It really is so unfair that the great Michael Spinks, who conquered the world at both light-heavyweight and heavyweight and gave the world some truly special ring performances courtesy of his “Jinx,” is best remembered for his swift KO loss to Mike Tyson. It was, at the time, one of the biggest, most money-spinning fights in heavyweight history, and some good judges felt Spinks would be able to befuddle Tyson and either defeat him or at least push him hard.
Instead, in giving us arguably the most famous 91 seconds in boxing history, Tyson wiped Spinks out with apparent ease. Some say Spinks was scared; others still say Spinks threw the fight. This second claim seems pretty out there, but Spinks – in a recent interview with Vlad TV – was asked what he felt regarding the way some people say he did indeed throw the fight that took place in June of 1988.
Spinks said he didn’t throw the fight, but he gave a quite shocking statement regarding Tyson all the same.
“No, I didn’t throw the fight,” Spinks said. “He hit me (laughs). Tyson, was on steroids. So I knew I had my hands full. So that’s how I went in, I went in knowing he was on steroids and I could possibly lose the fight. I didn’t think about losing, I thought about what I could do to win.”
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t heard the claim that Tyson, then at his blinding peak, was supposedly on steroids at the time of what possibly ranks as his greatest win. Has Spinks spoken about this before? If so, I guess I missed it. Now, Spinks doesn’t seem like a guy who is being a sore loser here, he simply states, matter of factly, that Tyson “was on steroids.” Maybe he was. Who knows?
It’s an interesting subject, maybe one that hasn’t been fully covered before. Spinks as we know retired after the Tyson fight, never to box again. Spinks says in the Vlad TV interview that he had a “terrible time swallowing the fact that I lost to Tyson.”
“I had said to myself, if I ever lose a fight, I’ll retire,” Spinks said. “That’s how it went.”
And Spinks never was tempted enough to come back. Interestingly, Spinks also says he doesn’t think at all that a rematch with Tyson would have gone any other way.
“I don’t think so,” Spinks said on if a rematch with Tyson would have been any different. “He was hitting pretty hard. That would’ve had an effect on me.”
Most fans will likely agree that Tyson would have beaten Spinks again, probably around as quickly as the first time. But that steroids claim is the real story as far as Spink’s new interview goes. Did the peak Tyson really take an illegal substance or substances? Maybe it’s naïve to ask………
