Tonight, Holmes Will Fight Spinks With a Vengeance

Larry Holmes comes off as paranoid and embittered but, if such a thing is possible, good-naturedly so. Which invites us all, as usual, to wonder what in the world this man is about. Consider:

--He has sports columnist Dick Young physically removed from a workout but then cheerfully invites him to Easton, Pa., for “tea and cookies,” saying, “It was nothing, really.”

--He stonewalls the media for two months and then, in an impish fit just two days before tonight’s rematch with Michael Spinks at the Hilton Convention Center, invites some reporters to the bar for an easygoing interview that goes, well, longer than the reporters had really hoped.

“When this is over, I’ll have you over to my restaurant for dinner,” he promises one reporter. Ever the millionaire pinch-penny, he adds, “A small, little hamburger.”

--He accuses Nevada judges of coming to fights drunk, at best, and suggests that he was undone in his only loss as a professional boxer by conspiracy in his own corner.

Then, shrugging as if it didn’t matter all that much anyway, that it was a put-on, he says: “We all had fun over the years, didn’t we? Kicking butt all the way.”

This contradictory quality of Holmes--he is by turns charming and churlish, paranoid and open--may matter only to armchair psychologists.

That Holmes, in almost the same breath, could say that Rocky Marciano “couldn’t carry my jockstrap” and still add that Marciano was hero enough to him that his likeness takes up a wall of his restaurant suggests an undecided and troubled ego.

That he could say, as he did after a recent workout, that he “was the best thing to happen to boxing” and then later confide the doubt he felt when he was booed in that first miserable fight with Spinks further indicates a massive insecurity.

Unravel this psyche: When his workout was over, he leaned on a ring post and addressed a large crowd: “I gave it all up, trying to please you people. Who cares about Larry Holmes?”

Some answered, “We do.” And Holmes said, “Yeah, but would you give me $1 million to build down the street?” His arrogance was immense.

And then, less than half an hour later, he admitted that his problem, really, “is that I try to, want to please people. That last time, when I threw Spinks against the ropes, people booed. When I did it again, Pia Zadora is throwing stuff into the ring. I felt bad. When you talk bad about me, I hurt.”

Holmes can make Jekyll and Hyde appear to be a fairly stabilized personality by comparison. But just as you wonder which Holmes you will be addressing from day to day, so do you wonder which Holmes you will be watching tonight when he attempts to avenge his only loss in 49 pro fights and recapture his International Boxing Federation heavyweight title from the boyish and amazingly untroubled Michael Spinks.

Has his will, visibly lacking in his 15-round loss to the challenger last September, been restored? Has his right hand, which may as well have been a prosthetic device in that fight, been reactivated? Has he turned back the clock on a career that left him just one victory shy of Marciano’s 49-0 record?

Or is he simply a shot, 36-year-old boxer who stayed too far beyond his prime.

For once, the sadly over-credentialed heavyweight division has some mystery to it. Though this fight is part of an eight-fight tournament, televised and co-promoted by HBO, to unify a division that has no fewer than three champions, the real interest is in whether Holmes can regain his former glory.

Before you argue over the word glory, keep in mind that he retained one title or another for more than seven years, and that nobody since Holmes has managed to retain his title for even one fight.

On the one hand, it does not seem likely. Holmes’ reign, though admirable, was the product of some careful matchmaking these past few years. Until Dick Young, he hadn’t taken anybody out since he beat David Bey early in 1985.

Spinks, a 6-1 underdog, was just one of a number of undersized opponents meant to fatten Holmes’ record and bank account. And Holmes couldn’t get by a blown-up light-heavyweight, which is exactly what Spinks was.

Now, Holmes is older and fatter, 223 compared to 220 for his last fight, and Spinks is stronger and heavier, 205 to 200. What’s to make anybody think this will be different?

Well, there is Holmes’ rage. His on-again, off-again trainer, Richie Giachetti, doesn’t remember Holmes “going after a fighter” like this since his fight with Leon Spinks in 1981. “He definitely wanted to tear Leon up,” Giachetti says. “Same here.”

In fact, Holmes has made it a point to talk of how dispassionately he intends to dismantle Spinks. “I don’t have the word hate in my heart, but I do have the word destroy in my mind,” he said. “I’m going to take him out.”

Also, Holmes claims he took Spinks lightly. “It took somebody like Michael Spinks to wake me up,” he said. “It was probably for the best. Now, I take nothing for granted.”

But the one thing that will make this fight different, he said, will be his willingness to mix it up. The last fight consisted of 2 minutes 50 seconds of ballroom dancing each round, with 10 seconds of Spinks action thrown in, and it went a dreadful 15 rounds. This one will be a high-powered chase.

“What’s different is, I’m going to take punches if I have to,” Holmes said. “The last time was a distance fight, this time a close fight. It’ll be like Joe Frazier on Muhammad Ali. I’m prepared to take punches this time.”

As preparation for this, and to accommodate certain of his critics who have long asked Holmes to perform such an act, Holmes has in fact soaked his head in salt water to toughen his skin.

This is a considerably less scientific preparation than that of Spinks, who last year embarked on the Mackie Shilstone workout, by now only a little less famous than Jane Fonda’s.

To gain his 25 pounds, Spinks didn’t simply double up on desserts. No, nutritionist Mackie put him on a strict diet that added muscle, not fat. For this fight, Shilstone has added a strange workout regimen that has Spinks doing a series of half-mile runs, some 440s and five 1,320-yard runs. In addition, Spinks must jump off and on large boxes and thump a medicine ball around.

Well, it worked before.

But Spinks, 29, succeeds more by his style than his substance. He is hard to hit, guided always by an instinct for self-preservation. He is tagged awkward by most critics, mainly his 28 opponents, none of whom has beaten him.

The word improvisational has been used to describe his style, as well. He never seems to fight the same way twice, rather adapting himself to the needs of the moment.

As far as that goes, Spinks said he didn’t know how he would fight Holmes until five minutes before their fight. He was watching the TV monitors during the lead-in of the telecast and saw some footage of Holmes’ past fights and decided just then what he wanted to do.

It figures, because the guileless Spinks seems about as complicated as a Carebear. There is no ambiguity to him. Cheerful at all times, he is pleased with himself rather than his station in boxing.

Being heavyweight champion is a great feeling, he allows, “but I’ve been a winner for a long time. I didn’t feel like a light-heavyweight champion before and I don’t feel like a heavyweight champion now, just a winner.” This from a man who says he keeps his title belts in his closet.

Obviously, this fight means something more to Holmes, out to recover youth and greatness. “I won’t go on forever, chasing ghosts when something can always happen,” he promised.

And if he loses?

“I’m gone, they can have it.”

Somebody pointed out that he had said that before.

“Yeah,” Holmes agreed, “but every time I do, Don King comes to my restaurant with an envelope. I hope this money stops soon. My wife’ll kill me.”

If he loses to Spinks, he can be assured, the money will stop tonight. Nobody will come to his restaurant with an envelope. And as far as that goes, given the low reserve of good will he now retains, he may wait a long time before a reporter comes down for a hamburger--small--or Dick Young comes down for his tea and cookies.