Leon Spinks

Heard he had some serious drug problems and following his loss to Ali he lost to pretty much everyone good and bad.

 

For a guy with only 7 pro fights he fought VERY WELL.

I dont care how out-of-shape Ali was (and Ali was a disgrace losing to L.Spinks), Leon Spinks fought a fast-paced 15 rounds, the kid had potential.

Butch Lewis (Leon's manager) and MR.T (who wasn't famous at the time but was employed as Leon's minder) both reckon Leon actually lost the second fight not because Ali had gotten in better shape but because of Leon's partying. That's the opposite of the usual Ali-biased excuse version. So each fighter's excuse for losing cancel one another out.

Spinks liked his cocaine and his marijuana and his alcohol, and he was a young guy not blessed with good looks, and being heavyweight champion of the world is a "***** magnet", so he lived it up for his brief 7 month reign.

His career went south gradually but dramatically and by the mid-80s he was a nobody. He never really learned to box like a professional, so when he got out of shape and was just there for the payday he wasn't much better than a tomato can.

 

That essentially sums up his career in a nutshell.

 

Spinks biggest problem was Spinks, drugs ect the only Heavyweight as dumb as Spinks had to be Tyson.

 

Career was rushed. Probably too much too soon. Also was probably not a legit heavyweight, but the cruisers didn't come around until a couple years later, and by then, he was ruined.

 

Leon was a talented HW, he was solid in everything but also in nothing great, but with the right people around him he could have definitely achieved more...

 

Spinks was flawed; his brilliance (and for time he had brilliance) was without control and despite people trying to help him (including Michael, who pretty much put his career on hold to support his brother), his career was always going to end up the way it did, and that is without hindsight.

 

Leon Spinks had success as a professional. Especially the first fight versus Ali.
But I remember him in the first place for his fight versus Sixto Soria of Cuba (olympic final in 1976, light heavyweight). The Cuban had beaten all his opponents very convincingly. But Spinks gave him pressure and hard punches - and won in the third round! Maybe the best amateur fight I could ever see.

 

I remember that fight very well myself.

Sixto knocks Spinks down, and Spinks from a sitting position points over and says: "Now I am going to knock your a*s out".

Sixto knows he has done fouled up and gets a real scared look and Spinks then goes over and poleaxes him.

Go Yanks !

 

If you win a gold medal in the olympics, you obviously have talent. He just ended up like howard davis jr, he allowed the olympic fame to get to him and partied out of control.

 

Leon had some skill. He was a good pressure fighter - a swarmer - that didn't have a real big punch, but he hit fairly hard. His winning the heavyweight title in only his 8th fight was damn impressive, no matter how faded Ali was. In Ali's last fight before Spinks, he fought a tough, exciting fight against Shavers, almost kayoing Shavers in the last ten seconds or so. So, Ali still had a little fight in him, and Spinks beat him fair and square. I read a while back that Spinks is now a janitor at some school in the midwest, but he seems to be at peace with himself and happy. Nobody can ever take his accomplishments away from the man!

 

The best thing about Neon Leon was that he was a real busy fighter. Just by sheer effort and workrate he'd be able to overwhelm opponents, like he did to Ali in '78. Apart from that he didn't have a whole heck of a lot going for him though, so when Ali approached the rematch with more focus (and Leon with virtually no focus at all) it could only go one way.

 

That second Ali/Spinks fight was a stinker! Ali was obviously in better shape and more focused than he was for the first fight, but all he did was dance and move; there was very little fighting from Ali. And all Leon did was chase and try to catch an Ali who didn't want to fight. The first fight was better in terms of action.