Tyson Does a Minute-and-a-Half Waltz : It Takes 1:31 to Make Spinks a Lightweight

With his last remaining credible opponent, Michael Spinks, having been assisted out of the Atlantic City Convention Hall Monday night--actually Tuesday morning--it now looks as if the only man in Mike Tyson’s appointment book who can prevent him from a long, sensationally rich reign as the world’s greatest fighter is Mike Tyson.

That’s assuming he wants to do this any more. He left that small matter up in the air in a chaotic post-fight press conference when he said, almost off-handedly: “As far as I know, this might be my last fight.”

What came down here Monday night was Michael Spinks, in 1 minute 31 seconds.

Tyson hit Spinks often, hard and so accurately that a $70-million mismatch was under way before the ring announcer had taken his seat.

This, obviously, was not the classic, boxer-puncher confrontation in which many had hoped. It was a demolition derby, a Boardwalk mugging. Ten days ago, Tyson told his close friend, Jose Torres, he wanted to kill someone.

And that’s exactly what it looked like, to the 21,785 who paid up to $1,500 to watch. Tyson defeated Spinks coldly and savagely . . . breaking him with hooks to the body and then finishing him with a solid right hand to the chin.

And, remember, Spinks was supposed to be the master defensive boxer, harder to hit squarely than anyone around.

Spinks came out with the characteristic stutter-step, lurching defense. But Tyson simply shattered Spinks’ defense.

Ten seconds into the bout, Spinks, who entered the ring a 4-1 underdog, looked like 400-1.

“When I looked at him when I got in the ring, I didn’t think he looked ready,” Tyson said. “The first punch I hit him with, he kind of wobbled a little. I knew it was over then.”

Tyson put Spinks down twice. The first tumble came one minute into the round and was caused by a brutal Tyson left hook to Spinks’ jaw, followed by a right to the ribs. It brought Spinks’ arms down as if he’d been touched by a live wire.

The knockout blow was a right hand to Spinks’ chin. A split second after impact, there was air under Spinks’ feet . . . and then he fell to the floor. He landed so hard, his head bounced on the canvas, just as Larry Holmes’ did in the same ring here last January when Tyson destroyed him, too.

Spinks shakily rose to one knee as referee Fred Capuccino counted, but toppled over the bottom rope as the count reached 10.

As it ended, Spinks lay on his back, staring pop-eyed at the ceiling.

In the tumultuous scene in the ring seconds after the knockout, when security police were swinging away at ring-rope vaulters, there was a moment of compassion from this young champion who seemingly now has no more worlds to conquer, save for his own tangled web of management and marriage.

Tyson approached Spinks, put his arms around him, whispered into his ear, touched his forehead to Spinks’, and appeared to kiss him on the cheek twice.

Within two hours after the fourth quickest heavyweight championship knockout in history, Tyson and his entourage, including wife Robin Givens, were on a charter flight back to their little country castle in Bernardsville, N.J.

Now, the Spinks interruption behind everyone, it’s man your battle stations in the Tyson camp. The Tyson-Tyson fight continues.

In the multimillion dollar power imbroglio in which Tyson has become involved, he resumes verbal warfare with his embattled manager, Bill Cayton. Also settling in behind fortifications are Givens and her mother, Ruth Roper, and promoter Don King.

But for 15 minutes before hundreds of reporters in a post-fight news conference made even more chaotic because of the presence of presidential candidate Jesse Jackson and his Secret Service agents, Tyson’s jubilation carried him to outright defiance.

“What did ya think of that!” he shouted into the microphone.

A sizable number of reporters had picked Spinks to win, and the champion’s trainer, Kevin Rooney, yelled into the mike: “Eat your words! Eat your words!”

Tyson indicated he thought for a moment he’d be coming into an extra $45 million, on top of the $20 to $22 million he’s supposed to earn. Spinks got a guaranteed $13.5 million.

“My trainer told me when we left our hotel that he’d placed a bet on my knocking him out in the first round, that we’d win $45 million if I did,” Tyson said.

“But when I asked him if he’d really made that bet, he said no, he was just kidding.”

Obvious question: All the managerial and reported marital problems had no impact on you, right Mike?

“Whatever happens in life, my job had to be done,” he said.

Did you ever expect it would be this easy?

“I trained very hard so that it would be this easy,” he said.

Of his management strife, he indicated the problems would be solved, and then he lashed out at reporters.

“We’re going to take care of that,” he said. “We don’t have a good personal relationship right now. I don’t appreciate what you guys wrote about me--you embarrassed me and disgraced my family.

“A lot of reporters are my friends, but a lot of you are . . . . I’m going to go away for a while, take it from there.”

Then, the kicker: “As far as I know, this might be my last fight.”

Someone asked if he wanted to fight Carl (The Truth) Williams, who won an unimpressive decision over Trevor Berbick on the undercard. Tyson, in November of 1986, destroyed Berbick in two rounds to win his first title, the WBC championship.

Tyson all but burst out laughing.

“You saw what I did to Berbick, right? And you saw what a hard time Williams had with him tonight? And you want me to take your money and fight Williams?”

The truth is that there appears to be no one--including Evander Holyfield--who is ready for Tyson. The way he has looked in his last half-dozen fights, Mike Tyson can be the heavyweight champion as long as he wants.

HBO’s punch-counting computer had Tyson landing 8 of 23 punches, Spinks 2 of 10.

If the fight had gone the distance, it would’ve run into Tuesday.

A long delay--the bout didn’t start until 11:31 p.m. EDT--was caused by a double argument between the Spinks and Tyson camps. Butch Lewis, Spinks’ manager, was demanding that the champion’s hands be re-taped.

It wasn’t known if there was a re-taping, or why one was requested.

And there was another beef over who would enter the ring first. Eventually, Spinks did, in a black and white robe, at 11:22 p.m. Tyson, with black shoes, sans socks, and black trunks, came in at 11:25.

All of Tyson’s cornermen wore their “Fire and Fear” T-shirts.

The Williams-Berbick bout ended at 10:40, so to fill the gap dozens of celebrities were introduced, Magic Johnson getting the biggest ovation and George Steinbrenner the loudest boos.

Spinks said his weight, 212, the heaviest of his career, was not a factor.

“I performed well in the gym, I was ready, the weight was not a factor,” he said.

“After the first knockdown, I didn’t want to run. . . . I wanted to come back at him, and he caught me with a good shot.”

Spinks’ first loss as a 12-year pro left him with a 31-1 record, and Tyson improved to 35-0 with 31 knockouts. It was his 16th first-round knockout.

And it was the fourth-quickest KO in a heavyweight title fight. The fastest was James J. Jeffries’ 55-second victory over Jack Finnegan, 88 years ago. The only faster demolition job in the modern era is Michael Dokes’ 1982 knockout of Mike Weaver in 1:03.

BATTLE OF THE UNBEATENS

Undefeated heavyweight fighters who have met for the championship:

Year Winner Loser Result Site 1892 James J. Corbett John L. Sullivan KO 21 New Orleans 1904 James J. Corbett Jack Munroe TKO 2 Los Angeles 1968 Joe Frazier Buster Mathis TKO 11 New York 1971 Joe Frazier Muhammad Ali DEC 15 New York 1973 George Foreman Joe Frazier TKO 2 Jamaica 1979 Larry Holmes Ossie Ocasio TKO 7 Las Vegas 1979 John Tate Gerrie Coetzee DEC 15 South Africa 1980 Larry Holmes LeRoy Jones TKO 8 Las Vegas 1981 Larry Holmes Renaldo Snipes TKO 11 Pittsburgh 1982 Larry Holmes Gerry Cooney TKO 13 Las Vegas 1983 Larry Holmes Tim Witherspoon DEC 12 Las Vegas 1983 Larry Holmes Scott Frank TKO 5 Atlantic City 1983 Larry Holmes Marvis Frazier TKO 1 Las Vegas 1985 Larry Holmes David Bey TKO 10 Las Vegas 1985 Larry Holmes Carl Williams DEC 15 Reno 1985 Michael Spinks Larry Holmes DEC 15 Las Vegas 1987 Mike Tyson Tony Tucker DEC 12 Las Vegas 1987 Mike Tyson Tyrell Biggs KO 7 Atlantic City 1988 Mike Tyson Michael Spinks KO 1 Atlantic City

Source: Associated Press

SHORTEST HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE BOUTS

Fighters Time Date Jim Jefferies over Jack Finnegan 55 seconds April 6, 1900 Michael Dokes over Mike Weaver 1:03 Dec. 10, 1982 Tommy Burns over Jem Roche 1:28 March 7, 1908 Mike Tyson over Michael Spinks 1:31 June 27, 1988 Joe Frazier over Dave Zyglewicz 1:36 April 22, 1969