Leon Spinks: the Olympic champion who beat Ali in his eighth fight | Ultimate Boxing Reunion

Why fans still care

LEON SPINKS pulled off one of the great upsets in heavyweight history. Seven fights into his professional career, he took the title from Muhammad Ali, Who’s Who number 33 over 15 rounds, and the St. Louis American calls him the only man to take a title from Ali in the ring.

His reign lasted 212 days, one of the shortest in heavyweight history.

Early life

He was born Leonard Spinks Jr. on 11 July 1953 in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in the Pruitt-Igoe housing projects, attending Vashon High School. He started boxing at 13 at the 12th and Park Center in St. Louis. In 1973 he left school and enlisted in the US Marine Corps, based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where Gunnery Sergeant Art Reddon coached him. Sports Mole reports he lost his front teeth to a headbutt in an early Marines bout.

The amateur years

He won three straight AAU light heavyweight titles from 1974 to 1976, a bronze medal at the 1974 World Championships and silver at the 1975 Pan American Games. At the Montreal Olympics in 1976 he won five bouts at light heavyweight, finishing by stopping Sixto Soria of Cuba at 1:09 of round 3 in the final on 31 July. His brother Michael won middleweight gold at the same Games.

Career chapters

1. 1976Olympic light heavyweight gold in Montreal
2. 1977Turns professional, goes unbeaten in seven fights
3. 1978Beats Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight title
4. 1978Stripped of the WBC title, then loses the rematch to Ali
5. 1979Stopped in round 1 by Gerrie Coetzee
6. 1981Challenges Larry Holmes, Who’s Who number 19 for the title
7. 1986Wrestles Antonio Inoki in Japan
8. 1995Retires

Muhammad Ali I 1978

He went into the fight on 15 February 1978 at the Las Vegas Hilton with six wins and a draw from seven professional fights, a 10 to 1 underdog against Muhammad Ali, Who’s Who number 33. About 5,300 were in the arena. He pressed from the first bell, ducked under Ali’s rights and jabbed well, and Ali was bleeding from the mouth by round 4. Ali had his best round in the 10th, but Spinks rallied with a heavy right in the 11th, and all three judges gave him a furious 15th. He won a split decision, 145 to 140 and 144 to 141 against 143 to 142 for Ali. The Ring named it the 1978 Fight of the Year, and he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Stripped, and the rematch 1978

He chose a rematch with Ali over a mandatory defence against Ken Norton, Who’s Who number 26, and the WBC stripped him of its title. On 15 September 1978 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Spinks’s trainer George Benton walked out of the corner around round 5, and Ali won a unanimous decision to become the first three time heavyweight champion. Sports Illustrated described “a badly confused Leon Spinks”. The crowd is reported at between about 63,000 and 72,000, with AP estimating 90 million American television viewers.

Coetzee and Holmes 1979 to 1981

In June 1979 in Monte Carlo, Gerrie Coetzee knocked him out in round 1. On 12 June 1981 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, before about 12,000, he challenged Larry Holmes, Who’s Who number 19. He landed body shots in round 2, but in round 3 Holmes’s right hands put him down, he got up at nine, and the fight was stopped at 2:34.

Later years 1982 to 1995

He moved down to cruiserweight in the 1980s without winning a world title there. He also tried professional wrestling, facing Antonio Inoki in New Japan on 9 October 1986, and in 1992 he held the FMW Brass Knuckles heavyweight title for about two months. He retired from boxing in 1995 with a record of 26 wins, 17 losses and 3 draws.

After boxing

He later worked as a custodian at a YMCA in Nebraska and moved to the Las Vegas area in 2011, the year he married Brenda Glur Spinks. He died on 5 February 2021 in Henderson, Nevada, aged 67, after a long illness with cancer.

Style, technique and the corner

How he fought

He was a pressure fighter who came forward from the opening bell. Against Ali in February 1978 he jabbed well, ducked under the right hand, and finished with an overarm right in the last round. Bob Arum said he “came in with a game plan”. Against Holmes he chased again from the first bell but could not get past Holmes’s jab and reach.

The corner

In the Marines his coach was Gunnery Sergeant Art Reddon. For the Ali rematch Sam Solomon was his principal trainer, with George Benton in the corner until round 5.

Stories people still tell

1. Just the latest.

   “I’m not The Greatest,” he said after beating Ali. “Just the latest.”

2. The teeth.

   “They love my smile so much they steal my teeth,” he said, as Sports Mole reported.

3. Mr T.

   His bodyguard in his title days was Lawrence Tureaud, better known as Mr T.

Legacy

He is in the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame and the National Boxing Hall of Fame, which inducted him in 2016. His son Cory Spinks became the undisputed welterweight champion, carrying the family name to another world title.