PHILADELPHIA – He is the son of one former heavyweight champion, the nephew of another. He already holds one world title, and could join the exclusive club of undisputed champions by beating the guy who holds the other two jewel-encrusted belts.

So why is IBF welterweight champ Cory Spinks the (nearly) invisible man for Saturday’s HBO Pay-Per-View extravaganza at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City? Whatever happened to the advantages of nepotism? Doesn’t a famous name carry cachet any more?

“I have my own style,” shrugs Spinks (31-2, 11 KOs), who is a 5-1 underdog to emerge from his unification matchup with WBC and WBA ruler Ricardo Mayorga (25-3-1, 22 KOs) with all three titles.

Unlike his colorful, gap-toothed dad, Leon Spinks, who had had only seven professional bouts when he shocked then-champ Muhammad Ali in 1978, and uncle Michael Spinks, who not only dethroned Larry Holmes in 1985 but derailed his attempt to match the 49-0 record of Rocky Marciano, Cory comes off as, well, a bit boring.

For one thing, he is a southpaw, which is a plus if you’re a relief pitcher but not so much so if you’re a tactical boxer with negligible power. Cory also is a few dozen pounds on the light side of his more recognizable relatives, and in this instance less definitely is not more.

Cory has to escape not only the long shadows cast by Leon and Michael, but that of the outrageous Mayorga, whose penchant for smoking cigarettes and chugging beers in the ring after key victories has made him a favorite with vice-indulgent fans who see the Nicaraguan as one of their own.

But Spinks says Saturday is “my coming-out party” and “winning this bout will put me right up there with my dad and my uncle.”

“People just haven’t seen me,” Spinks said. “I can sit down and bang, or I can be smart and box. I’m prepared to deal with anything (Mayorga) brings. I am a sharpshooter. He is in for a rude awakening.”

Sneered Mayorga: “Cory Spinks is a nothing, a nobody. As soon as I get my hands on him, he’ll be crying for his mama. He doesn’t know what he let himself for when he took this fight. But he’ll find out when I rip his head off.”

Truth be told, Cory always was closer to his late mother, Zadie May Calvin, than he was to his dad and his uncle. It was Zadie May, he said, who encouraged him to stay the course when his career was put on hold a few years back.

Zadie May died in 1999, and it was only then that Cory reached out to the father and uncle for the kind of inside advice even a supportive mother could not provide.

“They talk to me, my dad and my uncle,” Spinks said. “They tell me things that can happen in the sport of boxing. I just take it all in.”

The Rock

A chiseled physique is an aesthetic plus but hardly a prerequisite for success in the heavyweight division.

Former WBC heavyweight champion Hasim “The Rock” Rahman demonstrated as much when, at a flabby 2591/2 pounds, he outjabbed and outboxed slugger David Tua in their March 29 rematch at the then-First Union Spectrum. OK, so the judges ruled it a draw. Just about everyone else thought Rahman won.

But Rahman (35-4-1, 29 KOs), who takes on former WBA champ John Ruiz (38-5-1, 27 KOs) on Saturday in Atlantic City for the “interim” WBA title (contingent upon the next career move by vacillitating WBA heavyweight champ Roy Jones Jr.), now is singing a different tune. He claims to be down to 240 pounds.

“I had to make some big changes if I wanted to get out of this career what I know I can,” Rahman said. “I couldn’t afford to be letting myself blow up.”

to 280, 290 pounds between fights. You go to camp and it’s 51/2, 6 weeks just to get the weight off.”

PUNCH LINES:

Former heavyweight contender “Smokin’ ” Bert Cooper was taken by police to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Saturday night with a broken foot and facial swelling, a police spokesman said. The 37-year-old Cooper told police he had been waiting at a bus stop in Southwest Philly when he was attacked by two unknown assailants wielding baseball bats. He was treated and released. . . Dave Wilkes is hosting the eighth annual “Salute to Philly Boxing” at 6 p.m. Sunday at President Caterers, 2308 Snyder Ave. Advance tickets are $30. For more information, call Wilkes at 215-222-7127. . .South Philly heavyweight Eddie Chambers (16-0, 9 KOs) stopped Samuel Tillman (9-5-1), of Bradenton, Fla., in the third round of their scheduled eight-round main event Friday at the Blue Horizon. In the co-feature, West Philly light-heavyweight Yusef Mack scored a fifth-round TKO of Darren Whitley.

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(c) 2003, Philadelphia Daily News.

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AP-NY-12-09-03 1744EST