Michael Spinks Still Trying to Master New Role

Michael Spinks has yet to master the art of being heavyweight champion.

Spinks knows how to be a champion, having ruled the light-heavyweight division from 1981 until recently. And he knows how to be a heavyweight; he bulked up to 200 pounds to lift Larry Holmes’ International Boxing Federation crown on a 15-round decision Sept. 21.

But putting the two together has proved confusing. After all, no reigning 175-pound champion had ever won a heavyweight championship before.

“It’s sunk in,” Spinks said seven weeks after winning the title. “But I don’t know how to act. I wanted somebody to give me a manual telling me how a heavyweight champion should act.”

Maybe Spinks should write a manual for those who will succeed him as light heavyweight champs. He not only unified the 175-pound title but made 10 successful defenses after winning the WBA title from Eddie Mustafa Muhammad in 1981. Spinks had 16 fights when he won the title, the fewest of any 175-pound champ, and he became the first man to give up his light heavyweight championship unbeaten.

Now Spinks is starting all over as a heavyweight champ. His first defense will probably come in February against Holmes, Gerry Cooney, Frank Bruno, Tim Witherspoon or Marvis Frazier.

Spinks has a right to be wary of the heavyweight title, since his brother Leon struggled so much with it after scoring a similar upset of Muhammad Ali in 1978. Leon quickly ran into legal troubles, lost his championship back to Ali eight months later and his career has been on a downhill slide ever since.

So far, Michael Spinks has been enjoying his title with the women in his family. His 4-year-old daughter Michelle, whose mother Sandra was killed in a car accident in 1983, surprised him one day when she told him: “Daddy, you’re a great champion.”

And his mother, Kay, suprised him with her critique of his behavior against Holmes.

“After the fight, she told me what I displayed in the ring, I was a class act,” said Spinks, who recently moved to a Delaware estate but took some time to visit his mother in his native St. Louis. “She’s got style and coming from her, that means something.”

Spinks, 29, who is 28-0 with 19 knockouts, has created a stir among the heavyweight division. His victory over an aging Holmes didn’t impress many heavyweight contenders, and many have been calling Spinks’ promoter, Butch Lewis, for a crack at the new champ.

“Everybody’s coming out of the blocks and calling,” Lewis said. “When Michael won the title, the whole division went into a scramble.”

Everybody but Spinks. He calmly leaves the matter of his next opponent to Lewis, who has guided Spinks’ career since he turned pro after winning the middleweight gold medal in the 1976 Olympics.

“I have no preference, I’ve never been involved in picking opponents,” Spinks said. “I feel I have the talent, know-how and ability to beat any opponent. I asked Butch once, ‘Don’t you need help picking opponents?’ He said, ‘Trust me, I’m good at this.’ I said, ‘Well’ I’m good at this (fighting).”’

If Lewis gets his way, Spinks’ first defense will be a big-money fight against Cooney or Holmes, then he’ll fight World Boxing Council champ Pinklon Thomas in late 1986. By then, Thomas hopes to have captured the World Boxing Assn. title from the winner of a January bout between champ Tony Tubbs and Tim Witherspoon.

A Spinks-Thomas unification bout would be the biggest heavyweight fight in a long time, and some of the involved parties have already began hyping it. Thomas makes it a point to appear at public functions wherever Spinks is, and Lewis makes sure to acknowledge him.

“Everywhere we go, Pinky’s there,” Lewis says.

But Spinks doesn’t get involved in hyping fights. He realizes the importance of publicity and he gets as excited about his bouts as anyone, but it’s not his style to build interest by knocking opponents.

“I’ve never been the bragging type, if my mom ever heard about me bragging, she’d pull me out of the ring,” he said.

When Spinks leaves the ring, he’ll probably pull himself out. He’s begun preparing for that day already. Spinks is considering going to college to ready himself for a life after boxing.

“I want to do something educational,” he said. “People might want me to go around and talk at high schools, since we’ve done something nobody else has done. I’d like to be well-equipped. Maybe I’ll take some courses in oral communications.

“I want to better the person, so I can help someone else.