Leon Spinks, who surprised the boxing world by beating Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight title in 1978, died on Friday night at the age of 67, according to the Firm PR, which represents him.
Spinks suffered from prostate cancer and other cancers.
The native of St. Louis, who won a gold medal as a light heavyweight at the 1976 Olympics, was only 13 months and eight fights in his pro-boxing career when he entered a ring in Las Vegas on February 15, 1978 against Ali.
But Spinks – a heavy underdog who has never gone beyond ten rounds – immediately comes to the champion, who was 36 years old and was clearly at the disadvantage of his career.
Spinks, then 24, had enough stamina to survive a wave of Ali’s 15th round – and in the final seconds offer one of his own. The split decision went to Spinks, who flashed his famous gaping tooth grin after becoming the only fighter to win a title from Ali in the ring.
But that seems to be the highlight of Spinks’ career. First, he was stripped of the WBC title for refusing to defend against leading candidate Ken Norton. Instead, Spinks opted for a second chance with Ali, who reclaimed the WBA title in a unanimous decision at the Superdome in New Orleans, seven months after their first fight.
The boxing world lost Leon Spinks. We send our condolences to Brenda, family and friends. May he rest in peace pic.twitter.com/rGnPfbHWAp
– Mauricio Sulaiman (@wbcmoro) 6 February 2021
Spinks would fight once again for the heavyweight title in June 1981, a loss of TKO against Larry Holmes for the WBC belt. He then slipped to the crossweight division, but lost his only title shot to Dwight Muhammad Qawi on a sixth round TKO in March 1986.
Spinks retired at age 42 after losing a unanimous decision to Fred Houpe in December 1995, concluding his career with an inconspicuous 26-17-3 record (14 KOs).
Spinks, who later in his career fought in wrestling and mixed martial arts, dealt with financial and medical problems later in life. In 2014, he suffered intestinal damage and was admitted to the hospital after swallowing a piece of chicken bone. This led to several operations. In 2019, he was in and out of the hospital while undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.
Spinks was the brother of former heavyweight and lightweight champion Michael Spinks of the Hall of Fame and the father of former world welterweight champion Cory Spinks.