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Leon Spinks

Medal record
Men’s Boxing
Representing  United States
Olympic Games
	1976 Montreal	Light Heavyweight
World Amateur Championships
	Havana 1974	Light Heavyweight

Leon Spinks (born July 11, 1953 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a former boxer. He had an overall record of 26 wins, 17 losses and 3 draws as a professional, with 14 knockout wins. While still an amateur, he also became a member of the United States Marine Corps. Spinks went from being heavyweight champion of the world to being homeless in little more than a decade.

He won the gold medal in the light heavyweight division during the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, alongside brother Michael Spinks, who also won a gold medal in those games. Two years earlier, at the inaugural 1974 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Havana, Cuba, he captured the bronze medal.

Along with Michael, Sugar Ray Leonard, Leo Randolph and Howard Davis Jr., Spinks was a member of what many consider to be the finest United States national boxing team.

Professional career

He debuted professionally on January 15 1977 in Las Vegas, beating Bob Smith by a knockout in five rounds. His next fight, his debut abroad, was in Liverpool, England where he beat Peter Freeman by a knockout in the first round. A couple of fights later, he saw a slight improvement in opposition quality, when he fought Pedro Agosto of Puerto Rico and knocked him out in the first. He then drew with Scott LeDoux and beat Italian champion Alfio Riguetti by a decision.

Spinks then ranked number one among the world's heavyweight challengers. He made history in only his eighth fight, on February 15 1978, when he beat an aged and out-of-shape Muhammad Ali in a 15-round decision in Las Vegas. Spinks became the fastest man ever to win the world heavyweight title when he became champion in only his eighth fight. Ali, who had not been the same since his last fight with Joe Frazier, expected this to be an easy fight, but he was out-hustled by Spinks who never seemed to tire in the bout. The victory over Ali was the peak of Spinks's career. After it, he never again was as efficient as he was against Ali in the first time they fought.

Spinks was known to be a party animal during his period as world heavyweight champion, always enjoying the night life and in the company of multiple women. He even hired a young Mr. T to be one of his bodyguards during that time.

Spinks was stripped of his world title by the WBC for refusing to defend his title against their #1 ranked contender, Ken Norton. Spinks instead agreed to fight a return bout against Ali for the WBA crown. The WBC subsequently named Norton its champion, marking the first time a boxer had been awarded the heavyweight title without winning it in the ring. Because of the WBC's action, Spinks was the last undisputed heavyweight champion until the emergence of Mike Tyson.

The second Ali fight was different from the first; Spinks lost the title to Ali in New Orleans at the Louisiana Superdome on September 15 1978 by a unanimous 15-round decision. This time it was Spinks who did not train hard enough. Ali despite his declining skills, gave every ounce of himself in this fight and did everything he could to out-smart and out-box the much younger Spinks. By regaining the title, Ali became the first three-time heavyweight champion. Spinks continued to come into fights out of shape and was never as effective as he was in the first Ali fight.

In his next fight, his only bout of 1979, he went to Monte Carlo, where he was knocked out in the first round by future world heavyweight champion Gerrie Coetzee. In 1980, Spinks beat former world title challenger Alfredo Evangelista by a knockout in five, boxed to a draw in ten with Eddie The Animal Lopez, and beat the WBC's number one ranked challenger Bernardo Mercado by a knockout in nine. The Mercado fight took place on the night that Ali challenged Larry Holmes to try to become the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title four times.

After the win over Mercado, Spinks challenged for the world's heavyweight championship once again. In his only fight in 1981, he faced Holmes in Detroit on June 12. Spinks was knocked out in the third round. In 1982, Spinks decided to go down in weight and competed in the Cruiserweights. He beat fringe contender Ivy Brown by a decision in ten rounds, and former and future title challenger Jesse Burnett by decision in twelve rounds.

Spinks boxed on and off from 1981 to 1985, in both heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions. When his brother Michael beat Holmes on September 21 1985, the Spinks became the first pair of brothers to be world Heavyweight champions. With this victory, Leon was vindicated by his younger brother Michael, as Michael beat Holmes and Leon had been defeated by Larry Holmes (by TKO in the third round).

Spinks performed in several boxer vs. wrestler matches in New Japan Pro Wrestling in the 1980s, including losing by submission to Antonio Inoki. In 1986 Spinks lost to the WBA's world cruiserweight champion Dwight Muhammad Qawi by a knockout in six rounds, his second attempt at being a two-time world champion.

Spinks boxed for eight more years, with mixed results. In 1994 he lost a bout by KO to John Carlo, noteworthy for being the first time a former heavyweight champion had ever lost to a boxer making his pro debut. This humiliation was increased by the fact that Spinks lost by KO and was unable to land a single punch. He retired after losing by decision in eight to Fred Houpe in 1995. He was 42 years old, ancient by the standards of boxing.

Professional boxing record

26 Wins (14 knockouts, 11 decisions, 1 disqualification), 17 Losses (9 knockouts, 8 decisions), 3 Draws
Result	Opponent	Type	Rd., Time	Date	Location	Notes
Loss	Fred Houpe	Decision (unanimous)	8	December 4 1995	St. Louis, Missouri
Win	Ray Kipping	Decision (unanimous)	8	June 19 1995	St. Louis, Missouri
Loss	John Carlo	KO	1	October 22 1994	Washington, D.C.
Loss	Shane Sutcliffe	Decision	8	October 1 1994	Nanaimo, British Columbia
Win	Eddie Curry	Disqualification	9 (10)	June 22 1994	Raleigh, North Carolina	Unsanctioned show.
Loss	James Wilder	Decision	10	February 27 1993	Davenport, Iowa
Win	Kevin Poindexter	KO	1 (10)	December 11 1992	Countryside, Illinois
Loss	Kevin Porter	Decision	10	September 26 1992	Lansing, Michigan
Win	Jack Jackson	KO	3 (10)	July 24 1992	Countryside, Illinois
Win	Kenneth Bentley	Decision	10	June 17 1992	Atlanta, Georgia
Win	Rick Myers	Decision	10	March 20 1992	St. Louis, Missouri
Win	Andre Crowder	Decision (split)	10	February 28 1992	Countryside, Illinois
Win	Lupe Guerra	KO	3 (10)	November 15 1991	Gary, Indiana
Loss	Tony Morrison	TKO	1 (10)	May 30 1988	Trumbull, Connecticut
Loss	Randall Cobb	Decision (majority)	10	March 18 1988	Nashville, Tennessee
Loss	Ladislao Mijangos	Decision (split)	10	December 20 1987	San Antonio, Texas
Loss	Terry Mims	Decision (split)	10	October 20 1987	Cleveland, Ohio
Draw	Jim Ashard	Draw (points)	10	August 29 1987	Eugene, Oregon
Loss	Angelo Musone	KO	7 (10)	May 22 1987	Jesi, Italy
Win	Jeff Jordan	Decision (split)	12	April 28 1987	Nagoya, Japan	Won WBC Continental Americas Heavyweight title, which was later vacated.
Loss	Jose Ribalta	TKO	1 (10), 2:10	January 17 1987	Coconut Grove, Florida
Loss	Rocky Sekorski	TKO	6 (10)	August 2 1986	Detroit Lks., Minnesota
Loss	Dwight Muhammad Qawi	TKO	6 (15), 2:56	March 22 1986	Reno, Nevada	Match was for the WBA Cruiserweight title.
Win	Kip Kane	TKO	8 (12), 1:37	December 13 1985	New York City, New York	Won WBC Continental Americas Heavyweight title, which was later vacated.
Win	Tom Franco Thomas	Decision	10	June 29 1985	Santa Rosa, California
Win	Tom Fischer	Decision	10	May 9 1985	Detroit, Michigan
Win	Rick Kellar	TKO	2 (10)	April 9 1985	Honolulu, Hawaii
Loss	Lupe Guerra	TKO	4 (10), 0:43	February 21 1985	Detroit, Michigan
Loss	Carlos De León	Decision (unanimous)	6 (10)	March 6 1983	Atlantic City, New Jersey	Spinks later vacated the NABF Cruiserweight title.
Win	Jesse Burnett	Decision (unanimous)	12	October 31 1982	McAfee, New Jersey	Won vacant NABF Cruiserweight title.
Win	Ivy Brown	Decision	10	February 24 1982	Atlantic City, New Jersey
Loss	Larry Holmes	TKO	3 (15)	June 12 1981	Detroit, Michigan	Fight was for the WBC Heavyweight title.
Win	Bernardo Mercado	TKO	9 (12)	October 2 1980	Las Vegas, Nevada	WBC Heavyweight title eliminator.
Win	Kevin Isaac	TKO	8 (10), 0:52	May 3 1980	Redwood City, California
Draw	Eddie López	Draw (points)	10	March 8 1980	Las Vegas, Nevada
Win	Alfredo Evangelista	KO	5 (10), 2:43	January 12 1980	Atlantic City, New Jersey
Loss	Gerrie Coetzee	TKO	1 (12), 2:03	June 24 1979	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Loss	Muhammad Ali	Decision (unanimous)	15	September 15 1978	New Orleans, Louisiana	Won WBA Heavyweight title.
On March 18 1978, Spinks was nearly stripped of the WBC Heavyweight title for refusal to fight Ken Norton, the WBC's number-one contender, in favor of a rematch with Ali.
Win	Muhammad Ali	Decision (split)	15	February 15 1978	Las Vegas, Nevada	Won WBA/WBC Heavyweight titles.
Win	Alfio Righetti	Decision (unanimous)	10	November 18 1977	Las Vegas, Nevada
Draw	Scott LeDoux	Draw (points)	10	October 22 1977	Las Vegas, Nevada
Win	Bruce Scott	KO	3 (8)	June 1 1977	Montreal, Quebec
Win	Pedro Agosto	KO	1 (8), 1:55	May 7 1977	St. Louis, Missouri
Win	Jerry McIntyre	KO	1 (6), 0:35	March 20 1977	Louisville, Kentucky
Win	Peter Freeman	KO	1	March 5 1977	Liverpool, England
Win	Bob Smith	TKO	5 (6), 0:20	January 15 1977	Las Vegas, Nevada

After boxing

During the 1990s, Spinks worked for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, winning its world title in 1992. In the late 1990s, Spinks was picked up by Tri Star Sports Promotions to become a headliner on their year-round, touring autographs shows.

As of 2005 Spinks lived in Columbus, Nebraska, worked at a local YMCA and McDonalds, and volunteered at an after-school program for youth. He told a reporter his life is "comfortable", and that he keeps a low profile.

His son, Cory Spinks, held the undisputed welterweight title and was the International Boxing Federation Junior Middleweight champion.

Amateur career

• 1974, 1975, and 1976 National AAU Light Heavyweight champion

Olympic Results

• Defeated Abellatif Fatihi (Morocco) KO 1
• Defeated Anatoly Klimanov (Soviet Union) 5-0
• Defeated Ottomar Sachse (East Germany) 5-0
• Defeated Janusz Gortat (Poland) 5-0
• Defeated Sixto Soria (Cuba) RSC 3

See also

• List of heavyweight boxing champions
• List of male boxers
• List of WBC world champions
• Notable boxing families

References

1. "Leon Spinks' career boxing record". BoxRec. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
2. Steve Sipple, "Ex-champ Leon Spinks cleans up in Columbus," Lincoln Journal Star, April 4, 2005.

External links

• Leon Spinks' Amateur Boxing Record
• "Riches to rags". The Boston Globe. December 21, 2005. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

• Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from November 2007
• 1953 births
• Living people
• Heavyweights
• African American sportspeople
• American boxers
• Winners of the United States Championship for amateur boxers
• Olympic boxers of the United States
• United States Marines
• WBC Champions
• WBA Champions
• Boxers at the 1976 Summer Olympics
• Olympic gold medalists for the United States
• People from St. Louis, Missouri
• People from Missouri