Leon Spinks

Leon Spinks
Statistics
Real name	Leon Spinks
Nickname(s)	"Neon" Leon
Rated at	Heavyweight
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Reach	76 in (193 cm)
Nationality	American
Born	(1953-07-11) July 11, 1953 St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	46
Wins	26
Wins by KO	14
Losses	17
Draws	3
Medal record Men's boxing Competitor for the  United States Olympic Games 1976 Montreal Light heavyweight World Amateur Championships 1974 Havana Light heavyweight

Leon Spinks (born July 11, 1953) is an American former boxer, who had an overall record of 26 wins, 17 losses and three draws as a professional, with 14 of those wins by knockout. In only his eighth professional bout, Spinks won the undisputed world heavyweight championship when he beat Muhammad Ali on February 15, 1978, in what was considered one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. However, he was stripped of the WBC title for fighting Ali in an unapproved rematch seven months later, which he lost by a 15-round unanimous decision. Besides being heavyweight champion and his characteristic gap-toothed grin (due to losing two and later all four of his front teeth), Spinks gained notoriety for the disaster which befell his career following the loss to Ali.^[1]

Prior to turning professional, Spinks won a bronze medal at the inaugural 1974 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Havana. Two years later, he capped off his amateur career by winning a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, alongside his brother Michael Spinks, who won the gold at middleweight. Leon defeated Cuban great Sixto Soria in an entertaining slugfest where Spinks was rocked several times by the much more polished fighter but landed a crushing overhand right that put Soria face down on the canvas. His Olympic teammates included Sugar Ray Leonard, Leo Randolph and Howard Davis Jr. Spinks also served on active duty in the United States Marine Corps from 1973 to 1976.

Professional career

Spinks debuted professionally on January 15, 1977 in Las Vegas, Nevada, beating Bob Smith by knockout in five rounds. His next fight was in Liverpool, England, where he beat Peter Freeman by a first round knockout. Later, he saw an improvement in opposition quality, when he fought Pedro Agosto of Puerto Rico and knocked him out in round one. He then fought Scott LeDoux to a draw and defeated Italian champion Alfio Righetti by a decision.

First Ali match

Now a lower ranked contender, he made history on February 15, 1978, by beating Muhammad Ali on a 15-round split decision in Las Vegas. Spinks won the world heavyweight title in his eighth professional fight, the shortest time in history. The aging Ali had expected an easy fight, but he was out-boxed by Spinks, who did not tire throughout the bout. It was one of the few occasions when Ali left the ring with a bruised and puffy face.

Spinks' victory over Ali was the peak of his career. He was the only man to take a title from Muhammad Ali in the ring, as Ali's other losses were non-title contests or bouts where Ali was the challenger. Spinks' gap-toothed grin was featured on the cover of the February 19, 1978 issue of Sports Illustrated.

However, Spinks was stripped of his world title by the WBC for refusing to defend it against Ken Norton, instead agreeing to a return bout against Ali to defend his WBA crown. The title, stripped from Spinks, was then awarded to Norton. Spinks remained the last undisputed heavyweight champion until Mike Tyson unified the WBA, WBC and IBF titles in 1987.

The Ali rematch

His second match with Ali, at the Louisiana Superdome on September 15, 1978, went badly for Spinks. A now in-shape Ali—with better sharper tactics—rarely lost control, winning back his title by a unanimous fifteen-round decision. Ali regained the title, becoming the first three-time heavyweight champion.

Career development

Spinks defeats Ray Kipping June 19, 1995, St. Louis

Spinks during his final victory held at the "Little bit of Texas" in St.Louis

Spinks's next fight, his only one in 1979, was at Monte Carlo, where he was knocked out in the first round by future WBA world heavyweight champion Gerrie Coetzee. In the following fight, Spinks defeated former world title challenger and European title holder Alfredo Evangelista by a knockout in round 5. He fought to a draw in with Eddie López, and beat the WBC's top-ranked challenger, Bernardo Mercado, by a knockout in round nine.

The Holmes title fight

His strong performance against Mercado earned Spinks a title match against Larry Holmes. In Spinks' only fight in 1981, and what would be his last chance opportunity at the heavyweight title, he had a clear loss by a TKO in the third round at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on June 12.

Changes weight division

It was Spinks' last heavyweight bout for years, as he began boxing in the cruiserweight division. He beat contender Ivy Brown by a decision in ten rounds, and a gained a decision against former and future title challenger Jesse Burnett in twelve rounds.

When his brother Michael Spinks defeated Larry Holmes in a controversial upset for the IBF heavyweight championship in 1985, they became the only brothers to have held world heavyweight championships. They kept the distinction until the Klitschko brothers became champions a decade later.

In the 1980s Leon Spinks competed in several boxer vs. wrestler matches in New Japan Pro Wrestling, including losing by submission to Antonio Inoki. In 1986 Spinks earned his last championship opportunity, fighting Dwight Muhammad Qawi for the WBA cruiserweight championship. Qawi had been defeated by Michael Spinks three years earlier for his WBC light heavyweight championship. However, Leon Spinks lost by TKO in the sixth round. During the fight, Qawi taunted Spinks as he beat him mercilessly in a corner.

Spinks boxed for another eight years with mixed results. In 1994 he lost a bout by KO to John Carlo, the first time a former heavyweight champion had lost to a boxer making his pro debut (promoter Charles Farrell later admitted to falsifying Carlo's record in order to get the fight sanctioned by the District of Columbia).^[2] Spinks retired at age 42, after losing an 8 round decision to Fred Houpe in 1995, who was coming off a seventeen-year hiatus.

Professional boxing record

26 Wins (14 knockouts, 11 decisions, 1 disqualification), 17 Losses (9 knockouts, 8 decisions), 3 Draws[3]
Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Rd., Time	Date	Location	Notes
Loss	26-17-3	Fred Houpe	Decision (unanimous)	8	December 4, 1995	Saint Louis, Missouri
Win	26-15-3	Ray Kipping	Decision (unanimous)	8	June 19, 1995	Saint Louis, Missouri
Loss	25-16-3	John Carlo	KO	1	October 22, 1994	Washington, D.C.
Loss	25-15-3	Shane Sutcliffe	Decision	8	October 1, 1994	Nanaimo, British Columbia
Win	25-14-3	Eddie Curry	Disqualification	9 (10)	June 22, 1994	Raleigh, North Carolina	Unsanctioned show.
Loss	24-14-3	James Wilder	Decision	10	February 27, 1993	Davenport, Iowa
Win	24-13-3	Kevin Poindexter	KO	1 (10)	December 11, 1992	Countryside, Illinois
Loss	23-13-3	Kevin Porter	Decision	10	September 26, 1992	Lansing, Michigan
Win	23-12-3	Jack Jackson	KO	3 (10)	July 24, 1992	Countryside, Illinois
Win	22-12-3	Kenneth Bentley	Decision	10	June 17, 1992	Atlanta, Georgia
Win	21-12-3	Rick Myers	Decision	10	March 20, 1992	Saint Louis, Missouri
Win	20-12-3	Andre Crowder	Decision (split)	10	February 28, 1992	Countryside, Illinois
Win	19-12-3	Lupe Guerra	KO	3 (10)	November 15, 1991	Gary, Indiana
Loss	18-12-3	Tony Morrison	TKO	1 (10)	May 30, 1988	Trumbull, Connecticut
Loss	18-11-3	Randall Cobb	Decision (majority)	10	March 18, 1988	Nashville, Tennessee
Loss	18-10-3	Ladislao Mijangos	Decision (split)	10	December 20, 1987	San Antonio, Texas
Loss	18-9-3	Terry Mims	Decision (split)	10	October 20, 1987	Cleveland, Ohio
Draw	18-8-3	Jim Ashard	Draw (points)	10	August 29, 1987	Eugene, Oregon
Loss	18-8-2	Angelo Musone	KO	7 (10)	May 22, 1987	Jesi, Italy
Win	18-7-2	Jeff Jordan	Decision (split)	12	April 28, 1987	Nagoya, Japan	Won WBC Continental Americas Heavyweight title, which was later vacated.
Loss	17-7-2	Jose Ribalta	TKO	1 (10), 2:10	January 17, 1987	Coconut Grove, Florida
Loss	17-6-2	Rocky Sekorski	TKO	6 (10)	August 2, 1986	Detroit Lks., Minnesota
Loss	17-5-2	Dwight Muhammad Qawi	TKO	6 (15), 2:56	March 22, 1986	Reno, Nevada	Match was for the WBA Cruiserweight title.
Win	17-4-2	Kip Kane	TKO	8 (12), 1:37	December 13, 1985	New York City, New York	Won WBC Continental Americas Heavyweight title, which was later vacated.
Win	16-4-2	Tom Franco Thomas	Decision	10	June 29, 1985	Santa Rosa, California
Win	15-4-2	Tom Fischer	Decision	10	May 9, 1985	Detroit, Michigan
Win	14-4-2	Rick Kellar	TKO	2 (10)	April 9, 1985	Honolulu, Hawaii
Win	13-4-2	Lupe Guerra	TKO	4 (10), 0:43	February 21, 1985	Detroit, Michigan
Loss	12-4-2	Carlos De León	Decision (unanimous)	6 (10)	March 6, 1983	Atlantic City, New Jersey	Spinks later vacated the NABF Cruiserweight title.
Win	12-3-2	Jesse Burnett	Decision (unanimous)	12	October 31, 1982	McAfee, New Jersey	Won vacant NABF Cruiserweight title.
Win	11-3-2	Ivy Brown	Decision	10	February 24, 1982	Atlantic City, New Jersey
Loss	10-3-2	Larry Holmes	TKO	3 (15)	June 12, 1981	Detroit, Michigan	Fight was for the WBC Heavyweight title.
Win	10-2-2	Bernardo Mercado	TKO	9 (12)	October 2, 1980	Las Vegas, Nevada	WBC Heavyweight title eliminator.
Win	9-2-2	Kevin Isaac	TKO	8 (10), 0:52	May 3, 1980	Redwood City, California
Draw	8-2-2	Eddie López	Draw (points)	10	March 8, 1980	Las Vegas, Nevada
Win	8-2-1	Alfredo Evangelista	KO	5 (10), 2:43	January 12, 1980	Atlantic City, New Jersey
Loss	7-2-1	Gerrie Coetzee	TKO	1 (12), 2:03	June 24, 1979	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Loss	7-1-1	Muhammad Ali	Decision (unanimous)	15	September 15, 1978	New Orleans, Louisiana	Lost The Ring/WBA Heavyweight titles.
On March 18, 1978, Spinks was stripped of the WBC Heavyweight title for refusal to fight Ken Norton, the WBC's number-one contender, in favor of a rematch with Ali
Win	7-0-1	Muhammad Ali	Decision (split)	15	February 15, 1978	Las Vegas, Nevada	Won The Ring/WBA/WBC Heavyweight titles.
Win	6-0-1	Alfio Righetti	Decision (unanimous)	10	November 18, 1977	Las Vegas, Nevada
Draw	5-0-1	Scott LeDoux	Draw (points)	10	October 22, 1977	Las Vegas, Nevada
Win	5-0	Bruce Scott	KO	3 (8)	June 1, 1977	Montreal, Quebec
Win	4-0	Pedro Agosto	KO	1 (8), 1:55	May 7, 1977	Saint Louis, Missouri
Win	3-0	Jerry McIntyre	KO	1 (6), 0:35	March 20, 1977	Louisville, Kentucky
Win	2-0	Peter Freeman	KO	1	March 5, 1977	Liverpool, England
Win	1-0	Bob Smith	TKO	5 (6), 0:20	January 15, 1977	Las Vegas, Nevada

Amateur career

• 1974, 1975, and 1976 National AAU light heavyweight champion
• Defeated future champion Michael Dokes for first AAU title in 1974

Olympic results

• Defeated Abellatif Fatihi (Morocco) KO 1
• Defeated Anatoly Klimanov (Soviet Union) 5-0
• Defeated Ottomar Sachse (East Germany) 5-0
• Defeated Janusz Gortat (Poland) 5-0
• Defeated Sixto Soria (Cuba) RSC 3

After boxing

During the 1990s, Spinks worked for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, winning its world title in 1992 making him the only man to hold titles in both boxing and wrestling.^[4] In the late 1990s, Spinks was a headliner on year-round, touring autograph shows.

In 2009 Spinks was featured as part of the 2009 documentary Facing Ali, in which notable former opponents of Ali speak about how fighting Ali changed their lives.

As of 2012, Spinks lives in Columbus, Nebraska. He told a reporter his life is "comfortable", and that he keeps a low profile.^[5]

"I love helping the kids," he says. He loves being a hero to them and he also still loves working a room.^[6]

Personal life

His son, Cory Spinks, held the undisputed welterweight title and was the International Boxing Federation Junior Middleweight champion in 2006–2008.

See also

• List of heavyweight boxing champions
• List of WBC world champions
• Notable boxing families

References

Further reading

• Florio, John; Shapiro, Ouisie (2013). One Punch from the Promised Land: Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, and the Myth of the Heavyweight Title. Lyons Press. p. 279. ISBN 978-0-7627-8300-7. 

External links

• Professional boxing record for Leon Spinks from BoxRec
• Leon Spinks' Amateur Boxing Record

1976 USA Olympic Boxing Team Athletes Luis Curtis Leo Randolph Charles Mooney David Armstrong Howard Davis, Jr. Sugar Ray Leonard Clinton Jackson Chuck Walker Michael Spinks Leon Spinks John Tate Coaches —