spinks won the title from holmes and when he and his manager, butch lewis saw tyson rising through the ranks they took every option they could to avoid tyson.
finally tyson's management cayton & king made an offer spinks camp couldn't refuse and spinks signed, probably hoping also that the turbulence in tyson's private life would leave him vulnerable. unfortunately for spinks it only made tyson more ferocious.
it was a mismatch before the bell. tyson, too strong, too fast, too elusive and just too aggressive. Spinks was without doubt one of the greatest fighters ever in the history of the sport and that can never be taken away from him. very few fighters can dominate the light heavy division and then move up to heavies and dominate there also but spinks did.
problem with this matchup is that spinks was an angles man and didn't have great power for a heavy whereas tyson cut the ring and closed the distance faster than any other heavyweight in the history of boxing. he didn't give any room for spinks to use angles and he had zero respect for spinks' offence.