COMMISSIONER’S CORNER
The Larry Holmes-Michael Spinks rivalry concluded 40 years ago.
kicked a wall. A moment later, objects began flying around the room. Chairs. Juice bottles. Boxing equipment. During Holmes’ tirade, Marc Ratner walked into the room. He was then the Nevada commission’s chief inspector and brought with him Holmes’ paycheck for $3 million. He needed to dodge an airborne protective cup when he walked in. “It wasn’t aimed at me,” said Ratner. “It’s just what was going on in that room. Larry was quite upset.” After calming down a bit, Holmes headed out to face the press. It was there he made his infamous statement about Marciano. When asked about falling one fight short of Marciano’s 49-0, Holmes spat, “If you want to get technical about it, Rocky couldn’t carry my jockstrap.” Holmes saying that the pursuit of Marciano’s 49-0 “probably had to do with why I lost to Spinks” also set off a firestorm, as Holmes’ insinuation was that the judges scored the fight for Spinks just to keep Holmes from reaching 49-0. “Nonsense,” said Harold Lederman in an interview with me at his induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2016. “I can understand Larry’s pain and frustration, but he didn’t do enough to win the fight. He lost all three of the championship rounds in my book. (Holmes lost two of the last three on the card of judge Moretti, while judge Lawrence had Spinks winning two of the last three and called the 14th round even.) “I’ve watched the fight many times,” Lederman said. “Spinks always wins!” Judge Dave Moretti agrees to this day. Now 81, the veteran of over 1,400 fights told The Ring, “The question of my scoring [143-142] is frequently asked. Spinks outworked Holmes that night.” IBHOF inductee Kenny Bayless was an inspector for both Spinks-Holmes fights. For the first one, he worked in the dressing room and corner of Spinks. For the rematch, he was with Holmes.
“For that first fight, while working Spinks’ corner, I noticed how relaxed and composed he was all the way through,” Bayless recalled. Following his title-losing defeat, the ex-champ took his $3 million paycheck and wounded ego back to Easton, where he brooded and sulked through the fall of 1985 and into the start of 1986. Then, before January ended, Holmes received a call from Don King, who had co-promoted the first fight along with Butch Lewis. “Get back in the gym!” King said to Holmes. “We’re doing it again. April 19th. The Las Vegas Hilton. You and Spinks, one more time.” Holmes was thrilled. He dumped his lethargy in the trash and was at the gym within minutes. He had plenty of time to get in shape. At 36, he was still feeling he could be the “Easton Assassin” again. However, during his training, I could see a spark was missing. I could hear it in things he’d say to me in interviews. They were things like: “I should be facing Cooney – not Spinks – in a rematch!” “I should be 49-0, not 48-1!” “The judges robbed me of so much that night!” “I have a feeling that because of my remarks about Rocky Marciano, the judges, whoever they will be, will do me in again!” Holmes tried hard to be the “Easton Assassin” that night and did better than he did in the first fight. He got off to a quick start, something he hadn’t done seven months earlier. Holmes swept the first four rounds on the scorecards of judges Joe Cortez, Jerry Roth and Frank Brunette. Although Holmes lost rounds 5 and 6, he swept the seventh. All he had to do was win three of the fight’s last eight rounds. He did so on the card of Cortez, who had Holmes winning, 144-141. However, Roth only gave him one of the last eight (scoring the ninth round even), with a final tally of 144-142 for Spinks. Judge Brunette gave Holmes
only one of the last eight rounds (the 14th), finishing at 144-141 for Spinks. “In the rematch,” recalled Bayless, “Holmes was breathing heavily in the later rounds. I think that was because he gave so much in the first half of the fight. In one of the later rounds, Larry basically stumbled into his corner. His cornerman had to physically turn him around. Still, I was thinking that it was a very close fight. Larry asked a lot from his body that night, and he may just have won it.” In a poll of 50 reporters that night, 42 had Holmes the winner, just like IBHOF inductee Cortez. “I stand by my card that night,” Cortez told The Ring recently. “I believed I had the right winner that night, and I am positive to this day, having watched the fight several more times.” This columnist was among the 42 that night, scoring it 144-141 for Holmes. It’s sad, because after losing to Spinks in the rematch, Holmes took off for nearly two years, coming back to face 21-year-old heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. The young, powerful Tyson stopped the 38-year-old Holmes in the fourth round of a one-sided affair. Three more years of layoff followed, then Holmes launched yet another comeback, beginning with a KO 1 of Tim Anderson in 1991. He was 41 at the time. This comeback lasted for 11 years. It’s also sad because Holmes had more than enough money to live on following his two controversial bouts against Spinks. His legacy has seen him discussed as one of the best heavyweight champions ever. With the 40th anniversary of that second bout against Spinks upon us, I smile at the memory of seeing my friend dig deep, the way he always did against adversity, and giving us another look at a boxing legend. That final bout against Spinks was his last great ring performance. Yes, I smile, because I got to share it with him.
As Cooney fought his demons, Holmes was closing in on Rocky Marciano’s hallowed mark of 49-0. “My plan was to hit 49-0 against Spinks, then go after Cooney for number 50,” said Holmes from his home in Easton, Pennsylvania, recently. “I knew Cooney was inactive, fighting only twice since our fight [in June 1982]. I believed his inactivity would play in my favor, and I also believed a rematch would have been bigger than our first fight. Then they stole it from me.” The “they” Holmes referred to were the judges of his first fight against Spinks (Harold Lederman, Dave Moretti and Lawrence Wallace). All had it for
LARRY’S LEGACY By Randy Gordon T he other day, I was speaking with Gerry Cooney – who co-hosts SiriusXM’s At the Fights with me – about
Spinks. Lederman and Moretti each had it 143-142, while judge Wallace had it a wider 145-142 (eight rounds to Spinks, five to Holmes and two rounds even). The fight took place at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. “I’ll always believe they took it from me,” said Holmes. “Spinks surprised me with his aggressiveness and did have some good moments in the fight, but he didn’t beat me over those 15 rounds.” Immediately after the aforementioned trio made Holmes an ex-champion and 48-1 instead of 49-0, Holmes stormed out of the ring and headed back to his dressing room. He punched and splintered the door on his way in. I was right behind him, not as a journalist but as his friend of 13 years. Prior to the fight, he had told me he wanted me to join him and Team Holmes in his dressing room after the fight. I knew what he meant. Champagne would be waiting for him. It didn’t work out as he planned. I joined him anyway. It was not a pleasant scene. After the bashing of the door, Holmes
the bottle. “A rematch would have been suicide for me,” he continued. “As it turns out, I wound up fighting Spinks less than two years after he took Holmes’ title and was in no condition to even be in the gym sparring, much less in the ring with Spinks fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world. I was stopped by Spinks that day, but I should have been in rehab, not a ring!” Cooney cleaned himself up soon after that loss and has never had a drink since. Today, he is a celebrity spokesperson for Alcoholics Anonymous and other “stay clean” programs.
Larry Holmes and the strong friendship Cooney and Holmes have to this very day. During our talk, I asked Gerry, “Had Larry not lost to Michael Spinks in 1985, along with his 48-0 record and heavyweight championship, were you in talks for a rematch with him?” Cooney replied, “I was, but it would have been crazy for me to take the fight. I was at the low point of my life.” Indeed he was. Cooney had become an alcoholic, unable to keep away from
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