SAD SPINKS, 67, DIED UNDER CLOUD: WERE ALI FIGHTS FIXED?
Secret files show FBI launched probe into famed boxing bouts
GAP-TOOTHED boxer Leon Spinks — who shocked the world when he snatched the heavyweight title from Muhammad Ali in 1978 only to lose it to Ali just seven months later — was the subject of a secret FBI investigation into whether both fights were fixed!
Leon, who died of cancer at 67 on Feb. 5, was credited with the greatest boxing upset in history when he defeated Ali in February 1978.
The Olympic gold medalist’s “Cinderella” reign was brief when Leon lost the rematch to “The Greatest” that September.
But all may not have been as it appeared.
The National ENQUIRER filed a Freedom of Information request for the FBI’s extensive file on Ali and shockingly discovered it contained a probe into allegations that the two fights were rigged!
According to the FBI documents, insiders “planned to induce Muhammad Ali to throw the 2/15/78 fight with Spinks, as well as a possibility of inducing Spinks to throw a subsequent rematch with Ali.”
The FBI dossier does not reveal the probe’s final outcome.
Leon never again achieved the lofty heights of heavyweight champion, getting knocked out by Larry Holmes in his only other title bout in 1981.
He was KO’d again by cruiserweight champ Dwight Muhammad Qawi in 1986. Leon’s life eventually spiraled into destructive excesses and drug abuse, and by the late ’90s he was working as a janitor at a Nebraska YMCA and suffering crippling health issues. In recent years he rebounded by moving to Las Vegas and selling autographs until he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in 2019.
“No one knew for sure if Leon won the title legitimately,” a boxing insider said.
“Either way, fame destroyed him, and his life was a wreck since the day he took the belt.” NE