How good could Leon Spinks have been?

But would you have managed him differently. If you dont get him the early title shot, you run the risk of him running off the rails anyway (as you sort of seem to indicate) and him not being thought of in anywhere near the same vein as he is today and certainly not being rewarded as well for it.

 

could have been? He SUCKED!

Dwight already tko'd that mofo

 

What a ridiculous way of looking at things. Many people fail to achieve their god given potential

 

He wasn't going to last. Look at the crop of heavyweight up and comers from 76 to 78. Which guy does Leon match up with? And he waded in always looking to land. So if he goes in with a hitter like a Coetzee he's walking into the guy's wheelhouse. He's the type opponent the ****ey folks would want.

Leon never had a big punch either. He had to land a million combinations and get the decision. Tough way to make a living as a small heavy & requires Frzier type dedication and training. that stuff just wasn't there.

He was very fortunate he got the Ali sweepstakes. And Muhammad had hardly looked good in there against Evangelista. Leon was not the type to continuosly fight top 10 opposition and have his arm raised. More like the other guy with his arm raised and back to the drawing board.

I just thought he was a Bobick type prospect. No better. Good against the grade C guys but once he stepped up he was not going to last.

 

He was probably a bit small and undergunned in the Heavyweights.

 

No.

Management decisions can play a factor in how far a fighter goes. When, who he fights - his development is important

 

Your lack of vision is astounding.

 

Their proclivity to this failure is one of the components of their potential.

Aside from physical ability, Leon did not have the mental make up or discipline to fight at the championship level for more than a night. You could, in fact, claim he overachieved by getting matched with a plodding stale Ali.

 

:deal

 

It is also forgotten that the version of Ali he faced was a better version of Ali than the one that drew with the number 1 contender Trevor Berbick.[/quote]

Alis LOST UD to Berbick.

 

Leon did not suck. Not at all. He had a lot of natural ability. What he lacked was mainly mental. He was an undisciplined guy who happened to be managed by some undisciplined people. There were nights, however, when he proved to be a force to be reckoned with, not only against Ali, but against the very large --for his time-- Bernardo Mercado. Mercado was a big puncher and Leon took what he had and then beat the hell out of him. He was up for that fight....for many other fights, he wasn't.

 

Leon Spinks won the gold medal by knocking out Cuban Olympian and amateur world champ Sixto Soria.

Then he beat the WBC/WBA Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali in the Fight of the Year; he knocked out the WBC #1 contender Bernardo Mercado; he beat top 10 WBC contenders Alfredo Evangelista, Kevin Isaac and Alfio Righetti over 10 rounds, he drew with WBC top 10 contenders Scott Ledoux and Eddie "The Animal" Lopez (and likely would've beaten them over 15); and he lost to Ali, and to future WBA champ Coetzee, and to a prime WBC champ Larry Holmes ...

AND HE DID ALL THAT IN HIS FIRST 15 PRO FIGHTS!!!

After 15 fights, he was essentially done.

Leon was no Duane Bobick. He was the heavyweight champion of the world. And he deserved it when he won it. He beat one of the best heavyweights who ever lived to win it.

 

Imo the flaw with this is the fact that Spinks and/or his management did their damnedest to avoid Norton. Leon's people offered Norton $ 200k which was not much at the time (the London Evening Standard's headline that day was "Norton takes pay cut to fight Spinks"), thinking Kenny would turn it down - Kenny called their bluff and accepted the offer...Leon's people did an about turn and fought Ali, definitely for more money and very probably less risk.

The fact that Norton went so close with the classy Young and fought to a standstill against Holmes should not imo be used as a measuring stick to detract from Norton's chances against Leon in '78 - their respective performances against Holmes show Ken in a good light.

Further, Norton of the LeDoux fight was visibly clearly much less of a fighter than Norton of early '78 vintage; the war versus Holmes was Kenny's last hurrah imo, add to that the Shavers wipe-out and Kenny was virually spent as a world force - the LeDoux fight absolutely confirms this.

Spinks of the first Ali fight quite possibly beats the Norton of the LeDoux fight; I think Norton of early '78 vintage thrashes Spinks, not as quickly as Coetzee perhaps, but fairly swiftly.

I doubt Norton does to Leon what he did to Duane Bobick, but I think he quite possibly would have matched what Holmes did to Leon in '81.

Furthermore - holding the draw with LeDoux against Kenny is not really appropriate in this instance - LeDoux had already held Leon to a draw!!!

PS - To the question posed by the OP - I think Seamus has covered all the bases...if my aunt had bo****ks she would be my uncle!

 

They didn't do their damndest to avoid Norton. They took the bigger money fight.

Spinks' management was BOB ARUM and Top Rank.

Don King promoted Ken Norton.

Bob Arum could make a fight between Spinks and Ali FOR MORE MONEY than a Spinks-Norton fight would earn, and Arum could do it WITHOUT involving Don King.

They ended up staging Spinks-Ali II ... at the Superdome before 63,500 people (an indoor record at the time). 90 MILLION people in the U.S. alone watched it ... compare that to the 5 million buys May-Pac had, which is considered a big deal in today's world.

Spinks-Ali II was a huge DEAL.

By contrast, Norton-Holmes (promoted by King) for the vacant title was staged in a Vegas ballroom and 5,000 people showed up ... about 60,000 FEWER than bought tickets to watch Spinks-Ali II live.

It was a business decision by Bob Arum. Nothing more.

At the time, I thought Spinks should've fought Norton. I think Spinks would've had an easier time with Norton, frankly. Norton barely got past Young at the end of 1977, and he lost to a Larry Holmes boxing with a torn bicep after that. And if Spinks had waited to rematch with Ali in 1979, it still would've been huge and Ali would've been that much older.

But Arum opted for the bigger money fight for Spinks right out of the gate. That was their call. I can understand why Arum didn't want to take a lesser fight and share it with King on top of that.

Spinks-Norton would've been fun, though.