The birthday of Cory Spinks is 20 February 1978. It's amazing that the unified welterweight champion didn't enter the world five days earlier, while his mother was fidgeting and gyrating in front of the television set in St. Louis. On that night, Cory's father, prohibitive underdog Leon Spinks, won the world heavyweight title from Muhammad Ali. Somehow, Zadie Mae Calvin absorbed Leon's 15 rounds of labour without as much as a single contraction.
By the time "Neon Leon" was the suddenly former heavyweight champion, Cory was all of seven months old. It's difficult to believe, but Leon Spinks, whose post-Ali record was a forgettable 19-16-2, fought until December 1995. That's only two years before Cory turned pro, and seven years after brother Michael exited following his loss to Mike Tyson.
While Cory was clinging to his mom in St. Louis, Leon's addresses were hotels in Monte Carlo, where he fought Gerrie Coetzee, Detroit, where he fought Larry Holmes, Reno, where he fought Dwight Qawi, and Memphis, where he fought Tex Cobb. Cory's brothers were old enough to make the occasional road trip with their father. But Cory stayed at home.
"Leon would come into town, see his kids, and move on," said Kevin Cunningham, Cory's trainer, manager, and longtime mentor. "But Cory loves his dad. He says: `That's my dad. That's who he is.'"
The pull of a legacy is hard to resist. The offspring of Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran, Hector Camacho, Julio Cesar Chavez, George Foreman, and countless others have been drawn to the ring. Cory was boxing by the age of six. After he unified the 147-pound title by surprising Ricardo Mayorga last December, and again after he defended against Zab Judah in April, Leon was ringside with a hug and a smile. "I'm good with my dad," Cory says. "I just wish my mom were here."
Zadie Mae, who never married Leon, died in 1999 at age 48. As for Leon, he lives in Detroit.
Cory can't miss what he never had.
Whaddya know: Cory Spinks is beginning to appear on some pound-for-pound Top 10s. When you consider his bloodlines, and the fact that he's joined Bernard Hopkins and Kostya Tszyu as boxing's only unified champions, it's remarkable that he hasn't established himself as a celebrity resident of Bash Boulevard.
But outside of the hard core, how many people know who Leon's little boy is?
Argue if you want that Spinks is a safety-first southpaw whose KO percentage wouldn't scare a prelim fighter. At least recently, his bouts have been anything but snoozers. In fact, his unification battle with the free-swinging Mayorga proved the theory that opposite styles make good fights, and his defense against Judah disproved the theory that similar styles make bad fights.
I covered a handful of Leon's bouts, and upon finding myself ringside in Las Vegas for Spinks-Judah, I suffered Age-Awareness Depression. Fortunately, I have no memory of having changed Cory's diapers. Or Leon's teeth.
My mood was instantly brightened by the beauty of the boxing I watched. A pair of left-handers, Spinks and Judah displayed speed, defense, and reflexes that proved as hypnotising as the potential violence inflicted by a one-punch knockout artist. Their skills were three levels above even most world-class fighters. I never realised watching welterweights consistently missing their punches could be so invigorating.
Adding a bit of spice, Spinks dropped Judah in the 11th, then barely survived after suffering a far more serious knockdown with 30 seconds remaining in the 12th. He won a close but unanimous decision.
"For two minutes and 30 seconds, he was beating up Judah," Cunningham said of the 12th round. "I had told him: `Just box, be cautious,' because Zab needed a knockout and was just winging left hands. But it was Cory's first time on HBO and he really wanted to close the show. He was trying to sit down on his left hand-and he got caught by a left hand."
"I wasn't totally hurt," Spinks added, though the live picture suggested otherwise. "He came right at me after and I weaved the punches. I was focused."
Cory's intention to unleash his version of "The Spinks Jinx" was uncharacteristic. He's not a tall welterweight (5ft 9ins), but nonetheless a big one (he seemed a full division bigger than Judah), and his reach (78 inches) is lengthy for the division. With an attitude adjustment, he'd likely score the type of KOs he was seeking against Judah.
"The only thing that sometimes bothers me about Cory is that he doesn't have the mentality that this is a hurt business," Cunningham said. "He sees it as a sport.
"Sometimes I need him to inflict hurt. Cory doesn't dislike anybody and he doesn't take anything personal. Mayorga talked about Cory's deceased mother [at the prefight press conference] and afterward Cory had no problem with him. They were joking and laughing together at the Jones-Tarver fight. That's exactly why he doesn't have more KOs. But I don't pressure him. I don't want to take away what he does because what he does, he's the best at."
As an amateur, Spinks was ranked first at light-welterweight in the USA. But his progression was choppy. In 1993, his brother Leon Jr., who had just turned pro, was shot to death in a gang-related incident. Two years later, Cory's best friend was murdered as well.
Spinks withdrew, but Cunningham, then a St. Louis police officer, wouldn't quit on him.
"When I was on the beat, he lived in the area, and I'd see him hanging out with his boys," Cunningham recalled. "I'd tell him: `You have to get back in the gym,' but he was depressed. It took him a while, but me and his mom worked on him. I don't know why I stayed on it, but there was just something about the kid."
Spinks managed to gain strength from the tragedies of his youth. Why hadn't he followed the destructive route of so many inner-city teens? "It was just me having a little sense," he said. "I've always learned from other people's mistakes."
Debatable decisions-or outright robberies-don't qualify as tragedies, but Spinks' two losses also helped shape the finished product. In 1998, Spinks was 13-0 when he dropped a 12-round split decision to fellow prospect Tonito Diaz on the latter's home turf of Indio, California. Spinks doesn't agree, but it was a close fight that underlined the subjectivity of scoring; either you preferred Diaz's constant pressure or Spinks's move-and-jab approach.
Such was not the case in April 2002, when Spinks travelled to Italy and faced local favourite Michele Piccirillo for the vacant IBF welterweight title. I watched a tape of the fight, and it was among the worst decisions of the last few years.
"Spinks played with the guy," said Dan Rafael, boxing writer for USA Today. "I honestly feel you can make an argument that Spinks beat Piccirillo 12-0 [in rounds]. If that fight had been on TV in the States, it would have caused a mammoth outrage."
According to Cunningham, Spinks was "wrecked" by the decision. It was time, the trainer/manager believed, to split with Spinks's longtime promoter, Bob Arum's Top Rank.
"Cory signed with Top Rank out of the amateurs, and it was the wrong promoter at the wrong time," Cunningham said. "Bob was in the process of going in a different direction - Latin fighters. He did nothing to promote Cory."
(In response to similar Cunningham criticism in December 2003, Arum told USA Today: "It just didn't work. He's a lovely kid, and he's very talented. We tried to put a show in St. Louis. We brought Leon in for a fight. We really tried. It wasn't the kid's fault. I was perplexed."
After the loss to the Don King-promoted Piccirillo, Spinks signed with DK. What a surprise: Less than a year later, he secured a rematch, again in Italy. This time, Spinks won unanimously, by two, five, and six points.
Asked whether he believed his fighter would have gotten the decision had Cory not signed with King, Cunningham proved just as elusive as Spinks: "I don't think he even gets the second Piccirillo fight without Don."
In order to rise into the stratosphere of stars, Spinks need added exposure - and a lot of it. His biggest win, the decision over Mayorga, was aired on pay-per-view, and thus watched by relatively few. His victory over Judah was on HBO, but the main event was Lamon Brewster-Wlad Klitschko.
"I just want to make some big money," Spinks said. But against whom? The hot divisions are one below, at junior welterweight, and one above, at junior middleweight. Spinks isn't going to significantly improve his standing by fighting Antonio Margarito or Jose Rivera. Floyd Mayweather, who traded verbal haymakers with Spinks after the Judah fight, might be the answer, but "Pretty Boy Floyd's" aim is to first conquer the 140-pounders.
"If you put him in with an average Joe, you're not gonna see the best Cory Spinks," Cunningham said. "You have to put something in front of him that is competitive and brings the fear of losing."
Daddy Leon had a pair of legendary fights vs Ali. Uncle Michael had Qawi and Mike Tyson. Cory Spinks may have to wait a while for his defining fight.
In the meantime?
"I just want to be the best and make my mom proud," said Cory, who just moved into a new house with his wife Kimberly and four-year-old daughter Brianna. "My baby keeps me going. I just don't want her to grow up like I did."
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