Leon Spinks, favourite fights??

Hands down his fight with Eddie Lopez. One of my all time favorite fights. Od course his win over Ali is great as well but the Lopez fight was extra special.

 

I liked Burnett, Lopez and Mercado come to mind. DeLeon was good too but one-sided. Shockingly, I've never seen the Ali fights, so I can't comment there.

Looking forward to the replies in this one, Spinks' all aggression style is really fun. Is the Cobb fight any good?

 

The Burnett and Mercardo ones are great! The Cobb one is a decent fight but both were pretty shot at that point. Leon was pretty much done for after Holmes. He had a lot of brutal amauter fights before he turned pro combined with his drug and alchohol issues lead to a very short prime.

George, you should check out the first fight with Ali. Ali was definitely on the slide but still a tough out at that point. Ali had just beat Shavers, Young and Norton the previous year. He simply had no answer for Spinks aggression. The second fight Ali would flurry and tie Spinks up on the inside so he couldn't work. Ali's holding was beyond excessive in the 2nd fight but was effective.

 

I've been meaning to catch up on some of the HW fights from that era. Aside from my favourites (Frazier, Quarry, Patterson) and the major fights, I've pretty much missed them. I'll hopefully get to scoring it tonight or tomorrow. I never figured I'd be calling myself a Leon Spinks fan, but here we are!

I've seen his Olympics war with the Cuban fella, but any others?

 

George, I'm very curious what your thoughts are on the Ali win. I admit that I am an huge homer for Leon but that is mostly because he grew up in the same town as me and was really cool to me when I met him as a kid. The guy gets a bad rap because of how his life fell apart but he really could fight. To win a gold medal and be a lineal champ coming out of the slum he came out of is remarkable to me especially considering he was a very small heavyweight and usually outweighed by 30 pounds.

 

Leon was surprisingly in only a few good ones, but the ones he was in were real scorchers. Imo his two best fights are Ali I and Burnett. After that, Lopez, Mercado, and Carlos De Leon are pretty good fights. His fight with Holmes was also good for its short duration.

 

I'm a pretty big fan of his brother, so I've heard of their living conditions as a kidda, and so I feel for the guys, since they beat all of the odds they given.

Guys was a warrior through, seems like a real gent too. Imagine the fight he'd have with Carl Thompson!

As for the Ali win, on face value it's amazing. After all, he did dethrone the best HW ever, becoming lineal champ, in just his 8th fight (iirc). Obviously you need context, and that shows Ali was unmotivated, old and virtually had brain damage, and still reversed the result - BUT he did become lineal HW champion in the quickest amount of fights, beating an ATG and it's more than most every accomplished.

The real diamond in the dirt for his career.

I'll try and explore some other view points when I write my scorecard post, but I reckon it's a grade A win relative to most people on Leon's level.

 

I used to think Leon's win over Ali was not that amazing. But now that I've thought on it more, it really was amazing how Spinks outsmarted and outslugged a vastly more experienced fighter. Secondly, I still can't believe how he went the 15 rounds, only having gone 10 twice, and other than that, only gone a few rounds at a time. Few fighters have ever shown as much stamina as Leon.

 

There's a bunch of guys at that time like this. Frantic pace and endless stamina and punching, but **** all else!

 

Leon kind of deserves the bad rap. He did underachieve. I felt he could have beat so many fighters that he never faced. He really has a meager record. But you're right, the guy could fight. He was a real battler, and he grew up rough. That's why I like him. I just tend to take his select few awesome fights (Ali, Burnett, Lopez) and overwatch them. Totally immortal battles.

 

No man. He overachieved. Again, most folks that can from the project he came from are dead or in jail. Leon's record is bad because he fought way way way past when he should have. I guarantee he was suffering from CTE/Brain damage for the majority of those losses. Certainly mid to late eighties and onward.

 

I decided to go ahead and Mwatch Ali vs Spinks I again. I'm watching the original CBS broadcast with Ferdie Perchanco doing commentary. Funny how overconfident he is. He simply thinks there is no way Spinks wins this.

 

Aside from the ones already mentioned and from whatvi remember his fights with Kevin Isaac and Evangelista were two entertaining scraps.

 

Weights for the first fight.

LEON 197 Ali 224. I believe Leon is the last sub 200 pound heavyweight champion. His brother was like 212 against Holmes.