Boxing / Richard Hoffer : Michael Spinks May Have Outsmarted Himself by Going After Cooney

Stripping Marvelous Marvin Hagler of his World Boxing Assn. title is, as they say, like trying to throw a grape through a locomotive.

Hagler, the dominant middleweight on his way to worldwide stardom and incalculable riches for his fight with Sugar Ray Leonard, will not be derailed so easily.

When the International Boxing Federation strips Michael Spinks of his heavyweight title, however, as it did last week, there are consequences.

The title unification series among the various heavyweight champions now looks to end, not with a bang but with a whimper. Mike Tyson vs. Tony Tucker? Does that sound like this year’s fight of the century to you? Maybe you like Tyson vs. James (Buster) Douglas. More like it? Some climax.

This little tournament, fragile from the beginning, has been badly damaged by the apparent removal of Spinks, long regarded as the most credible of the champions, the fighter who won his title in the ring against the previously undefeated Larry Holmes.

The elusive Spinks is thought by many to be the one and only fighter who can give the phenomenal Tyson any difficulty. Anything less than a Spinks match is a letdown for the tournament finale.

Spinks, however, may believe he is about to be enriched. By refusing to make a mandatory IBF defense against Tucker, the top-ranked contender, Spinks and promoter Butch Lewis may think they are making way for an uncontested, big-money bout with Gerry Cooney, perennial white hope, safely outside the tournament and away from co-promoter Don King.

It was long ago clear that Spinks wanted no part of Tyson, the man who hopes to unify the WBA and World Boxing Council titles March 7 in Las Vegas in a bout with WBA champion James (Bonecrusher) Smith. Cooney, who could pull in millions, was the preferred alternative.

But Hilton, HBO and King, and just about anybody else with access to a lawyer, threatened immediate litigation if Spinks failed to fight within the tournament. In fact, Spinks was under injunction not to proceed with plans to fight Cooney in June.

So do Spinks and Lewis think they’ve gotten around that by giving up the IBF title? The two could have easily bought time--literally--by paying Tucker to wait for a fight until after the tournament. It’s done routinely. But it looks as if Spinks and Lewis simply wanted the out, so Spinks could fight Cooney.

“I’m going to pursue Michael Spinks and Gerry Cooney to fight, not for the people’s championship but for the heavyweight championship of the world,” Lewis said. “The only way they can take Michael’s title away is in the ring.”

Lewis’ intentions in this matter are clear. “I’ll have 20,000 seats, closed circuit all over the world. And it ain’t gonna have no alphabet.”

This leaves Tyson to carry the tournament to its conclusion, on his concussive charisma alone. Assuming that he gets by Smith, the only appeal of an ultimate title fight--Tyson vs. the winner of Tucker-Douglas for the IBF title--is just to see Tyson work. That may be enough.

Spinks, on the other hand, may have underestimated the public. We are cynical enough to believe--box office proves it--that Cooney can add millions of dollars to a title fight by virtue of his whiteness. He doesn’t fight enough to have established any other credential as a big-ticket boxer.

However, fighting Spinks for anything besides a title will not raise enough money to satisfy either fighter. White hope or not, nobody will care. Not enough, anyway. Not to provide a total purse of $12 million for the fighters, as Lewis believes.

Probably, Spinks couldn’t hope for more than $3 million, which he would have gotten to fight Tyson. And at least he could have been sure the fight would come off.

Spinks and Lewis may very well have outsmarted nobody but themselves.

If there is any more stripping to be done, this sport will have to be conducted on a runway. In addition to the lifting of Hagler’s and Spinks’ titles, action was taken against one other champion and still two more were threatened.

The WBC has just decided that Lloyd Honeyghan’s win over Johnny Bumphus was not actually a title fight because, well, the WBC never said it was.

The WBC, see, calls for 12-round title fights, while Honeyghan, who at one time held all three welterweight titles--he was stripped of the WBA version in an apartheid related issue--was defending one or more of his titles in a scheduled 15-round bout. Honeyghan knocked Bumphus out in two, but never mind. The IBF liked it.

Meanwhile, the WBC was telling its lightweight champion, Hector Camacho, to do something, anything, some time soon. Possible loss of said title could come by way of inactivity. He hasn’t defended since October and has no apparent plans of defending in the near future.

The WBA, not to be outdone, is at odds with its featherweight champion, Stevie Cruz, who wants one or more Stateside officials, not the mandated neutral officials, on hand for his March 6 defense against Antonio Esparragoza.

The WBA, you may recall, has a peculiar idea of “neutral” officiating. For Frankie Duarte’s recent challenge of WBA bantamweight champion Bernardo Pinango, the organization had one official from Pinango’s hometown. But Pinango wasn’t born there, the WBA explained.

Say it isn’t so, George: Former heavyweight champion George Foreman, who has lost 50 pounds from a starting figure of 300, will return to boxing Tuesday night in the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

Foreman, 39, hasn’t fought since 1977, when his career ended in a loss to Jimmy Young in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Famous for his fight with Muhammad Ali in 1974--he lost when he ran out of gas--he’s been doing a little preaching in Houston ever since. But now he’s got the boxing bug again. At least he has a prayer.

The State Athletic Commission, which looks over license applicants very carefully when boxers get to be 36, could find no legal reason to prevent the portly Foreman from entering the ring. He passed all medical tests, in addition to some on-site inspections in the gym. Constitutionally, the commission is prohibited from using common sense as one of its criteria.

Boxing Notes

Mike White, the 7-foot heavyweight who once took a bout in Brazil and then stayed to play on the national basketball team there, returns to the Spruce Goose March 9 to fight Dwain Bonds, once a high-ranking amateur fighter. Headlining that card at the Long Beach attraction will be Dee Collier defending his state heavyweight title against Mark Wills. . . . Former bantamweight champion Albert Davila, who lost last year in a bid to regain the championship in Colombia, fights Edel Geronimo March 23 at the Irvine Marriott. In the next show there, April 27, Ramon Marchena will give Greg Puente a rematch, but this time the state super-featherweight title will be at stake. . . . The Tyson-Smith undercard at the Las Vegas Hilton is shaping up, somewhat. WBC featherweight champion Azumah Nelson has been matched with Mauro Gutierrez. The challenger replaces Marcos Villasana. Former heavyweight champion Pinklon Thomas is on the card, with an opponent to be named. Same for WBA lightweight champion Edwin Rosario, who will have a nontitle bout. Olympic gold medalist Tyrell Biggs at least has an opponent, David Bey, Smith’s sparring partner.

The same night, in another city, Thomas Hearns will go for his third world title. He’s fighting Dennis Andries in Detroit for the WBC light-heavyweight title. Hearns, who has held the WBA welterweight and WBC super-welterweight titles, is obviously giving up on a rematch with Marvelous Marvin Hagler, who brutalized him two years ago in their middleweight bout, and skipping on upward. Only 12 fighters have won three titles, but few have ever skipped divisions in doing so. . . . Caesars Palace, host to the April 6 fight between Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard, will have a couple of dry runs, including an April 4 bout headlining former welterweight champion Donald Curry. Curry will defend his NABF junior middleweight title against Carlos Santos. On that card, undefeated middleweight Michael Nunn will fight Charles Campbell. . . . Nunn, who fights out of the Ten Goose stable in Reseda, also has a May 8 date, on the undercard of the IBF lightweight fight between champion Greg Haugen and Vincent Pazienza. That one’s in Providence, R.I.