how did Leon Spinx ever get a title shot vs Cassius Clay with only 7 fights

Leon Spinks fought Muhammad Ali in his seventh fight.

 

ali was trying to extend his career, he was clearly deluded at this point and hiding from the fact that he was deterioating too rapidly than was healthy for him.

though that said the prospect of the veteran gold medallist facing the new one must have been easy to sell.

 

Ali was in the twilight of his career and clearly looking for easier fights to extend his reign, he had an expensive lifestyle and a lot of people relied on him financially so those around him had a vested interest in ensuring he kept winning.

It's not a unique situation though. The 1956 Olympic heavyweight champion Pete Rademacher fought Patterson in his pro debut. More recently Lomachenko fought for a world title in his 2nd fight.

 

Just like the 1976 film, "Rocky"....an underdog gets a chance to fight for the title...

 

He was already well known as an Olympic Gold Medalist, and Ali needed an "easy" fight after the taxing Shavers fight.

 

He didn't beat any contenders.

I think some Italian guy he decisioned might have been ranked in the WBA top 10 - Alfredo Rigghitti?

He also drew with Scott Ledoux .

That was it.

 

And Muhammad was at that twilight phase of his career when there were n't really any "easy" fights out there anymore. Just three or four years prior to 1978 he'd easily have beaten the likes of Spinks and Shavers but at this point all Spinks had to do was repeatedly throw leather at a stationery target and he reaped the benefits.


Ali produced what could be called a double mirror image of Spinks on that night - Leon was better than a lot a lot of people thought he was but not as good as Muhammad made him look.

 

I still wonder how Rademacher got that fight.

 

As do I. Sounds like a thread to me.

 

Spinks beat Alfio Righetti in what was billed as an eliminator. As others have already said, Ali was looking for an easy fight. Spinks had name recognition, too. Ali was avoiding Norton. His reign was a joke by that point.

 

Leon Spinks was ranked around #5 when he fought Muhammad Ali which wasn't outrageous given the garbage landscape of the division in 1978 and the fact that Spinks was an Olympic gold medalist with a win over ranked contender Alfio Rhigetti.. Granted he was hardly the most Qualified challenger out there, but Ali had already faced the top man Norton three times along with young and shavers. Of course a rematch with one of those guys was more justified than fighting Spinks but it is what it is

 

This is totally irrelevant to the thread. Ali was, basically, washed up at this point. And (an unpopular opinion) I think he 'threw' the first Spinks fight knowing the kid would give him an immediate rematch so he could lay claim to becoming the first 3-time HW champion, a feat Floyd Patterson perhaps had already accomplished 10 years prior in Sweden against Jimmy Ellis.
Pete was, for lack of a better term, a career amateur. You saw that on several occasions in those days plus...when they fought, Pete outweighed Floyd by a ton and was seven years older than him.
Back to thread: Leon didn't deserve a shot that night in 78.

 

washed up is a bit far. The man clearly had elite attributes left in him, such as durability, skills, chin and commitment and could have legit held a lesser title like the 90s wbo without trouble.

But he was a shadow of himself for sure.