Breaking News
Leon Spinks – former undisputed heavyweight boxing champion – who defeated Muhammad Ali in 1978 … died after a five-year battle with cancer.
TMZ Sport confirmed Spinks died Friday night at age 67 … surrounded by his wife Brenda and several other good friends and family.
Leon’s health has recently deteriorated … the former boxing champion struggled bravely prostate cancer for 5 years.
Spinks was the winner in one of the biggest upheavals in sports history … when he shocked the world by defeating Ali in a split 15-round victory in Las Vegas in February 1978.
In defeating Ali, Spinks – the new heavyweight champion – became the only fighter to ever take off a belt from The Greatest.
The Ali battle was the most memorable moment in Leon’s career … but certainly not the only highlight.
In 1976, Spinks won a gold medal as a light heavyweight fighter at the Montreal Summer Olympics.
Spinks – in 1953 in St. Louis born – developed a passion for boxing while in the U.S. Marines.
Pugilism ran deep in the Spinks family … Leon was the older brother of boxer Michael Spinks – A former world champion with two weights and an Olympic gold medal (both brothers won gold in ’76).
Leon was inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame in 2017.
TEAR