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With the Fabulous Five taking over boxing, the heavyweights need to get it in gear if they hope to reclaim their throne! February 15, 1978, went down in history as a centerpiece for heavyweight boxing: the day when the championship was divided and not [fully] return to full order and legitimacy.
Rookie Leon Spinks is upset with “should-retire-after-this-fight” Muhammad Ali and will continue to accept Ali’s request for a rematch as opposed to taking on the mandatory Ken Norton. Norton defeated Jimmy Young to close out 1977, giving him a shot. Spinks was stripped by the World Boxing Council and would go on to lose the World Boxing Association’s heavyweight title to “Superior” against them.
Meanwhile, Ken Norton was blessed with the WBC title and would soon throw it in one of the best titles of the 1970s against “Big Black Cloud”, Larry Holmes (making Norton the only champion who never won not successful).
Holmes would go on to dominate the division, although he never combined the shared titles (did he really need to?). Ali would retire after defeating Spinks, but returned in a title fight against Larry Holmes (igniting a flame in a young heavyweight who would avenge his champion 8 years later in a bout dubbed the “The History of Gravity”).
Along the way, Holmes traded the WBC title for the newly created World Heavyweight Championship. Eventually, Holmes would take on the younger brother of Leon Spinks (Holmes also beat Leon in 1981), Michael “Jinx” Spinks, in 1985, ending any chance the “Easton Assassin” had of tying Rocky Marciano’s record of 49 -0.
The fight that was said to be very important in history for many reasons, including the heavyweight champion defeating the heavyweight champion and the fact that 30 years of Rocky Marciano thwarted Archie Moore’s efforts. They reconciled again and Spinks confirmed that he had no clue (depending on who you ask).
Speaking of the rematch, it’s the second “inning” in the HBO Heavyweight World Series, a unification tournament that Don King clearly approves of: there needs to be one champion, and people are losing interest in shenanigans . The tournament was organized with the aim of bringing the WBC, WBA, and IBF titles under the shadow of Muhammad Ali’s successor. The title holders, at the time, were Pinklon Thomas (WBC), Tony Tubbs (WBA), and Michael Spinks (Lineal, RING, IBF); maybe one of the three champions can emerge as undisputed? Logically, the hope is that “Kid Dynamite,” who has been lighting up the scene with his powerful and fast-paced beats, is the chosen one, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
The main event has been announced in the building of the WBA championship between the champion Tony “TNT” Tubbs and the challenger “The Bad” Tim WItherspoon, the winner of which clearly will continue to compete in the division. The competition will continue with the likes of “VINDICATION IN VEGAS” (Spinks-Holmes II), “TODAY” (Berbick-Tyson), “ROAD OF HONOR” (TUCKER-DOUGLAS/TYSON-THOMAS), “THE ULTIMATE ” (Tyson-Tucker), and many more are worth watching. They are also included with experts that I find relevant, as they are directly related to the news surrounding the competition.
Whether you know the era or not, whether you know who won that championship or not (I’m sure everyone here does), enjoy this look back at the 1980s HBO Heavyweight World Series, featuring the talent and taking advantage of Larry Holmes, Tim Witherspoon, Michael Spinks, Tony Tucker, Mike Tyson, and many other fighters while, again, working as a power pass, finally, to a new, prosperous era that will continue to in silver. The heavy years known as the 1990s.
Enjoy the journey of the BIG 3 titles coming together for the first time, as reported by TheCharlesJackson for the Boxing Encyclopedia; Part 6 of the continuing Missing Generation docuseries for BoxingPedia. Written, produced, and reported by TCJ; from my heart to yours.
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