Leon Spinks shouldve been an ATG Heavyweight-Steve Bunce

His glass shattered to easily

 

Leon definitely had all the talent in the world. I have posted this on here before but legendary St Louis trainer Kenny Loehr who worked with just about every great American amateur fighter at somepoint in the 70's and 80's always said that Leon was as good as anyone he had ever seen. If it wasn't for Leon's outside the ring issues just imagine what he could have done. The guy was blessed with a natural toughness and stamina that cannot be taught.

 

When the two Spinks brothers were coming up there was little doubt that Leon was the bigger talent. Unfortunately he fell to drug addiction so all we can do is speculate how good he would have been.

 

Without the substance abuse issues, and if he'd concentrated on CW rather than HW (if CW had come into existence a few years earlier), he'd be a serious contender for all time greatest CW.

 

I'm just telling you what has been said about him by guys like Loehr and even George Benton who know more about boxing than everyone on this forum. The version of Ali you are talking about while not prime still beat Norton, Young and Shavers the year before although I acknowledge those fights with Norton and Young were extremely close. He was not as sick with Parkinson's at that point as you think and was the legit champion of the world. A healthy Spinks won Olympic gold in an extremely tough era against Soviet and Cuba teams that were stacked with talent. The guy could absolutely fight his ass off but he simply had outside the ring issues that got in the way of him using his talent at the highest level on most occasions.

I personally don't know how far he couldn't have gone had he stayed clean, none of us will ever know. He was an undersized guy at heavyweight and certainly would have had way more success had he been able to stay at light heavyweight as a pro.

 

Agreed. Ali had gone 15 rounds with Earnie Shavers the six months earlier and nearly had Shavers out in the final round. That's what he intended to do with Spinks, too. It made sense, since Spinks had zero experience fighting 15 rounds. So Ali let Spinks fire away for eight or nine rounds and then he upped the pace. The problem was Leon didn't get tired. The 15th round of their fight is still epic. I guy with Parkinson's doesn't get stronger in the 13th, 14th and go to war in the 15th round. Many tend to dismiss that fight because Ali was past prime. But Ali came on really strong. Stronger at the end than he did against a lot of those guys in the 70s, like Norton. Leon just fought an amazing fight.

 

You are exactly correct. Ali certainly still had some teeth in 78. It drives me nuts when folks talk about Spinks like he was some novice with a handful of fights that just got lucky. The guy had over 300 amauter fights at the highest level. A lot of non fighters just don't understand how good you had to be to win gold back in 70's against that level of competition. Those Soviet and Cuban teams were no joke.

 

Not sure why you think I'm upset? Then again, I'm not sure why you think an Ali vs Lyle Alzado EXHIBITION means anything. Do you really think Ali was giving his best against a football player?

Regarding those other guys "Splattering" Spinks. You should look at what Leon did to Mercardo after Mercardo Splattered Shavers. Leon did that to Mercardo after training on hookers and cocaine.

 

Nobody was ever off to a better start after eight fights!

 

Leon's talent was legendary and vouched for by long time trainers who had seen it all. He's not someone who would have lost to marvis Frazier if he reached his potential

 

They had different problems anyway. Marvis fought the wrong style. Leon fought in the wrong division and bad habits as have been outlined above.

 

Leon Spinks with the right management could have risen to great heights in the sport of boxing. Some of the heavyweights of the late 1970's and early 1980's were rushed, without ever properly bringing them up the ladder. Examples like Gerry Cooney and Leon Spinks come to mind. These fighters appeared to have gotten involved with money hungry characters that just wanted to make a quick buck. They were not interested in spending the time to develop these fighters who had potential. If Leon had been taken under the wings of someone like Ray Arcel or Eddie Futch, they would have instilled discipline and cultivated his talent. But throwing him in to the title picture too soon demonstrates a lack of patience on the part of his team. A perfect example of developing a fighter slowly are the examples of Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Michael Spinks. These fighters did not attend the Pete Rademacher school of boxing. Throwing in potentially good fighters into the fire right away indicates using good talent as a cash cow product, it is crooked, Cooney was thrown in against club fighters and ancient relics who had seen better days, That did not prepare him for the likes of then champion Larry Holmes, who was not old enough to collect Social Security in 1982. Spinks was thrown into the ring against club fighters also before meeting a very past his peak then champion Muhammad Ali in 1978.I believe with the right team, Leon Spinks could have matched his brother Michael as being one of the best ever champions to have ever fought.