Olympic gold medalist and former heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks died in a hospital in Henderson, Nevada, on Friday night, with his wife Brenda by his side. Spinks had been battling several health problems, but ended up succumbing to prostate cancer.
Spinks took Olympic gold home to the United States at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal and turned professional just a year later. In 1978 and in just his eighth professional fight, Spinks faced Muhammad Ali for the WBA and WBC heavyweight titles. In a massive turn, Spinks defeated Ali by a split decision in 15 rounds and became the only man to dethrone Ali as a heavyweight champion.
When Spinks opted for Ali rematch instead of facing Ken Norton, the St. Louis native was stripped of his WBC title. There he would later take the WBA title back by unanimous decision in front of about 90 million viewers at ABC and over 63,000 at the New Orleans Superdome. It was the last victory of Ali’s career.
Unfortunately for Spinks, his career never recovered from the defeat for Ali. A brutal beating in the first round against Gerrie Coetzee soon followed, and after stopping contender Bernardo Mercado in 1980, he was stopped in three by Larry Holmes in 1981. Clearly undersized as a heavyweight – Spinks often weighed in the 194-210 pound range – Spinks fell to cruiserweight and went back to winning ways. This was stopped when he was dominated by WBA champion Dwight Muhammad Qawi in 1986. It was his last major title fight and one of his last relevant fights in his career.
Spinks also made a career in professional wrestling, notably competing against Antonio Inoki in New Japan Pro Wrestling and winning the Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling title in 1992.
In 1995, Spinks retired from boxing with a record of 26-17-3 (14 KOs). Unfortunately, among his many health problems was a diagnosis of dementia. Doctors detected a shrinkage in his brain in 2012 and assumed that the accumulation of blows he absorbed throughout his career was the most likely cause.
Spinks’ brother Michael was a light heavyweight and heavyweight world champion, while Leon’s son Cory was an undisputed welterweight champion and also won junior middleweight titles in the 2000s.
Leon Spinks was 67 years old.