Michael Spinks years he remained close to his former promoter, Butch Lewis, training fighters and making rare public appearances at events promoted by Lewis. In 2011, however, after Lewis died from natural causes, it was reported that Spinks had sued Lewis's estate in a Delaware Chancery Court, alleging that the promoter had failed to properly manage more than $24 million Spinks had earned in the ring and had violated their agreements that Lewis would continue to manage Spinks's money and pay his living expenses for the rest of the boxer's life. The lawsuit alleged that he commingled his personal funds with Spinks's
Michael Spinks defense to resume his assault. Qawi's best moments were accidentally stepping on Spinks' foot in round eight (apparently this was officially scored a knockdown by the judges) and a few "too little, too late" bombs in round 14. The official scores of 144-140, 144-141 and 144-141 surely reflected a mis-scored rd. 8 "knockdown" as Spinks realistically only surrendered 2 possible rounds (1 and 14). He defended the title one more time before the end of the year, against Oscar Rivadeneira in Alaska, whom he beat by a ten-round knockout. Spinks fought only once in 1984, retaining his crown with a