This 1987 Heavyweight Title fight came up in my YouTube feed courtesy of Vintage Boxing TM. The channel is essential for any boxing fan or enthusiast. The page consistently uploads high quality fights from different decades of the sport. As an even greater window into the sport’s past is the fact that the channel posts full broadcasts with the build up, fight, post fight and even the retro commercials.
Historic Relevance
This fight occurred nearly forty years ago and several years before I was born. The story line of this fight is relevant today as it echoes the current state of the heavyweight championship. Michael Spinks was stripped of his title for not facing number one contender Tony Tucker but continued to campaign as the champion based on beating “the man” Larry Holmes. Current champion Oleksandr Usyk is in a similar scenario. Usyk claimed all of the major sanctioning body titles and earlier this year relinquished them to pursue a lucrative “last dance”. Spinks and his team decided to avoid the higher risk lower reward Tucker for a significant reward to face Gerry Cooney who was a name but a diminished force.
Background
Michael Spinks is a fighter that is a blind spot for me as a long time fan of the sport and someone who watches and reads about the history of boxing. He is best known in 2026 as the guy in the Mike Tyson highlight reels for getting obliterated in ninety seconds. Tyson had a way of making some of his biggest wins look so easy that it has potentially undervalued them. (Rummy’s Corner discussed this with Tyson’s Holmes win). His performance against Holmes to win the title displayed a unique and tricky style with a heroic leap in weight to dethrone the undefeated long reigning champion.
Gerry Cooney is an interesting character from the sport. He was a seemingly nice guy from the suburbs. He became a huge star despite not being a huge personality or brash. I had the pleasure of meeting Cooney by chance in Westfield, New Jersey outside the New Jersey Transit station and the “Gentleman” nickname was apt. He was a nice guy open to talking briefly with a boxing fan. He had one of the all time championship fights in terms of press and dollars and climbed in the ring with three bona fide legends of the sport. He unfortunately was stopped by all three with the George Foreman knockout being particularly brutal. Gerry never quite found the form and confidence heading into his showdown with Larry Holmes again. His career had been stalled by inactivity and the cycle of retire, un-retire.
Despite the inactivity, Cooney entered the fight as a minor odds favorite. He held a five inch height and six inch reach advantage. Both men were thirty and separated by roughly thirty pounds in weight. The fight took place at the Atlantic City Convention Center and in the crowd there was NJ’s Jersey Joe Walcott along with Sugar Ray Leonard seated next to Mike Tyson. I would be interested to see what that conversation looked like between the two legends. Some of Walcott must have rubbed off on Spinks who did a shuffle to the side reminiscent of Joe’s fights in the 1940’s.
The Fight
Cooney opened the fight wisely behind his jab and came forward to the smaller man. Spinks intelligently circled to his left to get away from Cooney’s dangerous left hook. He wanted to make Gerry beat him with the lesser tool in his arsenal, the right hand. This movement also positioned Spinks to land his dangerous right hand. The fight commentators mentioned trainer Eddie Futch pointing out Cooney’s susceptibility to the fight hand. After moving and analyzing the challenger, Spinks began landing his right hand. There was a moment early in the first round where Cooney threw two jabs and backed Spinks to the ropes. He landed a right cross that landed clean. That gave the appearance of things going Cooney’s way, it was short lived.
Spinks had a great second round. He started to stand his ground more and opened up with more punches. Cooney struggled to land, had a leaky defense and was ineffective. A clash of heads cut Spinks over the right eye putting him in danger of not seeing the dangerous left. Cooney tried to force the issue more in the third round. There was an interesting sequence where Cooney appeared to see the opening, hesitated and got caught with a solid shot. Spinks did not let the blood hamper his performance as he put combinations together even more fluidly. Cooney landed some good punches but the momentum did not shift back in his favor.
The fourth round was a little slower and more tactical in comparison to the previous two. In the fifth round Spinks opened up with a stiff jab. He began to double the lead left and drew reactions from Cooney. Spinks was able to effectively back the bigger man up in this round. At around the mid point of the fifth round Cooney got over extended on a left hook and took a sharp counter. This was the beginning of the end for Gerry as Michael pressed the advantage. Spinks attacked with lefts and rights and got in a solid hook from underneath.
The onslaught sent Cooney down for the first knockdown. Cooney got up and Frank Cappuccino asked if he was okay. Cooney affirmed that he wanted to continue. Spinks attacked right away with more of the same, lefts and rights in combination with some devastating left hooks and right crosses. Cooney again went down. Cooney stayed on his knee until the count of eight and rose slowly. Cappuccino awkwardly asked if he was okay and if he knew who we was. Cooney again bravely wanted to continue. The fight should have been stopped as Cooney was not defending himself.
On the broadcast you could see the TV cameraman get up on the ropes to get the final shot. Commentator Jim Lampley said that the fight was over and Cooney could not defend himself. The other commentator lamented that Cooney didn’t know how to hold and wasn’t throwing punches. With about twenty seconds to go, Cooney with his back to the ropes threw his first punch after a minute of getting beat on and knockdown. The left hook, his signature punch, seemed to have very little on it but it backed Spinks up who reevaluated his prey. Several left hooks and a pair of right uppercuts send Cooney bending at the knees and leaning forward. Cappuccino finally called off the fight.
Other Takeaways
Fantasy match-up: Spinks was very sharp and versatile in this fight. He also displayed excellent punching power with both hands. Evander Holyfield was in the crowd and at the time was Cruiserweight Champion on the verge of going up in weight. Evander would eventually compete with the biggest names of the sport including a technical knockout over Mike Tyson. I think Spinks’ mobility, sharp counters, accurate punching and unorthodox style could present an interesting challenge for Hoylfield.
Counterfactual: I found myself wondering during the fight how long Spinks could have reigned if Mike Tyson did not exist. Sure he beat an inactive Cooney, unheralded Steffan Tangstad, and aging Larry Holmes. However, he is impressive on film to me. The Tyson destruction and immediate retirement kept his heavyweight resume short, but I can’t help but wonder how he would have stacked up with Frank Bruno, Tony Tucker, James Smith, or James Douglas.
The Judging: I am trying to figure out what fight two of the judges were watching. Tom Kaczmarek had it even at 38-38 and Harold Lederman inexplicably scored it in favor of Cooney 39-37!
Cooney’s corner: I always felt Gerry Cooney’s corner and trainer Victor Valle protected Cooney from getting an unnecessary beating from Larry Holmes . They let him have the dignity to get up from the knockdown and tell referee Mills Lane that he wanted to continue and show a fighter’s heart. The corner did the right thing and brought out the towel. That same care and attention was not taken in this fight. I don’t know if the team had an agreement to not stop it. Maybe it was because it was only the fifth round. Cooney took plenty of unnecessary punishment that his corner had previously protected him from.
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