Michael Spinks

Michael Spinks (born July 13, 1956, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.) is an American former boxer who was both the light heavyweight (1981–85) and heavyweight (1985–88) world champion and an Olympic gold medalist (1976). He and Leon Spinks became the first brothers to win gold medals in the same sport at the same Olympics and the first brothers to win world titles as professional boxers.

(Read Gene Tunney’s 1929 Britannica essay on boxing.)

Spinks (6 feet 2.5 inches [1.89 meters] tall), a middleweight, won the championship of the Golden Gloves Association of America in 1976 and in the same year defeated Rufat Riskiev of the Soviet Union in the middleweight final of the Montreal Olympic Games. In 1977 he began his professional career, and four years later he won his first title fight—a 15-round decision over Eddie Mustafa Muhammad for the World Boxing Association light heavyweight crown. He successfully defended his title five times before earning the vacant world title by winning a 15-round decision over Dwight Qawi in 1983. Spinks won four more title-defense bouts.

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He then gained 25 pounds (11 kg) and in September 1985 became the first reigning light heavyweight champion to topple a heavyweight champion when he won a 15-round decision over Larry Holmes for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title. After being stripped of that title for not making a mandatory defense against the IBF’s number one contender, Spinks fought Mike Tyson in June 1988, losing in just 91 seconds; it was the fourth shortest heavyweight title match in history. He retired the following month. From 1977 to 1988 Spinks fought 32 bouts, winning 31 (21 by knockouts). He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994.