Neon Leon Spinks' Door of Opportunity

Maybe one of the 80's Sluggards? He might outwork an unmotivated Tubbs/Witherspoon/Page. Maybe Ingemar if he avoids the Toonder in the early rounds?

 

He could probably beat the lackluster version of Holyfield that Moorer fought.

 

I have watched the fight and I thought Muhammad Ali let him win.

 

Braddock, older Joe Louis (similar to how he beat Ali), Corbett and some others from the early eras, probably several of the 1980s ‘lost generation’ dudes who were generally unmotivated (unless you got between them and a white line while they had a straw in hand) … I don’t think he beats the championship version of Joe Walcott but there are many periods in Joe’s career where Leon would at the very least stand a good chance.

 

I got news for ya. Not absolutely convinced that the Leon who showed up for Ali I and Mercado loses to the cautious Norton of Ali III or Middleton (where Jerry Quarry correctly mused during the tenth round, "He's going to have to fight a heck of a lot better than this if he's going to beat Ali!" JQ took the hardest shot of Norton's career, and described during the opening round of Middleton how and why his power was overrated during the early stage of the opening round).

Ken's best came in 1975 against a hopelessly shot Jerry Quarry, where JQ took the bout on 18 days notice when Norton had been training for five months and had been in competition earlier that March (against Rico Brooks for his only career opening round win aside from the freak Bobick anomaly).

Meanwhile, Leon had at least one win I don't think Kenny ever could have produced, Mercado (who was at his peak and top ranked by the WBC when Leon halted him in nine).

Conventional wisdom after Leon-Ali I in February 1978 was that people couldn't see him beating Norton, but was that really true? Leon threw caution to the wind in Ali I where Kenny boxed not to lose against Muhammad in 1976.

In September 1977, feather fisted and china chinned master boxer Lorenzo Zanon (who was only ever decisioned by Lucien Rodriguez in a bout Zanon avenged the following month) DOMINATED Norton through almost a complete five rounds before Ken finally caught him and dropped him for the count as the bell sounded ending round five, would absolutely NOT have beaten the Leon of Ali I. (Then again, Zanon boxed extremely well in his challenge of Holmes. I had Lorenzo sweeping the first three rounds against Larry, and also the fifth. He also survived multiple knockdowns in round four skillfully. Unlike European rival Rodriguez, Zanon boxed to win against Holmes.)

From what I gather and see, Ken may not have had the power to stop Leon in 1978. Norton was a decent puncher, but not Coetzee or Mercado level. (As for Leon's stoppage losses at cruiserweight against de Leon and Qawi, he was weight drained and definitely a natural albeit lighter heavyweight, like Jerry Quarry.)

 

Ali was arrogant enough to let Spinks win rounds he figured Spinks would tire and he could stop in the later rounds. Problem was Ali skills were pretty much gone.

 

I don't think Ali realized how much Shavers took out of him, and figured Leon would be an easy defense like Evangelista. He also didn't bank on wise old Sam Soloman's training of Leon to actually exploit Ali's rope-a-dope by attacking his biceps and splitting his guard with uppercuts. (So for their rematch, Ali arduously conditioned himself to ponderously dance in center ring and lean on Leon in clinches to wear down the smaller guy. A few days before their rematch, Ali reported that he weighed 217, the same weight he was at for Foreman in Kinshasa. Still, Howard Cosell repeatedly noted that Muhammad was misfiring with his timing off, even in a dominant win.)

 

He wasn't really weight drained for the cruiser losses, he didn't train at all. The weight was pure excuse.

In a boxing magazine I read a story where, going into the Qawi fight, they couldn't find him. His trainer (I don't remember who it was at the time) found him in bed with a hooker, a bucket of chicken, and 40 ounces of malt liquor. Leon complained, "C'mon, coach, it ain't what it looks like!"

After the loss, he announced that if he came back, it would not be at cruiser because it was just too hard for him to make weight.

 

Leon could've been a lower case two fisted bobbing and weaving latter day Frazier. He was a tremendous natural athlete with hand speed and power, but he didn't like training, lacked the focus, and was swarmed by too many parasites after winning it all. (Michael Spinks accepted hard training as part of the job, and it paid off in a major way when he was able to step in for an injured Mike Rossman in facing the ranked Ramon Ranquello, resulting in him entering the rankings and climbing up to the championships he subsequently won.) I do think defending against Ali in an immediate rematch was both honorable and extremely profitable, with a $3.75 million payoff (Norton got $2.3 million for Holmes), much of which was immediately leeched away by aforementioned parasites.(FYI, Ken got $1 million for challenging Ali in 1976.)

When Holmes crushed Leon, Larry was at his pinnacle, and in my estimation, a top three heavyweight all time great. Leon publicly stated foolishly in a televised prefight interview that he was going for a quick knockout of Coetzee to rebound directly back into the top of the title picture again, tried exactly that, and paid for it. (He immediately came after Mercado too, but was much smarter about it, raising some questions about how a rematch with Gerrie might've gone.)

He immediately crumbled into chaos once he won the title. If he'd kept his act together, trained as hard as Ali for their rematch, and had only Sam Solomon as his chief second in NOLA, he could've won that rematch, as there was no way Ali could ever regain his timing after the lifelong neurological damage Shavers had inflicted. (Brother Michael wasn't very helpful in the Superdome either. "Woogie boogie?" "Wiggle wiggle?" And corner advise by committee was insane. Angelo Dundee bossed his corners, providing structure, just as Durham then Futch did for Frazier, and Gil Clancy did for Griffith. Mr. T parlayed bodyguarding Leon into a Hollywood career, but exactly how helpful was he in protecting Leon from himself and hangers on?)

 

Could well be, as I was no longer following boxing by that point. I did see Jesse Burnett robbed against him, but then, Jesse rightly got the WBC CW shot at S. T. Gordon.

You raise an interesting point. Of course Leon trained for the Olympics. But otherwise, did he only really train for Ali I, Evangelista (critical coming off of Coetzee), Mercado and Holmes? Because he seemed on a different level for those matches. That could give cause for wondering what Leon might've done with a Frazier or Antuofermo work ethic.

 

That question was widely asked in print at the time. "Did Muhammad Ali lose to Leon Spinks on purpose?" I don't buy it because of the strategy Sam Solomon had Leon carry out to exploit the rope-a-dope, also because of how hard Ali trained to win their rematch, using the dancing and clinching tactics he did. (The referee actually penalized Ali round five for excessive holding.) Like Larry Holmes, I stand by the view that it was Shavers, NOT Manila, which permanently diminished and ruined Ali (both his boxing career and life).

 

He would KO glass-jawed Maskaev easily

 

He did for ALI I but not 2. I am not sure about the others.