Leon Spinks was an American professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1995.
34 Facts About Leon Spinks
2.
Besides being heavyweight champion and his characteristic gap-toothed grin, Leon Spinks gained notoriety for the disaster which befell his career following his loss to Ali.
3.
The first was bronze at the inaugural 1974 World Championships, followed by silver at the 1975 Pan American Games, and gold at the 1976 Summer Olympics; the latter alongside his brother Michael Leon Spinks, who won middleweight gold.
4.
Leon Spinks served in the United States Marine Corps from 1973 to 1976, rising to the rank of corporal.
5.
Leon Spinks was stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and was on the Marine Corps Boxing Team.
6.
Leon Spinks had a brief career as a professional wrestler from 1986,1990 to 1993.
7.
Leon Spinks mainly worked for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and holding the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship in 1992.
8.
Leon Spinks won three consecutive national AAU light heavyweight championships from 1974 to 1976, the first of which came against future champion Michael Dokes.
9.
Leon Spinks was serving in the Marine Corps at the time.
10.
Leon Spinks won the light heavyweight gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
11.
Leon Spinks debuted professionally on January 15,1977, in Las Vegas, Nevada, beating Bob Smith by knockout in five rounds.
12.
Leon Spinks's next fight was in Liverpool, England, where he beat Peter Freeman by a first-round knockout.
13.
Leon Spinks then fought Scott LeDoux to a draw and defeated Italian champion Alfio Righetti in a decision.
14.
Leon Spinks won the world heavyweight title in his eighth professional fight, the shortest span in history.
15.
The aging Ali had expected an easy fight, but he was out-boxed by Leon Spinks, who did not tire throughout the bout and had Ali ready to fall in the last seconds of the fight.
16.
Leon Spinks 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.
17.
However, Leon 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.
18.
The title, stripped from Leon Spinks, was then awarded to Norton.
19.
Leon Spinks was never given a rematch; Ali retired after the fight.
20.
Leon 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.
21.
In Leon Spinks' only fight in 1981, on June 12 and what would be his last opportunity to win the heavyweight title, he took multiple punches without responding in the third round and the referee stopped the fight.
22.
Leon Spinks beat contender Ivy Brown by a decision in ten rounds, and gained a decision against former and future title challenger Jesse Burnett in twelve rounds.
23.
When his brother Michael Leon 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.
24.
In 1986 Leon Spinks earned his last championship opportunity, fighting Dwight Muhammad Qawi for the WBA cruiserweight championship.
25.
Leon Spinks retired at age 42, after losing an 8-round decision to Fred Houpe in 1995, who was coming off a seventeen-year hiatus.
26.
On October 9,1986 Leon Spinks lost to Japanese legend Antonio Inoki in a mixed martial arts fight for New Japan Pro Wrestling.
27.
Leon Spinks made an appearance for the United States Wrestling Association on June 25,1990 where he lost to Jerry Lawler by disqualification.
28.
In 1991, Leon Spinks made his debut in Japan for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling teaming with fellow boxer Rufus Blackborn.
29.
In 2009, Leon 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.
30.
Leon Spinks lived later in his life in Las Vegas, Nevada.
31.
Leon Spinks told a reporter his life was "comfortable", and that he kept a low profile.
32.
Leon Spinks was hospitalized twice in 2014 in a Las Vegas hospital for surgery due to abdominal problems, from which he recovered.
33.
In 2019, it was revealed that Leon Spinks was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.
34.
Leon Spinks died at a hospital in Henderson, Nevada on February 5,2021, at age 67.