Spinks Stops Cooney in the Fifth . . . : . . . And Perhaps for Good; Winner’s Record Goes to 31-0

It ended as it had once before, Gerry Cooney’s eyes focused in a distant stare, his long, slightly knock-kneed legs about to fold like a carpenter’s rule. He wasn’t down, but he was out and, as far as the cruel world of boxing is concerned, finally gone as well.

Michael Spinks, a seemingly undermanned, undergunned light-heavyweight, had used a laser-like jab in the early rounds and then roundhouse rights in the later ones to finally drop the 6-foot 7-inch Cooney. The reluctant contender went down twice early in the fifth round and was being held up by the ring post in his corner when referee Frank Cappuccino finally stopped the fight.

It was 2:51 into that round, for the historians who want to mark the exact end of the Cooney era, a curious time not much marked by achievement or even any ring activity, but still a rousing time. His mystique was the puncher’s, a popular mystique among heavyweight boxing fans who like their bangs big, and their bangers white. It was as Spinks had said before the fight. “He has it.” What? “That invisible touch.”

And yet Cooney will almost certainly suffer from the revisionist historians, who will mock his ring record with such statistics as his seven fights in a decade, or his seven rounds in the last five years.

That he was ever a money fighter--he drew more than $30 million for a fight five years ago--suggests the desperation of fight fans for white heavyweights who can punch viciously. In fact, what Cooney will be remembered by will be that questing look of bafflement. We saw it when Larry Holmes dispatched him in 1982, again Monday night in the Convention Center, when he sprawled on the floor and looked bewilderingly toward his helpless corner.

So, Cooney (28-2) was a manufactured fighter after all. And Spinks (31-0), who bulked up for the big money fights as a heavyweight and who won two controversial fights from then-champion Holmes, dismantled him. You tend to discount almost everything Spinks does, because he does it with such unorthodoxy. Yet he always does it. He now remains undefeated in 31 fights, and his future is ever more secure. With a knockout of a man 30 pounds bigger, it is felt that the public will buy a fight with Spinks and Mike Tyson. If Spinks doesn’t exactly seem safe in a ring with Tyson, it no longer seems child endangerment.

As in any Spinks fight, it is difficult to explain how he did it. Richie Giachetti, trainer of the retired Holmes, put it this way. “He doesn’t even know what he’s going to do, then he does it. He’s a hard guy to fight.”

Spinks, who had to duck out of the title unification tournament to get this fight with Cooney, is liable to charges that he is ducking Tyson. Insistence that a Cooney fight presented an opportunity for more money rings hollow. He is reported to have made about $4 million to Cooney’s $2.5. Hardly worth losing his International Boxing Federation title for, as he surely did when he refused a mandatory defense.

Yet Spinks is no coward. At 208 pounds, to Cooney’s 238, he should have been allowed at least a slingshot in the ring. But he treated the lumbering Cooney with impunity. His jabs were unerring, mindful of a fight here four years ago when he unified the light-heavyweight title against Dwight Braxton. In the first round, he rocked the bigger man.

Cooney, whose left hook is legend, showed his power afterward, moving Spinks around the ring. But his punches were not telling. Anyway, it is impossible to know when Spinks is hurt, although the sellout crowd of 15,732 apparently thought so in the middle rounds when Cooney stalked him.

The fact that Spinks was bleeding badly from a cut inside his right eye further hinted at his mortality. He coasted in the third round and started slowly in the fourth.

But in the fifth round, something strange happened. Cooney dug that left hook to Spinks’ body. The punch had a force that was impressive even though it did not land. Banners aloft seemed to wave. But, if so, it was the only practical effect. Spinks moved to his left, as he had all night. But this time, he landed a right that shook Cooney.

A barrage of right hands by Spinks followed, the damage an accumulated one. Cooney, not fighting back, went down once. “I was a little surprised,” Spinks admitted. “Then I hit him with a couple of jabs and the Spinks Jinx (an overhand right). He responded to that. So I stretched it out and took it over and around the side. And he went down.”

Spinks was mortified to see him get up. He backed him into the Cooney corner and unleashed another fusillade. Again, Spinks was disappointed. “He’s still there!” was his immediate reaction.

But not really there. Cooney, even with Holmes, showed heart, and he showed it again Monday, refusing to fold up. But it was hopeless. The referee properly stopped it. And the only reaction from the Cooney corner, manager Dennis Rappaport staring bitterly across the ring, suggested a final resignation.

In the fifth round, Spinks threw 101 punches, a record since such tabulations were kept. Cooney threw 26.

Cooney is finally laid to rest, so “disgusted with his performance,” publicist Rich Rose said, that he would not face the press afterward.

And Spinks mounts a higher pedestal. “All the little people can stand up and be proud,” he said, holding gauze to his eye. “We didn’t have a chance, right?”

Spinks admitted he never watched any films of Cooney’s fights, so many of them early and savage destructions. “That’s a frightening scene for me,” he said, “I paid no attention to it.”

But now his future almost assuredly includes young Mike Tyson, a slugger whose fistic style has intimidated many an opponent. Handicapping of that fight, which will take place sometime in 1988, is already producing conflict. Giachetti promises that he’ll give Tyson “fits.”

But Kevin Rooney, Tyson’s trainer, promises Tyson “will eat this guy up.” But wasn’t Rooney impressed with Spinks’ surprising punching power? “No,” he said, “but you got to remember I work with Mike Tyson.”

Meanwhile Tyson, boxing’s child prodigy, was musing over his schedule, which includes dates Aug. 1, Oct. 16 and March 21. “Spinks,” he said matter-of-factly, “will have to wait his turn.”

On the undercard, former lightweight champion Ras-I Alujah Bramble moved closer to regaining title contention by scoring a fifth-round knockout of Johnny Kahlbenn.