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Michael Spinks (born July 13, 1956 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a retired American boxer. Nicknamed Jinx, which spawned the nickname of his right hand: The Spinks Jinx, he is the brother of former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, and uncle of Cory Spinks, a former welterweight champion. And current IBF Light middleweight champion.

After compiling a 93-7 record as an amateur, Spinks won the middleweight gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. As a professional, he was undefeated in his first 31 fights, beating such opponents as Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Marvin Johnson and Eddie Davis en route to becoming undisputed world light-heavyweight champion.

He then moved up to heavyweight and as underdog beat the long-reigning IBF heavyweight champion Larry Holmes; in doing so, Spinks became the first reigning light-heavyweight champion to win the heavyweight title. Holmes was 48-0 and had made 20 successful title defences. In his final fight, Spinks fought the undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and was knocked out in the first round, by a shovel hook to the head. the only defeat of his professional career.

Spinks is an inductee of the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Spinks then turned professional with a win over Eddie Benson, knocked out in one round on April 17 of 1977 in Las Vegas. Spinks began with that, 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 world 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's Light Heavyweight champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, once again in Las Vegas. Spinks dropped Mustafa Muhammad in round 12 and went on to become world Light Heavyweight champion with a 15 round decision win. He defended the title once in '81, beating Vonzell Johnson by a knockout in seven.

After four successful defenses in 1982, including a knockout win in eight in a rematch with Sutherland, 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 world champion Dwight Muhammad Qawi. Tragedy struck his life, however, when in January 1983, his 24-year old wife died in a car crash, leaving Spinks the single parent of his two-year-old daughter.

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. 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. Spinks almost broke into tears, but soon had to recover and get into the ring, where he and Qawi fought to unify the crown. Spinks was nearly floored in round eight, but he stayed upright and won a 15 round unanimous decision to become the undisputed world Light Heavyweight champion. He defended the title one more time before the end of the year, against Oscar Rivadeneira in Alaska, whom he beat by a ten round knockout.

Spinks fought only once in 1984, retaining his crown with a twelve-round majority decision over Eddie 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.

In 1985, Spinks beat David Sears and Jim McDonald, both by knockout, in title defenses, before challenging Larry Holmes for the world's Heavyweight championship in a fight recognized by the IBF. Holmes was trying to tie Rocky Marciano's record of 49-0 as the Heavyweight champion, but it was Spinks who made history that night, winning a fifteen-round unanimous decision and becoming the first world Light Heavyweight champion ever to win the world Heavyweight title. With this, Michael and Leon had also become the first pair of brothers ever to be world Heavyweight champions.

In 1986, Spinks and Holmes fought a rematch, 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 against Steffen Tangstad. In 1987 he was stripped of the crown by the IBF for refusing to fight their mandatory challenger, Tony Tucker, and accepting a higher offer to fight Gerry Cooney in a non title bout instead. Spinks knocked out Cooney in five rounds, and after Mike Tyson had unified the Heavyweight belts, fans started clamoring for a fight between them as many still recognized Spinks as the legitimate champion. The fight took place in June 1988, with Tyson knocking Spinks down twice on his way to a first round knockout. It would be Spinks' first defeat in the professional ring, as well as his last as he retired following the fight.

Spinks had a record of 31 wins, 1 loss and 21 wins by knockout as a professional.

In addition to his success as a heavyweight, Spinks is generally considered one of the greatest light heavyweight champions and fighters in the history of the weight class.

On Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time, Spinks was ranked 42nd.

On Ring Magazine's list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years, released in 2002, Spinks ranked 41st.

Professional boxing record

31 Wins (21 knockouts, 10 decisions), 1 Loss (1 KO)[1]
Res.	Opponent	Type	Rd., Time	Date	Location	Notes
Loss	Mike Tyson	KO	1 (12) 1:31	1988-06-27	Atlantic City, NJ, USA	Fight was for WBA, WBC and IBF Heavyweight titles
Win	Gerry Cooney	TKO	5 (15) 2:51	1987-06-15	Atlantic City, NJ, USA
Win	Steffen Tangstad	TKO	4 (12) 0:58	1986-09-06	Las Vegas, NV, USA	Retained IBF Heavyweight title
Win	Larry Holmes	Decision (split)	15 (15)	1986-04-19	Las Vegas, NV, USA	Retained IBF Heavyweight title
Win	Larry Holmes	Decision (unan.)	15 (15)	1985-09-21	Las Vegas, NV, USA	Won IBF Heavyweight title
Win	Jim MacDonald	TKO	8 (15) 1:30	1985-06-06	Las Vegas, NV, USA	Retained WBA, WBC and IBF Light- heavyweight titles
Win	David Sears	TKO	3 (12) 1:02	1985-02-23	Atlantic City, NJ, USA	Retained WBA, WBC and IBF Light- heavyweight titles
Win	Eddie Davis	Decision (unan.)	12 (12)	1984-02-25	Atlantic City, NJ, USA	Retained WBA and WBC Light-heavyweight titles; Won IBF Light-heavyweight title
Win	Oscar Rivadeneyra	TKO	10 (15) 1:42	1983-11-25	Vancouver, Canada	Retained WBA and WBC Light-heavyweight titles
Win	Dwight Muhammad Qawi	Decision (unan.)	15 (15)	1983-03-18	Atlantic City, NJ, USA	Retained WBA Light-heavyweight title; Won WBC Light-heavyweight title
Win	Johnny Davis	TKO	9 (15) 2:27	1982-09-18	Atlantic City, NJ, USA	Retained WBA Light-heavyweight title
Win	Jerry Celestine	TKO	8 (15) 1:58	1982-06-12	Atlantic City, NJ, USA	Retained WBA Light-heavyweight title
Win	Murray Sutherland	TKO	8 (15) 1:24	1982-04-11	Atlantic City, NJ, USA	Retained WBA Light-heavyweight title
Win	Mustafa Wassaja	KO	6 (15) 1:36	1982-02-13	Atlantic City, NJ, USA	Retained WBA Light-heavyweight title
Win	Vonzell Johnson	KO	7 (15) 1:13	1981-11-07	Atlantic City, NJ, USA	Retained WBA Light-heavyweight title
Win	Eddie Mustafa Muhammad	Decision (unan.)	15 (15)	1981-07-18	Las Vegas, NV, USA	Won WBA Light-heavyweight title
Win	Marvin Johnson	KO	4 (10) 1:22	1981-03-28	Atlantic City, NJ, USA
Win	Willie Taylor	TKO	8 (10) 2:40	1981-01-24	Philadelphia, PA, USA
Win	Yaqui Lopez	TKO	7 (10) 0:46	1980-10-18	Atlantic City, NJ, USA
Win	David Conteh	KO	9 (10) 1:21	1980-08-02	Baton Rouge, LA, USA
Win	Murray Sutherland	Decision (unan.)	10 (10)	1980-05-04	New York, USA
Win	Ramon Ranquello	TKO	6 (10)	1980-02-24	Atlantic City, NJ, USA
Win	Johnny Wilburn	Decision (unan.)	8 (8)	1980-02-01	Louisville, KT, USA
Win	Marc Hans	TKO	1 (8) 2:45	1979-11-24	Bloomington, MN, USA
Win	Eddie Phillips	KO	4 (8) 1:33	1978-12-15	New York, NY, USA
Win	Tom Bethea	Decision (unan.)	8 (8)	1978-02-15	Las Vegas, NV, USA
Win	Gary Summerhays	Decision (unan.)	8 (8)	1977-10-22	Las Vegas, NV, USA
Win	Ray Elson	KO	1 (6) 0:51	1977-09-13	Los Angeles, CA, USA
Win	Jasper Brisbane	TKO	1 (6) 2:56	1977-08-23	Philadelphia, PA, USA
Win	Joe Borden	KO	2 (6) 2:20	1977-06-01	Montreal, Canada
Win	Luis Rodriguez	Decision (unan.)	6 (6)	1977-05-07	St Louis, MO, USA
Win	Eddie Benson	KO	1 (6) 2:55	1977-04-16	Las Vegas, NV, USA

Amateur Highlights

• Compiled a reported amateur record of 93-7 (35 KO)
• Won the 1974 Light Middleweight (156 lb.) National Golden Gloves Championship.
• Won the 1976 Middleweight (165 lb.) National Golden Gloves Championship in Miami, Florida.
• Won the Middlewight Gold Medal for the United States at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada. Results were:
  • Defeated Jean-Marie Emebe (Cameroon) forfeit
  • Defeated Ryszard Pasiewicz (Poland) points
  • Defeated Alec Năstac (Romania) forfeit
  • Defeated Rufat Riskiyev (Soviet Union) TKO 3
• Made it to the finals of the 1975 National AAU, losing to Tom Sullivan

From Mt Scott Community Center in Portland, Oregon.

Notes

External links

• Professional boxing record for Michael Spinks from Boxrec

Additional Factoids

• Brother of Heavyweight champion Leon Spinks and uncle of Welterweight champion Cory Spinks.
• His victory over Larry Holmes on September 2, 1985 was named Ring Magazine Upset of the Year.