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corey spinks "PEOPLE HAVE TO FALL BACK IN LOVE WITH WHAT BOXING MEANS"
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PC: Jinx, first and foremost, it was a pleasure and an honor meeting you and your wife, Christy, in Vegas and being able to hang out with you guys, man.
CS: Ah man, no problem my dude.
PC: What did you think of the Mayweather-Berto fight?
CS: Floyd did what he had to do to win the fight. He didn't want his last fight to be brutal and it's good that he did what he had to do. He slicked and tricked him and coasted and made it easy as possible, so my hat goes off to him for a great career, you know.
PC: Were you okay with him picking Andre Berto as an opponent, whether this was his last fight or not?
CS: Berto had a nice win to put him in line to fight him. A lot of people would have said Amir Khan deserved that shot, but he get to pick who he want to fight. I thought Berto was a legitimate opponent. He had a puncher's chance. You see when he fought him, it wasn't a walk in the park.
PC: We spoke about it before off record and I wanted to let you elaborate on it on record, we are definitely in a puncher's era where fans are lured into thinking the knockout artist is the most feared fighter on the planet and everyone is ducking them. What are your thoughts on the fact that pure boxers are so disrespected by today's standards?
CS: Ah man, I think people have to fall back in love with what boxing means. It's the art of hitting and not getting hit. It's the sweet science. That's what I get excited off of, when a person like Floyd get in there and hit a guy with shots and the guy is trying his hardest to hit him, but he can't. That's what boxing is. That's skills. If I wanted to see a street fight, I'd go to St. Louis on John and 20th and see me a good street fight. Anybody can stand there and punch someone, but can anybody stand there, punch someone, and not get hit back?
PC: You come from 3 generations of guys that implemented the sweet science into being a good puncher and all of you guys had great success with it.
CS: Yeah, even though my dad and my uncle was two different fighters, but they misunderstand the old fighters. They were go-getters, but they didn't want to get hit like that. They still learned defense, but they were go-getters. They really put hurt on each other, but they still stuck to what boxing mean; the sweet science. Every sport evolves and it gets better. The skills get better and that's all it was, the skills got better and fighters learn more tricks. We learn tricks from the people before us and we put that into the new form of the sweet science and that's what it is today, but of course people fall in love with the Golovkin's and Kovalev's, but they don't understand that they taking all these shots, and they talking all of these shots young. When they get older, they not going to be no good. The body is a temple. Us boxers already have complications just sticking to the sweet science of hitting and not getting hit because you're going to get hit. But if you're doing all the hitting and not getting hit, you're still going to have complications because your hands will suffer. You're going 12 rounds of pounding on somebody. But people don't understand the pain that boxers go through after these fights. That's why I like to see a Floyd Mayweather make so much money because it's a brutal sport, but it's a skill to possess and to be in love with.
PC: Without a doubt. The guys that go to war like that usually don't have much of a choice because they are limited to that. I can appreciate a good war, but I also appreciate a great chess match. I posed this question to you earlier, if you come to the center of the ring and just wing shots like that, what did you work on during your 8 weeks of camp?
CS: Listen, everyone works on a game plan. You start working on a game plan when you go get your sparring partners to imitate the guy that you're fighting. So if you just get anybody to come in there and slug, you're not working on anything, you're just getting in shape, but you're not working on anything. You can go to camp at home then if you're going to do that.
PC: I like Bernard Hopkins' line. Someone asked him how is he able to fight into his 50's and his response was, "I learned how to move my head."
CS: Yes! He learned to hit and not get hit. You know what, man, I was looking at the Antonio Tarver and Cunningham fight, and to me, Antonio Tarver won the fight, but they called it a draw. Man, to be honest, I didn't know Antonio Tarver had that type of skill level to slick and trick this cat like that. Antonio Tarver didn't fight like that his whole career. Man, he slicked and tricked Cunningham and made Cunningham look like he never won a world title. Man, I called Antonio Tarver and told him "Congratulations man, beautiful job." I don't know what these other people was looking at, but I saw a master at work.
PC: You truly appreciate the art of the game. What a casual fan would consider boring, you almost look at as "Fight of the Year" material, so I'm sure it's hard for you to talk to the average fan because they would never be entertained by what you're entertained by.
CS: What you would have to do is teach them. What we used to love when I was young was a guy come off the streets, he's strong and he hits hard and he'll say, "I'll beat everybody in here." It's like, "Okay, that's the guy we want." We want that because we get in the ring, the bell rings 'ding', he waling shots. We defense him up. Okay, he gets tired. Uh oh...uh oh. Now he in trouble. Now he can't protect himself. And then after we get through beating his butt, we go to him and we say, "Now do you understand what we mean," and he's like, "Oh my God, yes, I see what you mean." They be in shock. People have to understand, smart boxers learn to take power off of shots. We learn to get away from power. It starts from the placing of your feet and they just don't get it, man. But sometimes you be wanting to show your cojones. You get in there and throw a little bit, but you best believe you going to back up out of there and slick and trick them and then put some more on them.
PC: Most great fighters, especially defensive fighters I always say, no matter how much they open up, they are always defensively responsible, meaning they never get too far out of their defensive posture.
CS: See, the thing is, a great fighter slick and trick people, but they know when to go get it. They know when to just say, "**** it, I'm just going to go on up in there and get him up out of there. I don't care what he throw, let me go ahead and get him up out of there. I done slicked and tricked him enough, now it's time to go out there and cash in." That's what people don't understand. We slick and trick people to confuse them and then when it's time to go ahead and attack, we do that and we get them out of there.
PC: It's nothing like walking away from this game with your wits and still be sharp mentally my man.
CS: Yeah! A lot of people still come to me and ask me how old I am and I tell 'em, and they are like, "You still young." I explained it to 'em Percy, really our cut off age for retirement is really 35. Bernard Hopkins just set that bar higher so people started going over that. I said I was going to retire before I turned 35 and I retired before I turned 35. But a lot of people don't know, we've been fighting since we were like 6 or 7 years old. Man, I had over 300 amateur fights.
PC: And you can't just look at the fight time, you have to look at that gym time. That's what takes so much out of fighters, the amount of time put into the gym and that road work.
CS: Yeah! For being a little rug rat in St. Louis walking to the gym and knowing how mean them streets was...it's just crazy that people can voice their opinions on something they really don't know nothing about.
PC:You and Floyd Mayweather both watched your fathers and uncles come up in the game, so I'm sure you really don't want to hear someone talk about this game who haven't lived it.
CS: Yeah! Man, look man, I was just down here. They had a show at the Hard Rock, Percy. You missed it, man. Being around all of these old heavyweight champs, man, I loved being around these guys, man. From Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis, Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks to Riddick Bowe, James Tillis and even Jake LaMotta was there. They all came out, man. It was so many of them there. A lot of these new fans don't even know these guys. It was an incident there, me and Lennox Lewis sat ringside. My daughter is one of the biggest Shannon Briggs fans because of the "Let's go Champ," movement. I ain't never seen my daughter like this. She got the "Let's go Champ" game on the phone. Man, she was all loud. "Let's go Champ! Give him a 3 piece." I'm like, "Oh my God." They had tables and they were telling Lennox Lewis, "We trying to ask this old couple to get up, but they won't move." We look over there and Lennox Lewis say, "You know who that is? That's Jake LaMotta. That's disrespectful, man. Are y'all serious? That's one of the God's of boxing." It was the people working in the Hard Rock, don't know nothing about boxing and we were like, "That man is sitting there for a reason, man. That man can come in here and sit anywhere for a reason. That's Jake LaMotta dude, are you serious?" But real boxers who are dedicated to the sport go back and learn about the history of the game just because or just in case they get asked any questions. I mean, learn about anything; the best 2 rounds of boxing. Who was in that? Lil' questions like that; Marvelous and Hearns of course. People just pay attention to their era. But to tell you the truth, you have to learn about the history of boxing to be a terrific boxer.
PC: Jinx, first and foremost, it was a pleasure and an honor meeting you and your wife, Christy, in Vegas and being able to hang out with you guys, man.
CS: Ah man, no problem my dude.
PC: What did you think of the Mayweather-Berto fight?
CS: Floyd did what he had to do to win the fight. He didn't want his last fight to be brutal and it's good that he did what he had to do. He slicked and tricked him and coasted and made it easy as possible, so my hat goes off to him for a great career, you know.
PC: Were you okay with him picking Andre Berto as an opponent, whether this was his last fight or not?
CS: Berto had a nice win to put him in line to fight him. A lot of people would have said Amir Khan deserved that shot, but he get to pick who he want to fight. I thought Berto was a legitimate opponent. He had a puncher's chance. You see when he fought him, it wasn't a walk in the park.
PC: We spoke about it before off record and I wanted to let you elaborate on it on record, we are definitely in a puncher's era where fans are lured into thinking the knockout artist is the most feared fighter on the planet and everyone is ducking them. What are your thoughts on the fact that pure boxers are so disrespected by today's standards?
CS: Ah man, I think people have to fall back in love with what boxing means. It's the art of hitting and not getting hit. It's the sweet science. That's what I get excited off of, when a person like Floyd get in there and hit a guy with shots and the guy is trying his hardest to hit him, but he can't. That's what boxing is. That's skills. If I wanted to see a street fight, I'd go to St. Louis on John and 20th and see me a good street fight. Anybody can stand there and punch someone, but can anybody stand there, punch someone, and not get hit back?
PC: You come from 3 generations of guys that implemented the sweet science into being a good puncher and all of you guys had great success with it.
CS: Yeah, even though my dad and my uncle was two different fighters, but they misunderstand the old fighters. They were go-getters, but they didn't want to get hit like that. They still learned defense, but they were go-getters. They really put hurt on each other, but they still stuck to what boxing mean; the sweet science. Every sport evolves and it gets better. The skills get better and that's all it was, the skills got better and fighters learn more tricks. We learn tricks from the people before us and we put that into the new form of the sweet science and that's what it is today, but of course people fall in love with the Golovkin's and Kovalev's, but they don't understand that they taking all these shots, and they talking all of these shots young. When they get older, they not going to be no good. The body is a temple. Us boxers already have complications just sticking to the sweet science of hitting and not getting hit because you're going to get hit. But if you're doing all the hitting and not getting hit, you're still going to have complications because your hands will suffer. You're going 12 rounds of pounding on somebody. But people don't understand the pain that boxers go through after these fights. That's why I like to see a Floyd Mayweather make so much money because it's a brutal sport, but it's a skill to possess and to be in love with.
PC: Without a doubt. The guys that go to war like that usually don't have much of a choice because they are limited to that. I can appreciate a good war, but I also appreciate a great chess match. I posed this question to you earlier, if you come to the center of the ring and just wing shots like that, what did you work on during your 8 weeks of camp?
CS: Listen, everyone works on a game plan. You start working on a game plan when you go get your sparring partners to imitate the guy that you're fighting. So if you just get anybody to come in there and slug, you're not working on anything, you're just getting in shape, but you're not working on anything. You can go to camp at home then if you're going to do that.
PC: I like Bernard Hopkins' line. Someone asked him how is he able to fight into his 50's and his response was, "I learned how to move my head."
CS: Yes! He learned to hit and not get hit. You know what, man, I was looking at the Antonio Tarver and Cunningham fight, and to me, Antonio Tarver won the fight, but they called it a draw. Man, to be honest, I didn't know Antonio Tarver had that type of skill level to slick and trick this cat like that. Antonio Tarver didn't fight like that his whole career. Man, he slicked and tricked Cunningham and made Cunningham look like he never won a world title. Man, I called Antonio Tarver and told him "Congratulations man, beautiful job." I don't know what these other people was looking at, but I saw a master at work.
PC: You truly appreciate the art of the game. What a casual fan would consider boring, you almost look at as "Fight of the Year" material, so I'm sure it's hard for you to talk to the average fan because they would never be entertained by what you're entertained by.
CS: What you would have to do is teach them. What we used to love when I was young was a guy come off the streets, he's strong and he hits hard and he'll say, "I'll beat everybody in here." It's like, "Okay, that's the guy we want." We want that because we get in the ring, the bell rings 'ding', he waling shots. We defense him up. Okay, he gets tired. Uh oh...uh oh. Now he in trouble. Now he can't protect himself. And then after we get through beating his butt, we go to him and we say, "Now do you understand what we mean," and he's like, "Oh my God, yes, I see what you mean." They be in shock. People have to understand, smart boxers learn to take power off of shots. We learn to get away from power. It starts from the placing of your feet and they just don't get it, man. But sometimes you be wanting to show your cojones. You get in there and throw a little bit, but you best believe you going to back up out of there and slick and trick them and then put some more on them.
PC: Most great fighters, especially defensive fighters I always say, no matter how much they open up, they are always defensively responsible, meaning they never get too far out of their defensive posture.
CS: See, the thing is, a great fighter slick and trick people, but they know when to go get it. They know when to just say, "**** it, I'm just going to go on up in there and get him up out of there. I don't care what he throw, let me go ahead and get him up out of there. I done slicked and tricked him enough, now it's time to go out there and cash in." That's what people don't understand. We slick and trick people to confuse them and then when it's time to go ahead and attack, we do that and we get them out of there.
PC: It's nothing like walking away from this game with your wits and still be sharp mentally my man.
CS: Yeah! A lot of people still come to me and ask me how old I am and I tell 'em, and they are like, "You still young." I explained it to 'em Percy, really our cut off age for retirement is really 35. Bernard Hopkins just set that bar higher so people started going over that. I said I was going to retire before I turned 35 and I retired before I turned 35. But a lot of people don't know, we've been fighting since we were like 6 or 7 years old. Man, I had over 300 amateur fights.
PC: And you can't just look at the fight time, you have to look at that gym time. That's what takes so much out of fighters, the amount of time put into the gym and that road work.
CS: Yeah! For being a little rug rat in St. Louis walking to the gym and knowing how mean them streets was...it's just crazy that people can voice their opinions on something they really don't know nothing about.
PC:You and Floyd Mayweather both watched your fathers and uncles come up in the game, so I'm sure you really don't want to hear someone talk about this game who haven't lived it.
CS: Yeah! Man, look man, I was just down here. They had a show at the Hard Rock, Percy. You missed it, man. Being around all of these old heavyweight champs, man, I loved being around these guys, man. From Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis, Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks to Riddick Bowe, James Tillis and even Jake LaMotta was there. They all came out, man. It was so many of them there. A lot of these new fans don't even know these guys. It was an incident there, me and Lennox Lewis sat ringside. My daughter is one of the biggest Shannon Briggs fans because of the "Let's go Champ," movement. I ain't never seen my daughter like this. She got the "Let's go Champ" game on the phone. Man, she was all loud. "Let's go Champ! Give him a 3 piece." I'm like, "Oh my God." They had tables and they were telling Lennox Lewis, "We trying to ask this old couple to get up, but they won't move." We look over there and Lennox Lewis say, "You know who that is? That's Jake LaMotta. That's disrespectful, man. Are y'all serious? That's one of the God's of boxing." It was the people working in the Hard Rock, don't know nothing about boxing and we were like, "That man is sitting there for a reason, man. That man can come in here and sit anywhere for a reason. That's Jake LaMotta dude, are you serious?" But real boxers who are dedicated to the sport go back and learn about the history of the game just because or just in case they get asked any questions. I mean, learn about anything; the best 2 rounds of boxing. Who was in that? Lil' questions like that; Marvelous and Hearns of course. People just pay attention to their era. But to tell you the truth, you have to learn about the history of boxing to be a terrific boxer.
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