By Ian S. Palmer
Former IBF Jr. Middleweight champion Cory Spinks will try to avenge his fifth-round TKO loss to Cornelius Bundrage on June 30 when the two boxers meet for a rematch at Indio California’s Fantasy Springs Resort Casino. The first bout took place in Spinks’ hometown of St. Louis, in August of 2010, but Detroit’s Bundrage took the title from him that night in an upset.
Bundrage isn’t exactly a power puncher as his record of 31-4 with 18 KO’s shows, but he’s pretty dangerous if he lands several unanswered shots. He’s been an underdog all his life and shows a lot of determination and heart in and out of the ring along with an aggressive fighting style. Many fans know the champion from his appearances on the ‘Contender’ reality TV boxing show from a few years ago.
Bundrage defeated Kassim Ouma and Chris Smith on his way to a shot at Spinks’ title in 2010 and didn’t let anything stand in his way on route to stopping the former champion. He then defended the title last June with a unanimous decision over Sechew Powell, but hasn’t fought since. Powell had defeated Bundrage by a first-round TKO back in 2005. Age isn’t on Bundrage’s side any more as he’s now 39 and the inactivity may hurt him.
The 34-year-old Spinks is a former undisputed welterweight champion and he doesn’t possess much power either with a record of 39-6 with 11 KO’s. However’ he’s an underrated boxer who is pretty hard to hit and also has a lot of heart, like his uncle Michael and father Leon Spinks. Spinks won the IBF welterweight crown way back in 2003 with a unanimous decision win over Michele Piccirillo in Italy. The two had fought a year earlier in Italy for the vacant title with the Italian winning a unanimous decision.
Spinks then added the WBA and WBC titles nine months later by beating Ricardo Mayorga by majority decision. He defended his belts against Zab Judah and Miguel angel Gonzalez by unanimous decisions before getting knocked out in the ninth round by Judah in a 2005 rematch. Spinks beat Roman Karmazin by majority decision in 2006 for the IBF Jr. Middleweight Championship and defended it by unanimous decision against Rodney Jones.
Spinks moved up in weight and took on WBO and WBC Middleweight Champion Jermain Taylor in 2007 and lost a split decision. He lost another split decision and his title in his next fight against Verno Phillips. A year later he regained the belt with a split decision over Deandre Latimore and then lost it to Bundrage 16 months later. He’s won unanimous decisions over Shakir Ashanti and Sechew Powell since then. Spinks has also gone through periods of inactivity and hasn’t had a knockout since 2001 when he stopped Dennis Allen in the second round.
Spinks is a southpaw and he clearly doesn’t have the power to stop Bundrage or anyone else for that matter. He’ll have to outbox Bundrage to beat him because going toe-to-toe just won’t work. He’s got a good defence, but Bundrage will be confident that he can just walk right through it and he also matches Spinks in speed. Spinks will probably do better in the rematch since he knows what Bundrage brings to the table and can adapt somewhat. Bundrage will need to repeat his performance of their first meeting to retain his title and not try to box with Spinks.
Look for this fight to go a little longer than their first bout, but Bundrage should be able to stop Spinks again.
