kirkland in Miami, Florida, and that same year captured the United States Olympic Trials Middleweight Championship by defeating Keith Broom in Cincinnati, 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 the Soviet Union's Rufat Riskiyev in the final.

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

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

With the Olympics behind him, Spinks returned to work at a chemical factory in St. 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 of ABC Sports, on his way to a shot at heavyweight champion Muhammad 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 was Butch Lewis in 1977 who convinced Michael to turn professional.

Spinks then turned professional with a win over Eddie Benson, knocking him out in one round on April 17, 1977, in Las 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 round knockout 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 champion Marvin Johnson by a knockout in four rounds, the WBA made Spinks their number one challenger, and so, on July 18 of that year, he met WBA light-heavyweight champion Eddie 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 with WBC champion Dwight Muhammad Qawi.

He held world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed light heavyweight title from 1983 to 1985, and the lineal heavyweight title from 1985 to 1988.

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.

The fight was broadcast by HBO World Championship Boxing, and, according to the book The 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.