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Add FightsATW on GoogleAuthor Jack Hirsch is the kind of journalist one would call a boxing “lifer,” and not be talking out of turn. A former amateur boxer (and sparring partner of middleweight champion Vito Antuofermo) who competed in New York’s Golden Gloves in 1973 and 1976, Hirsch took off his gloves in the ‘70s, picked up a pen, and has been using it to write about the sweet science ever since.
Hirsch has written so many fight recaps and articles and conducted so many interviews that he can’t remember every match he covered and every outlet he scribed for. Held in such esteem by his fellow boxing writers, Hirsch served six terms as the President of the Boxing Writers Association of America (2009-2014). At the beginning of this decade, Jack was inducted into the New York State Boxing Hall of Fame.
But there was one item missing from Jack’s long career of service to the sport he has spent his entire adult life steeped in: a book. It’s a distinction that nagged at Jack for years. “When are you gonna write a book?” he was often asked. Jack would reply, “When I get around to it.” As the years went by, the question nagged at him until it became a sore spot that he realized he had to address. “At some point, you gotta get around to it,” Jack told me in the most New York of New York City accents.
Settling on a subject was another matter altogether. Over the course of deciding on what or who he would write about, Hirsch had dalliances with two former champions whom he left unnamed, but in the end, the fighters and Jack couldn’t come to terms.
With the itch to write, but still no topic to scratch beneath the surface of, Jack found himself chatting up Don Majewski, a former matchmaker who worked for promoter Butch Lewis for seven years. With Michael Spinks being the most notable boxer that Lewis ever promoted, Spinks inevitably came up during their discussion. “It hit me like a ton of bricks, Jack said, Why not Michael Spinks?” Hirsch was “flabbergasted” that no one had ever written a proper biography on the former light heavyweight and heavyweight champion, let alone an authorized biography.
From there, Hirsch reached out to Florence ‘Flo’ Anthony, an author and publisher who had spent decades in and around the fight game, and, significantly, is the manager of Michael Spinks‘ business affairs. Spinks and Anthony began dating in 1987, and this January, they consecrated their union, becoming husband and wife. Since leaving the sport in 1988, after suffering his only professional defeat, in dramatic fashion at the fists of Mike Tyson, Spinks has become a “bit of a recluse,” according to Jack–a description that’s hard to argue against. As a near-life-long fight fan with more than a decade of boxing bylines to my name, I couldn’t think of a single occasion where I saw Spinks ringside or spoke as the subject of an interview. In fact, it had been so long since I’d heard the voice of Michael Spinks that I carry no memory of what his voice sounded like.
For such a prominent fighter, Spinks’ career has been almost completely uncovered in long form. The only significant book with Michael Spinks’ name on the front of it is “One Punch from the Promised Land: Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, And The Myth Of The Heavyweight Title,” written by John and Quisie Floria, and published back in 2013. Notably, that book is about Michael and his more famous brother, Leon, and Michael’s name comes after Leon’s.
Such is the history of Michael Spinks: a dominant fighter of his era whose name isn’t spoken of in the hushed tones one reserves for subjects of greatness; it’s hardly spoken of at all. That is, unless it’s in relation to his final 91 seconds in the ring, when he was demolished by Mike Tyson in the first round of their heavyweight championship fight, making Tyson the undisputed champion of the world.
When one reflects on Michael Spinks’s career in its totality, it quickly becomes clear that the man deserves better. Michael Spinks finished his career with a record of 31-1 (21 KOs), with victories at light heavyweight over Yaqui Lopez, Marvin Johnson, Eddie Mustafa Muhammed, and Dwight Muhammad Quawi. Spinks was the first fighter in boxing history to move up from the light heavyweight division to the heavyweight division and win a world title, when he decisioned Larry Holmes for the IBF belt on September 21, 1985.
Spinks fought four more times as a heavyweight, taking a highly disputed split decision over Holmes in their 1986 rematch, and then knocking out both Stellan Tangstad and Gerry Cooney, before his fateful and ignominious final bow against Tyson. Throw in a Gold medal as a part of the greatest USA boxing team in Olympic history (which included Gold medalists Sugar Ray Leonard, Howard Davis Jr., Leo Randolph, and big brother Leon, as well as Silver medalist Charles Mooney, and Bronze medalist “Big” John Tate at the Montreal games in 1976). One has to echo Jack Hirsch: “Why not Michael Spinks?”
Jack had an open terrain when it came to Michael Spinks. When those in the know speak of the history of the light heavyweight division, Spinks is always on any list of the ten greatest fighters in that weight class, typically landing at the number 6 or 7 spot (where Teddy Atlas ranks him). When Jack first reached out to Flo Anthony, he told her he was “Gonna do it with or without his co- cooperation, but if it’s an authorized biography, the book’ll be much better. He’ll get to give his full account.” Within an hour, Jack heard back from Flo: the book was a “go.”
As easy as the negotiations may have been to secure Spinks’ blessing, getting the man to open up proved far more difficult. Michael Spinks has never been thought of as a particularly quotable fighter–”He’s not a man of many words,” Jack said. Despite having a pretty sharp memory after all these years (Spinks will turn 70 in July), never a given with an aging fighter, it’s just not in his nature to be expansive. Unlike so many fighters, modern and long-ago, Spinks is a living, breathing, but rarely talking example of humility. There is no chest puffing with Michael Spinks, which, however admirable a quality, didn’t make it easy on his biographer. “I had to really push him,” Jack said. “Michael, by nature, is very withdrawn.”
While the author wanted the book to look upon Spinks “favorably,” the journalist in Jack Hirsch knew he’d have to ask Spinks questions about growing up in the St. Louis projects, living in the shadow of his more famous (although less accomplished) big brother Leon, as well as Leon’s struggles outside of the ring, and other family issues that would push Michael out of his comfort zone. And of course, whether he “froze” the night he fought Mike Tyson. There were times when Hirsch would have to ask his subject, “Is this how you want this to come out?” and Spinks would often say, “No,” and then open up more. Hirsch will tell you that he holds a great deal of fondness for Spinks, but experienced no small amount of frustration while writing the book.
What Hirsch was able to accomplish through this often teeth-pulling exercise is nothing less than the most fulsome treatment of Michael Spinks in existence. What Hirsch uncovers in Michael “Jinx” Spinks is a fighter who may not have received his full due, but isn’t all that concerned about it. Unlike so many fighters who went on to become champions, Spinks held the sport with some measure of ambivalence.
After the Olympics, while so many of his fellow teammates were turning pro, Spinks became a maintenance man. It was only when his boss gave him just a bit too much grief, and promoter Butch Lewis came calling, that Spinks decided to become a professional fighter. Hirsch recognized that there is no fair telling of Michael Spinks’s story that doesn’t make his flamboyant promoter (and manager), Butch Lewis, his main co-star.
As Hirsch details, Lewis made savvy moves when he left Top Rank and took (a then floundering) Leon and Michael Spinks with him. He also paced Michael’s career perfectly, matching his “step-up” fights when Spinks was ready for greater competition, and not sending Michael into the ring too often, thereby risking wear and tear. Michael Spinks trusted Butch Lewis so much that he didn’t see a conflict of interest in having Lewis serve as both his manager and his promoter.
As Hirsch put it, “Who was Butch negotiating with for Michael when he was acting as his manager? He was negotiating with himself.” For years, Lewis paid all of Spinks’ bills and paid him a monthly allowance. The trouble is, as Jack noted, “When one person controls somebody else’s money to that degree, they begin to think of it as their money.”
In Michael “The Jinx” Spinks, Hirsch covers the many professional ups (and the single “down”) of the great fighter’s career. The most affecting portions of the book involve Michael’s undying affection for Leon (who died in 2021), a comet who dramatically won an Olympic Gold medal at the ’76 Games, then dethroned Muhammad Ali in 1978, winning the WBA and WBC belts in just his eighth professional fight.
Unlike his younger brother, Leon was raucous and undisciplined, and he loved the nightlife. As Leon’s proclivities undermined his ascent and slowly ruined his career, Michael would eventually eclipse his older brother’s accomplishments but never escape his shadow. Jack stated that if you were to ask the average person in the supermarket, “Have you ever heard of the name Michael Spinks?” most would tell you, “Yeah, he’s the guy who beat Muhammad Ali.” Despite all Michael accomplished, big brother still retains the bigger name. Yet Michael appears entirely untroubled by Leon’s greater fame. “Leon will always be Michael’s idol,” Jack said.
Michael “The Jinx” Spinks covers the hardships of Spinks’ early life, the hard knocks of the fight game, his greatest wins and that one terrible loss, the financial troubles that followed the death of Lewis, and attempts to quantify the place in history for a man who fought in the limelight while never seeking it.
Michael Spinks was a truly great fighter, and he deserved a biography. He told me that sometimes, when he’s at home, he’ll pick up the book and hold it, almost as a child would with their favorite toy. Jack not only worked in the service of the fighter whom he was covering, but he also took the time to let it sink in what it means to write a book.
When he holds Michael “The Jinx” Spinks in his hands, he is grasping something that did not exist until he made it so. The once blank pages are now filled with the history of an oft-overlooked, or at least underappreciated, champion. That is an accomplishment worthy of note. As Jack told me, with all the things I’ve done in boxing, a past president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, now it seems I’m Michael Spinks’ biographer. I’m proud of that.”
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