Spinks Accepts His Underdog Role

At his training camp in the Catskill Mountains, Michael Spinks plays the role of obliging underdog.

Spinks talks like a man who knows many people expect him to get his brains rattled by Mike Tyson on June 27. Spinks is a 5-1 underdog in a bout matching undefeated heavyweight champions at the Atlantic City (N. J.) Convention Center.

But Spinks is not resigned to going through the motions for a $13 million payday. While Tyson spends his days with his new wife, Spinks has been training for three weeks. And although he has not fought since stopping Gerry Cooney in five rounds last June, Spinks, 31, has stayed in the gym while chasing Tyson.

“I’ll pay my price, whatever it is, to win this fight,” Spinks said. “There’s a lot more pain to go through before this one’s over.”

Still, Spinks sounds more like he is preparing for major surgery than for a bout that will highlight his 10-year pro career. He refers to the bout as “death-defying.”

“I’m not looking forward to the match,” Spinks said. “I would consider him a tough opponent, the strongest I’ve faced. Why am I doing it? Obviously I’m getting well-paid for it, but I’d like more.

“But I wouldn’t trade places with anyone. I want to go in there. I plan to go into it with the attitude it’s a fight where we’ll both be trying to lame each other.”

Playing the underdog is nothing new to Spinks, who is 31-0 with 21 knockouts. His two victories over former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes were upsets, and so was his knockout of Cooney. Instead of talking about how he will prove everyone wrong, Spinks just keeps building up his opponent.

Conversely, Tyson is taking the favorite’s road to the richest bout in boxing history. He has yet to start serious training although his manager, Bill Cayton, and trainer Kevin Rooney wanted him in the gym the first week of May.

Tyson has paid his management team little heed. He stayed in Los Angeles longer than expected with his wife of three months, actress Robin Givens, while Cayton was left in New York to wonder when the fighter would show up for commitments on the East Coast.

Tyson, who stands to make at least $17 million for the fight, missed a taping of a commercial for the fight and was three days late to shoot a commercial in New York for a Japanese beer company.

Publicly, Tyson’s managers show no alarm. They say four weeks in Atlantic City will be enough time for him to get into fighting shape. He is expected to go to Atlantic City on May 29.

“Mike usually spends about two weeks in Catskill (N. Y., his hometown) before he goes to the site of the fight, but he doesn’t always train every day,” Tyson’s assistant manager Steve Lott said. “So he usually spends only four weeks in serious training. We know Mike is ready to fight when he tells us he’s ready to go the city of the fight.”

At 21, with two knockouts already behind him this year, Tyson may only need four weeks to prepare for Spinks. But by delaying his training, Tyson might be showing for the first time a wavering from the single-mindedness that helped make him the youngest heavyweight champion in history and 34-0 with 30 knockouts.

Or he might be overconfident. If he’s worried about the fight, he apparently hasn’t told his wife.

“I know he’s going to beat Michael Spinks,” Givens said at a March 30 press conference to announce the Tyson-Spinks fight. “I wasn’t so sure about the last fight (a two-round knockout of Tony Tubbs March 20), because I didn’t know anything about Tubbs.

“But Mike has talked about Spinks for a long time and I’m sure he can beat him.”

While Team Tyson seems in turmoil, Spinks’ handlers express only confidence in their fighter. At his Concord training camp, his work is carefully monitored by veteran trainer Eddie Futch and nutritionist-phsyical trainer Mackie Shilstone.

A banner over the ring Spinks trains in proclaims: “June 28, 1988. Michael Spinks. Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World.”

“Talk to me on June 28 and I’ll be smiling, because we won the fight and the check’s cleared,” said Butch Lewis, the promoter who has guided Spinks since he turned pro. “Michael has been in this situation more than Tyson has, a big-fight situation. He knows how to handle it.”

Futch, 77, has trained heavyweight champions Joe Frazier and Larry Holmes, and sparred with Joe Louis as a youngster. He sees nothing special in Tyson.

“I see flaws,” Futch said. “I’m not saying he’s not a great young prospect, but we’ll show the flaws to everybody on June 27. Tyson looks great when he’s on target and hitting something. But what happens when he finds a target he can’t hit?”

Spinks, a smart, defensive-minded fighter, will be the toughest test Tyson has faced. The biggest question, though, is can he take Tyson’s best shots? In his second 15-round decision over Holmes, Spinks was twice nearly knocked down by a single right hand. Holmes was 35 at the time and in his prime he never hit as hard as Tyson.

“I refuse to let this man have his way with me,” Spinks said of Tyson. “I’m going to hit him back.”

Spinks has won people’s hearts but not their confidence at his training camp.

“He’s a really nice guy, sweet. Too sweet,” said the waitress who serves Spinks breakfast each morning.

Can he win?

“Too sweet,” she said, shaking her head.

After his daily workouts, Spinks sticks around for a while signing autographs.

“My idol,” said one adult fan, proudly waiving an autographed picture. “Even though he’s gonna lose.”

Spinks, who knows what he is up against, also knows what he brings to this fight. He won an Olympic gold medal in 1976 along with four other U. S. fighters, including his older brother Leon. He also held the light heavyweight title for four years before moving up to take Holmes’ International Boxing Federation heavyweight title in September, 1985. By defeating Holmes, Spinks became the first reigning light heavyweight champion to win a heavyweight title.

Tyson now owns the IBF title, which was stripped from Spinks last year because he passed over top-ranked contender Tony Tucker to fight Cooney. Tyson also has the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association titles, but Spinks considers himself champion because he has never lost the crown in the ring.

“I can’t believe what people say,” Spinks said. “I hear people say, ‘He’s going to clean your clock,’ or it’s going to be an easy fight for me. There are people who have confidence in my ability, but I’m not listening.

“I’m in a fight for my life. I’m acting like this is a death match.”