June 27, 1988: A unification fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World is held. The Kentucky Derby is often called "The Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sports." This fight could not be called that: It didn't last until the 2-minute mark.
The 3 major organizations sanctioning boxing championships, then as now, were the World Boxing Association (WBA), the World Boxing Council (WBC), and the International Boxing Federation (IBF). All 3 of those belts were then held by Mike Tyson.
"Iron Mike" was 3 days short of his 22nd birthday, and, at 20, had broken the record of youngest Heavyweight Champion ever, taking the WBC title away from Trevor Berbick. In his next fight, he took the WBA title away from James "Bonecrusher" Smith. Finally, he took the IBF title away from Tony Tucker. He was 34-0, with 30 knockouts, 25 of them going 4 rounds or fewer, 21 going 2 rounds or fewer, and 15 of them in the 1st round.
Boxing hadn't seen a quick-knockout artist like him since Jack Dempsey in the early 1920s. Tyson patterned himself after Dempsey, wearing no socks under his boots, and no robe over his shoulders, just a towel. He called himself "The Baddest Man On the Planet," and it was hard to doubt him.
But there's a reason it was a fight for "the undisputed Heavyweight Championship of the World." Because the title was disputed. The reason there were 3 organizations to begin with is because of Muhammad Ali getting stripped of the title in 1967. Even after he got it back, these 3 governing bodies would recognize their own champions once he was, once again, no longer the champ.
And then there was The Ring magazine, known as "the Bible of Boxing," which recognized a "lineal champion," going all the way back to the last bare-knuckle Heavyweight Champion, John L. Sullivan in the 1880s.
Their champion was Michael Spinks. He and his brother Leon, who took the title away from Ali in 1978 (but not all the organizations thought that he, after only 8 pro fights, should have it) and then lost it back in his next fight, had both won Gold Medals at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Leon had gotten knocked out by Larry Holmes, who became Champion. From 1981 to 1985, Michael was the undisputed Light Heavyweight Champion. In 1985, Michael gave up those titles, moved up to Heavyweight, defeated Holmes to take the IBF title, and then won a rematch.
But he never held either the WBA or the WBC version of the Heavyweight Championship, and the IBF stripped him of their title in 1987, because he refused to fight their Number 1 contender, Tucker. They gave their title to Tucker, and then Tyson beat him.
So a unification fight was set for June 27, 1988, at Convention Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (The building, opened in 1929 and famous as the site of the Miss America Pageant, is now known as Boardwalk Hall.) Spinks went into it at 31-0. This was only the 2nd time that 2 undefeated Heavyweight Champions had ever faced each other, the 1st time being Ali and Joe Frazier in the 1st of their 3 fights, in 1971.
Real estate developer Donald Trump had built his 1st casino-hotel, Trump Plaza, between Atlantic City's 2 most famous buildings: Convention Hall and Caesars Atlantic City. That made me think he was smart. As it turned out, he wasn't. But, through Trump Plaza, he got involved in the promotion of this fight, along with boxing's biggest promoter, Don King.
The Hall seats about 14,000 people, but, with Pay-Per-View, this fight became the highest-grossing in boxing history to that point: Over $70 million. Tyson went into the fight as a 4-1 favorite.
Spinks later admitted, "Fear was knocking at my door, big-time." That became clear quickly, as Tyson landed a left hook 7 seconds in, and Spinks began covering up. Spinks kept backing away. He landed only 2 punches. After 1 minute and 3 seconds, Spinks was dropped to a knee by a right to the body. It was only the 2nd time Spinks had been knocked down as a professional, following Dwight Muhammad Qawi, before Spinks came back and won the Light Heavyweight title from him.
Referee Frank Cappuccino counted to 4 before Spinks got up, and took the rest of the standing 8-count. Cappuccino, as the rules required, asked him if he could continue. Spinks should have said he couldn't. He said he could. He got close to Tyson. Tyson landed a quick left-right combination to Spinks' head, and he went down. He struggled to get up before the count of 10, and couldn't. In 1 minute and 31 seconds -- 91 seconds, or 1 second past the halfway mark of the 1st round -- the fight was over.
Spinks never fought again. Tyson was now the undefeated, the undisputed, Heavyweight Champion of the World, truly the Baddest Man On the Planet. Aside from Spinks, there were some big losers: The promoters, including Trump, because the fight only lasted a minute and a half, costing them TV viewers for more than that.
But hindsight shows us that Tyson did have issues. His main trainer, Constantine "Cus" D'Amato, had died in 1985, before Tyson could become Champion. His secondary trainer, Jimmy Jacobs, had also died, of leukemia, 3 months before this fight. (D'Amato was 77; Jacobs, 58.) Tyson dedicated this fight to Jacobs' memory. And a dispute with Jacobs' successor, Kevin Rooney, led to Tyson firing him. Rooney later said that if Tyson hadn't fired him, Tyson would have retired undefeated.
And the undercard of this fight should be noted. Among the fighters winning were Carl "The Truth" Williams (over former Champion Berbick), Donovan "Razor" Ruddock, and a 28-year-old fighter from Columbus, Ohio, who rose to 27-4-1 on the night: James "Buster" Douglas.
On this night, if anyone guessed that Tyson would one day be beaten, half the people listening would have said he was crazy. But nobody could have imagined that Douglas would be the man to do it. And yet, as it turned out, that's what happened.
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June 27, 1988 was a Monday. These Major League Baseball games were played that night:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 6-3 at Yankee Stadium. Jack Morris outpitched John Candelaria. Mike Pagliarulo hit a home run, Don Mattingly went 1-for-3 with a walk, and Rickey Henderson went 0-for-3 with a walk. For the Tigers, Luis Salazar went 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs.
* The New York Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Dwight Gooden was outpitched by Mike Dunne. (No, I don't remember him, either.) The Mets only got 5 hits, all singles, by Lenny Dykstra, Dave Magadan, Lee Mazzilli, Kevin McReynolds and Mackey Sasser.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 9-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. Wade Boggs went 1-for-3 with 2 walks.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Eddie Murray went 0-for-3 with a walk, and Cal Ripken went 1-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 10-9 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Tony Gwynn went 1-for-5, his hit a 3-run homer.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-5.
* The Montreal Expos beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Each team got a home run in the 13th inning, the Expos from Tim Wallach, the Cardinals from Tom Brunansky. Cardinal pitcher Steve Peters collapsed in the top of the 14th, allowing a walk, a wild pitch, an intentional walk, and a home run by Hubie Brooks.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox, 2-1 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. (It was renamed Kauffman Stadium in 1993.) George Brett went 2-for-3.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 4-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. Shawn Hillegas allowed 2 hits over 6 innings, the 1st of 4 pitchers to toss a 5-hit shutout.
* The California Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 16-7 at Anaheim Stadium. (It was renamed Edison International Field in 1997, and Angel Stadium of Anaheim in 2004.)
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-4 at the Oakland Coliseum. Robin Yount went 1-for-5, and Paul Molitor was injured and did not play. Dave Henderson singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning.
* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers, 6-3 at the Kingdome in Seattle.
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