Mike Tyson vs. Michael Spinks
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| Date | June 27, 1988 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Convention Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBA/WBC/IBF/Ring/Lineal Heavyweight Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Boxer |
 Mike Tyson |
Michael Spinks |
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| Nickname | "Iron Mike" | "Jinx" | |
| Hometown | Catskill, New York, USA | St. Louis, Missouri, USA | |
| Pre-fight record | 34–0 (30 KO) | 31–0 (21 KO) | |
| Recognition | WBA/WBC/IBF Heavyweight Champion | The Ring/Lineal Heavyweight Champion |
Mike Tyson vs. Michael Spinks was a boxing match which took place on Monday June 27, 1988. Both men were undefeated and each had a claim to being the legitimate heavyweight champion. At the time, Tyson held the belts of all three of the major sanctioning organizations (World Boxing Council, World Boxing Association, and International Boxing Federation) while Spinks was the Ring champion and was considered the lineal champion.
Held at the Atlantic City Convention Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey and promoted as "once and for all", it was the richest fight in boxing history to that point, grossing some $70 million, of which Tyson earned a record purse of around $20 million and Spinks $13.5 million. Tyson won the fight, knocking out Spinks in 91 seconds.
Michael Spinks became a professional boxer shortly after he won the gold medal at middleweight in the 1976 Summer Olympics. Initially Spinks was more concerned with assisting his brother Leon's rise to the heavyweight championship, but was later convinced to turn pro himself. In 1981 Spinks fought Eddie Mustafa Muhammad for the WBA light heavyweight championship and defeated him by decision to win his first world title. The next year Spinks won the lineal championship from Mustafa Wassaja and then took the WBC title from Dwight Braxton in 1983 to become the undisputed champion. In 1984, Spinks added the newly created IBF title. In September 1985, after having defended his titles a combined total of ten times, Spinks moved up to the heavyweight class to challenge reigning IBF, Ring, and lineal champion Larry Holmes, who had been champion since 1978. Spinks defeated Holmes in a fifteen-round decision to become the first reigning light heavyweight champion to win the heavyweight championship. Spinks defeated Holmes again in a rematch and then successfully defended his title against Steffen Tangstad. Instead of defending his IBF title against top contender Tony Tucker, Spinks elected to take a more lucrative fight with former contender Gerry Cooney, who had fought three times in five years, in June 1987. The IBF responded by stripping Spinks of the title, but he was still in possession of the lineal and Ring titles and was considered by many to still be the rightful champion.
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