The cover of Sports Illustrated said it all. When Leon Spinks fought and beat Muhammad Ali, when Chuck Hall said, "And the new.....", the moment was in the top 5 most exciting moments of my life. I remember running into the other room and telling her, "he really lost this time". She thought Ali would get the decision anyway, but he didn't. Leon the next day was the toast of the world. There were only 3 channels on tv back then so everyone watched sports. Take Leonard-Hearns, Leonard-Hagler, Tyson-whoever, Pa-May, none match the excitement caused by a gap-toothed former Marine defeating The Greatest. For 7 months Leon was Madonna, the New England Patriots, the Kardaschians, Mike Tyson at his tabloid best and Trump all rolled into one. "The Wrecking Ball & the Bible" indeed. I remember Leon said that if nothing else, the Spinks name will have been at the top once as the best. Right on Leon! Always a hero to me for bringing down Ali. And just a nice wonderful man. FOREVER FORMER UNDISPUTED HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD LEON SPINKS!!!!!!!!! #! FEBRUARY 15, 1978
I remember that SI cover I was in 3rd grade. It was in the magazine section of our Elementary School Library. Leon had a sweat suit hood on and was smiling, missing some teeth. Jaimie Fox must have seen that cover because he did an awesome Leon impression on In Living Color.
Good for Leon! he did a fine job that night, and finally the judges got it right, long overdo. Say what you wanr about Leon, but he did fine, he was small, not a big puncher, no finesse, but he had heart and determination. To the people who put down Leon, were YOU ever heavyweight champion of the world?????????
I loved that show! They did a lot of funny boxing stuff with Ali, Leon, Leonard and C00ney... but nothing beats that hilarious "Love Connection" skit with Keenen Ivory Wayans as Mike Tyson! My all-time favorite, for sure! "Three Champs And A little Lady" isn't bad either!
What I can’t believe is 40 years later and Leon is still alive! I’m glad to see that he is though. One of the few surviving characters of the golden 70s heavyweight era, I think he must be be oldest living former undisputed hwt champion after George Foreman.
Lookin at your Post made me feel a little sorry for Leon. It's true,he was once the heavyweight champion of the world.. And how many of us would love to be there? I know he beat a past it Ali but what else could he do ..and he did win it fairly .Not the greatest of champs by a long Long way but at least for a time ..the guy who beat Muhammad Ali And that's not something many could say .
leon was perfect for the late 70s just perfect .. that SI cover is iconic .. people remember it even if they don't know whom it is
Spinks won the first fight against Ali and should have won the rematch as well if not for all the partying.
i was in the 4th grade, since i´m german, watching it in frankfurt, germany. at that time, we had 3 tv-channels in the "bundesrepublik Deutschland", the western part of our divided country. broadcasting started every day in the afternoon and ended shortly after midnight, it was called "sendeschluss". ali was very popular in germany, most of his fights were televised "live" on free tv (we knew no pay tv then and closed circuit never existed in germany). ca. 30 or 40% of the german tv sets were switched on in those nights around 3 or 4 o´clock, alarm clocks were ringing from hamburg to münchen, germans from young to old got up in the middle of the darkness for those highly anticipated events, to watch "den größten" displaying his magic "live im deutschen fernsehen". years after, in the 80s or 90s, we even had a popular german band, calling themselves "3 o´ clock heroes", because that was the night time, when us europeans got up to witness "the greatest". since i was a big fan and ali was the biggest thing on earth to me, my parents had to watch me. i remember the excitement, finding hardly sleep in the evening, afraid, my mother would forget to wake me up and then getting up in the cold dark night, dead tired, but wide awake the next moment, freezing because our old oil heating was off, huddled up in a woolen blanket in front of the black&white tv, absorbing the pre-fight ballyhoo "live from las vegas", waiting for the master´s grand entree. i don´t remember too well, but it might have been my 1st or 2nd ali fight "live". of course, i was very dissapointed after it. had i just witnessed my idol´s career end? i remember foto reports in german magazines like "stern" and "quick", showing my hero with double handed guard mostly, pointing out the enormous power of spinks´ blows to the head, fearing for ali´s health, advising it would be better to stop fighting very soon. i was enthusiastic, when - few months later - i discovered, he would do it again. remember talking to a school mate in the late summer of ´78, after the holidays, in the frankfurter "u-bahn" on my way to or from school, discussing if he had a chance winning the title again, despite his age.
As is Mike Weaver but neither were officially undisputed champions though you could say that Holmes was recognised universally as the best and undisputed in all but name.
