Judge Blocks Fight Until Cooney Joins Series

A Manhattan judge Monday blocked the scheduled Michael Spinks-Gerry Cooney heavyweight championship fight until the promoters have Cooney sign a contract to participate in a title unification series.

State Supreme Court Justice Elliott Wilk stopped the fight, set for March 9 in Madison Square Garden, at the request of Home Box Office.

The pay/cable television network paid $16 million to promoters Don King and Butch Lewis, who incorporated as Dynamic Duo Inc. for this venture, for exclusive rights to the heavyweight title tournament.

The contract, signed last Jan. 15, calls for an eight-fight series which includes the champions of the World Boxing Assn., the World Boxing Council and the International Boxing Federation. Five fights have taken place.

Spinks, the IBF campion, was contractually obligated to fight in the series until he lost. However, if he were to fight Cooney and lose the IBF title, the unification series would be ruined unless Cooney agreed to participate in the tournament.

In contemplation of this possibility, the Duo-HBO contract provides that Dynamic Duo “will insure that Cooney will contracturally commit” to the series if he wins the fight with Spinks and becomes IBF heavyweight champion.

The judge said Lewis and his company “are enjoined from pursuing the fight between Spinks and Cooney until such time as they are in compliance with the HBO-Duo agreement.”