MICHAEL SPINKS WAS BIDING TIME BETWEEN MAJOR HEAVYWEIGHT SHOWDOWNS WHEN HE DEFENDED HIS RING AND IBF TITLES AGAINST NORWEGIAN UNDERDOG STEFFEN TANGSTAD IN 1986, BUT FOLLOWING 30 ROUNDS AGAINST LARRY HOLMES, HE’D EARNED A “GIMME.” BY JACK HIRSCH
THE FREE PASS
M ichael Spinks only had five fights as a heavyweight. Of the five, he was only favored to win one, that being his match against Steffen Tangstad. Maybe that is why all these years later, Spinks looks back fondly not only on the fight itself, but the man he faced. In working closely with Spinks on his biography, I noticed how his mannerisms might change according to the topic or opponent. For instance, when speaking about his fights with Larry Holmes, his responses were almost businesslike. However, for Tangstad there was a smile on his face throughout our conversations. “I want you to write nice things about him,” Spinks said to me. “He was a nice guy.”
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