4 Sorts The Michigan Daily Page 16 Saturday, June 13, 1981 Holmes demolishes Spinks in 'Motown Showdown' 4 By MARK MIHANOVIC Daily Sports Editor Special to the Daily DETROIT-Larry Holmes waited one round ... waited another .. . then demolished challenger Leon Spinks after eight-and-a-half minutes of furious ac-, tion last night at Joe Louis Arena to retain his WBC heavyweight championship. After two rounds in which Detroiter Spinks (10-3-2) charged at a dancing Holmes (38-0), arousing the crowd by landing blows several times, the champion caught Spinks midway through the third round with a right cross. Holmes then pinned him in the corner and pounded his head with the right, finally sending him to the canvas. Spinks stood up again, but it was to no avail as several more Holmes' right hands prompted the former champion's corner to throw in the white towel. "I was landing right hands from the beginning of, the first round," Holmes said afterwards. "When I got him with the right, I had all the time to measure him with the left. You can see that I could do what I wanted, and the ref should have stopped it right there." But the fighting didn't stop even after-Holmes left the ring. While he was going through the standard Howard Cosell post-fight interview, heavyweight challenger Gerry Cooney sauntered to the area. Holmes lunged at him over Cosell shouting, "We're gonna fight right now," before he was restrained. The announcer emerged from the bout-with a bloody lip. "I didn't want him (Cooney) near me," Holmes said, of the man whom many consider his stiffest challenge. "I don't wanna make Cooney. I'm the champ. Thirty-eight fights, 38 wins, 28 knockouts. Nobody can beat me." By far the most eventful of the evening's first three preliminaries was Greg Page's second-round HEAVYWEIGHT champion Larry Holmes pounds challenger Leon Spinks against the ropes during the third round of their WBC title fight at Joe Louis Arena yesterday. Holmes defeated Spinks later in the round with a TKO. knockout of Alfredo Evangelista. Page, the promising heavyweight out of Louisville, Ky., who is now 16-0, went about his business quickly and efficiently, peppering Evangelista's face with jabs throughout the first round. When Evangelista, the former European cham- pion, came out swinging in the second round, he opened himself for his own demise as Page nailed him with an uppercut. Evangelista went down once, got up, was jabbed again by Page, went down again, and the issue was settled. The second fight featured the talents of Larry Holmes' unbeaten middleweight brother Mark, who defeated another Detroiter, Bob West, with a TKO in the seventh round of the scheduled eight-rounder. Holmes did not appear too interested in showcasing his talents early in the fight, as he simply let West swing wildly at him. But he started to move and jab effectively in the fif- th round, and by the seventh, a cut on West's face convinced the referee to stop the fight. In the evening's first event, a four-rounder between a pair of boxers making their light-heavyweight pro debuts, Toledoan Bernard Benton dominated Detroiter Charles Wooten and won a unaminous decision with only a handful of spectators dotting the cavernous arena.r Throughout the bout, Benton was the aggressor, and each judge scored it 40-35 in his favor. The only knockdown came in the first round when Benton cut Wooten with an overhand right. In the WBC super lightweight championship, Saoul Mamby (30-12-5) retained his title with a 15-round unanimous decision over the number one challenger, Jo Kimpuani (56-3) of France. Mamby was effective both early and late in the fight, as his best rounds were the second, third, twelf- th and fourteenth. In the second and third rounds, he kept Kimpuani pinned against the ropes much of the time, using quick, choppy undercuts and jabs to stagger him. But then the complexion of the fight changed. Kim- puani continually glided towards Mamby with his left outstretched and followed with the right hand. He scored well at several junctions in the fight, par- ticularly during the middle rounds. However, as the fight wore one, another of his tactics, that of grabbing Mamby behind the head and holding him, became more frequent and undoubtedly cost him points. In the twelfth, Mamby connected with a pair of left hands and a right and continued to pound away with the left, dominating the whole round. He held the momentum through the last three rounds, and when the bell at 15 rang, there was no doubt about the decision. In the final preliminary bout before the champion- ship fight, third-ranked heavyweight Michael Dokes (21-0-1) of Akron, Ohio, answered the victory of the fourth-ranked Page with an impressive knock-out of his own in the fourth round over European title holder John L. Gardner (32-3-0). Early in the first round, it did not appear that the fight would even go that long. The hard-hitting Dokes connected right away with the left hand and followed with a right cross that staggered Gardner, igniting the crowd at Joe Louis. Neither man danced, and this style of fighting ap- peared to suit Dokes fine, as he followed with two more lefts and a right that nearly put the Englishman away. But Gardner survived that round and the next two, as Dokes' pace appeared to slow down. In the fourth, though, Dokes stAggered Gardner with a left jab and, as the latter tried desperately to hold on, Dokes con- tinued to pummel him until a sharp left knocked him flat on his back and ended the fight at 1:54. 4 4 4 4 4 4