Chapter 27 Changing Ideas

On June 27, 1988, a week after the NBA finals, Michael Spinks and Mike Tyson squared off in Atlantic City for a battle to claim the heavyweight boxing champion's golden belt.

Before this matchup, neither fighter had been defeated, and boxing promoters billed this fight as the "ultimate" showdown.

I loved watching boxing matches, and when I was younger, nothing was more thrilling than a fierce boxing match.

Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, and Evander Holyfield, including Mike Tyson, were all people you'd want to watch.

Today, mixed martial arts have taken some of the spotlight from boxing, but in the late '80s and early '90s, Tyson's matches were the ones to watch.

Before the match, I had met Tyson a few times. We weren't great friends, but I knew his manager, Don King.

Mike kept in touch with me, and years after the Spinks match, I even visited him in prison.