LeonSpinks, whotook title fromAli, dies at 67
LAS VEGAS: Leon Spinks, who won Olympic gold and then shocked the boxing world by beating Muhammad Ali to win the heavyweight title in only his eighth pro fight, has died. He was 67. Spinks, who lived his later years in Las Vegas, died Friday, according to a release. He was battling prostate and other cancers.
His wife, Brenda Glur Spinks, and a few close friends and other family members were by his side when he passed away.
A lovable heavyweight with a drinking problem, Spinks beat Ali by decision in a 15-round fight in 1978 to win the title. He was unranked at the time, and picked as an opponent because Ali was looking for an easy fight.
He got anything but that, with an unorthodox Spinks swarming over Ali throughout the fight on his way to a stunning win. The two met seven months later in New
Orleans, with Ali taking the decision this time before a record indoor boxing crowd of 72,000 and a national television audience estimated at 90 million people. “It was one of the most unbelievable things when Ali agreed to fight him because you look at the fights he had up to then and he was not only not a t op contender but shouldn’t have been a contender at all,’” promoter Bob Arum said Saturday.
Spinks would lose the rematch to Ali and fought for the title only once after that, when he was stopped in the third round in 1981 by Larry Holmes. He continued fighting into the mid-1990s, finishing with a record of 26-17-3.