Neon Leon Spinks' Door of Opportunity

I've some question about Evangelista, because Alfredo had him in some trouble during round two, although it makes no sense Leon would be undertrained after the Coetzee disaster. However, he also took an early beating from the deadly Cuban Sixto Soria in the Gold Medal final in Montreal. (He knocked out Evangelista impressively though with an excellent triple hook, right uppercut, double overhand right six punch combination.)

I'm sure about Mercado and Holmes, where his energy was on another level. (And he was alert when realizing the bell rang prematurely during round two with Larry, opportunistically stealing that round and incensing Holmes enough to polish Leon off in the next frame.)

Leon was not energetic for LeDoux, Righetti, Burnett or any other bout following Holmes that I'm aware of. His performances seemed directly tied into how hard he trained and focused he was.

He may have trained well for Coetzee, but got caught by surprise. However, he also publicly came out looking for a quick knockout, which he may not have thought required much training. Plus, Coetzee had no history of starting like that against world class opposition. He'd only ever do that again for his return from Tate, when he one punched Koraniki after the lanky Ohioan had upset Knoetze in Cape Town, ending Kallie's world class career. (Leon came in at 198 for Gerrie, less than the 201 he'd been for Ali II though. He also started out at a blistering pace for Mercado, but was smarter, closing behind a jab, not recklessly throwing all caution to the wind. He knew how dangerous Bernardo was.)

 

It’s the fight which to me confirms Ali is effectively a religion. That most people will defend it as an on-the-level result I find utterly stupefying.

 

Muhammad Ali is a mythical creature.