How would you grade Ali's performance in the spinks rematch

I agree

 

Ali was a shell of his former self by that time suffering from the symptoms he has to this day. Luckily he was facing Leon Spinks.....a poorly prepared Loen Spinks that evening. I watched this bout live and knew from the first round it was going to be a long night for Leon. Ali boxed at distance and held his opponent for dear life in close.

 

Ali was obviously way over the hill. Not a patch on the fighter that he was in Zaire just four years previously. Thankfully he had enough left to reverse his defeat against Leon Spinks.


His performance was hardly the best of seventies Ali but I was overjoyed at the time because he was going out at the top. Or so we hoped and thought.

 

I would have to agree, as he was still missing with some of his punches but still managed to put a strategic performance together.

I think by this time he knew something was going on with him and couldn't play around like the 1st Spinks fight.

 

Ali only won that fight for two reasons:

1) Leon was completely unprepared mentally. He had been out drinking all night the night before, and spent much of fight day sleeping it off. This is from reliable sources, the excellent biography of the Spinks brothers. A prepared Leon would have won.

2) Ali was allowed to hold excessively, more than in any fight since Frazier II.

I would give Ali about a C. After the Holmes-Norton war, this was a pale substitute for a title fight.

 

The Establishment wanted an Ali victory so that he could claim "Three time Champion".......so the fight came down....as the fight came down.

 

Just think,...if Leon had just a quarter of a brain, he could quite possibly been the winner again...the two time conqueror of Muhammad Ali....I know, an end time Ali, but nevertheless...Spink's prestige would have been much higher for that feat, much like Paul Pender being the first man to twice beat SRR. He would have been equated to be less of a fluke and maybe a fight vs anyone other than Gerrie Coetzee would have been next. Maybe Leon, whom I have nothing against, was undeserving of being a "champion" ,...having so little regard for the prestige of the heavyweight title by showing such blatant disregard for it by being a drunk a day before the bout.

 

Oh, I give Ali a "B" for beating a guy who HE had no business losing to if HE hadn't had such disregard for his title.

 

Spinks would not have beaten Ali in fight two. He should not have beaten him in fight one. Ali's reliance on letting fighters punch themselves out while attacking him came home to roost in fight one. Spinks did not tire as much as Ali and won so many early rounds by non stop punching Ali could not catch up. If instead Ali took the bout seriously we would never have seen Spinks as champion.

 

If Ali hadn't of screwed Norton out of a fourth fight, Ali wouldn't have been champion a third time. He'd have gotten his head handed to him.

 

Ali, post Norton Fight 3: "That is the last time I fighting that turkey again".

Pretty much sums up where Norton stood on Ali's "challenger list".

 

Perfect. He marshaled what he had left and executed his plan excellently.

 

I agree with what Vince Voltage wrote.

I know the story that "Ali shouldn't have lost the first one and came back good to settle the score" will always be the most popular take on the rematch .... and some people even go as far as to say "Ali lost the first one on purpose" ..... but there's probably even more truth to the idea that it was Leon Spinks who took the title for granted and shouldn't have lost the fight.

From almost every available source close to the events, as well as contemporary news stories, Leon Spinks seemed to go on a continuous 7 month binge of drink, weed, cocaine and wh0res.

People are quick to make those issues into excuses for Mike Tyson and for just about EVERY alphabet heavyweight champ of 1980s, but when it comes to the most obvious and blatant case of Leon Spinks it gets ignored for obvious reasons.

 

Very true. Spinks could not handle the money that came his way after beating Ali. He was unprepared for bout two.

However if Ali had fought the game plan from fight two in fight one their would never have been a fight two.

Ali's poor condition and terrible strategy fighting a young and strong Spinks led to his loss.