Cory Spinks hires Buddy McGirt, may fight on March 26

Jake Donovan of BoxingScene.com reports that IBF junior middleweight titlist Cory Spinks has hired Buddy McGirt as his new trainer, after Spinks split recently with long-time friend and trainer Kevin Cunningham. Cunningham decided to part with Spinks after the fighter showed up 40 pounds overweight for camp, which was to lead to a now-abandoned fight with Cornelius Bundrage on March 6.

Spinks (37-5, 11 KO) was to face Bundrage (29-4, 17 KO) in the HBO co-feature on March 6, a card headlined by another St. Louis fighter, Devon Alexander. Don King is now looking to potentially get Spinks-Bundrage onto the March 26 edition of Friday Night Fights. King has that date locked up with a Steve Cunningham-Matt Godfrey main event for the vacant IBF cruiserweight belt.

Spinks, 32, is one of those guys who seems like he's a lot older than he is. Since the absolute stinker challenging Jermain Taylor for the middleweight championship in 2007, Spinks has fought just two times, losing a very debatable decision to Verno Phillips in '08 and beating Deandre Latimore last year.

McGirt, 46, has had a bit of a tough run as a trainer in recent years, with most of his charges losing their bigger fights. His last really notable fight in the corner to most was probably Paulie Malignaggi's TKO-11 loss to Ricky Hatton, when McGirt threw in the towel, much to Malignaggi's chagrin. Malignaggi left McGirt after that fight, and has turned his career around in a major way.

Neither of them are likely to change from the way we know them, and really the focus of all of this should be Spinks' seeming indifference to his weight. He's past the age where crashing down like that won't be a major factor, not that it's ever wise for a fighter. If he's letting himself go like that, no trainer is going to help him.