Editing Michael Spinks (section)

==Retirement and later years==
[[File:Michael Spinks 1996.jpeg|thumb|Spinks in 1996]]
Spinks was once believed to be one of the few top fighters who left the sport of boxing with both a decent amount of money and being seemingly unharmed, free of permanent injuries.  However he has shown signs of slurred speech since the 2020s, and he has been in litigation over the loss of his $24 million fortune. Aside from a rare event honoring him and occasionally attending fights, Spinks has largely remained off the boxing scene and out of the public eye.
Ken Hissner reported that, "In October 2007 he was introduced into the ring at the Legendary Blue Horizon in Philadelphia. He seemed quite at home in the ring waving and talking to the fans."<ref>Hissner, Ken, [http://www.doghouseboxing.com/Ken/Hissner052710.htm "Michael Spinks Interview - From Olympic Boxing Champ to Rocking the Pro Scene!"], May 27, 2010 Doghouse Boxing.</ref>

Spinks lives on a five-acre spread in [[Greenville, Delaware]]. However, he has been known for visiting schools—carrying his gold medal and four title belts—where he tells kids to pursue their dreams. "Most of the kids don't have a clue who I am," he says, "but they listen when they see all the gold."<ref>O'Keefe, John, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120604060924/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1016520/index.htm "Michael Spinks, Champion Boxer"] ''Sports Illustrated'' Magazine, Volume 91, No. 5, August 9, 1999, p. 20.</ref>

For years he remained close to his former promoter, [[Butch Lewis]], training fighters and making rare public appearances at events promoted by Lewis.<ref>Eisele, Andrew, [http://boxing.about.com/od/history/a/michaelspinks.htm "Michael Spinks from 1976 Summer Olympics"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090930132634/http://boxing.about.com/od/history/a/michaelspinks.htm |date=2009-09-30 }} ''About.com Boxing''</ref>

In 2011, however, after Lewis died from natural causes,<ref>Goldstein, Richard, [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/sports/butch-lewis-flashy-promoter-for-boxings-spinks-brothers-dies-at-65.html "Butch Lewis, Flashy Promoter for Boxing's Spinks Brothers, Dies at 65"] ''New York Times'', July 24, 2011</ref> 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 and used Spinks's money to pay his and his children's own personal and business expenses.  Also named as a defendant was [[Robert L. Johnson]], founder of Black Entertainment Television, head of the real estate firm of RLJ Development LLC, in Bethesda, Maryland, and one of the executors of Lewis's $8.5 million estate.

According to Spinks's lawyers, following Lewis's death Johnson and attorney Leonard Williams stopped the payments without telling him, which in turn caused Spinks's health insurance to lapse and bills totaling up to $50,000 a month to go unpaid. "Spinks had to invade his pension and retirement funds and incur significant taxes and penalties in order to meet these obligations," the boxer's lawyers added in the filings.

Spinks asked that the court bar Johnson and Williams from transferring any further assets from Lewis's estate until there can be a full accounting and payments to Spinks are resumed.<ref>Feeley, Jef, & and Phil Milford, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120524063708/http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-14/boxing-champion-michael-spinks-sues-former-promoter-s-estate.html "Boxing Champion Michael Spinks Sues Former Promoter's Estate"] ''Bloomberg Business Week'', October 14, 2011; the case is Michael Spinks v. the Estate of Ronald E. "Butch" Lewis, 6931, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington).</ref>