A Boxing Memory: Leon Spinks

A Boxing Memory: Leon Spinks

The upset win over Muhammad Ali in 1978 shocked the boxing world. The reigning Olympic champion was 24 and a mere novice as a professional. Only seven fights in, Leon Spinks was the supposed soft touch, the sacrificial lamb for an Ali who at 36, was more than slowly slipping into an irreversible decline. But Spinks did the unthinkable, a poorly prepared ageing Ali was outworked and outfought by an opponent who was simply inspired, if equally unprepared.

Spinks didn’t live the life of a boxer. He never did in truth. The stories of great excess were ripe long before the win over Ali in the early months of 1978. Drink, drugs, and the lack of all-around dedication was no secret. But the win over Ali took it to a whole new level. Described by one scribe as a once-in-a-lifetime bender. Even that might have done a disservice to Spinks and his lifestyle, who was seemingly on a mission to oblivion. Spinks often went missing in training, when he was in the gym, it was an inconvenience to the ongoing party. A birthday celebration lasted ten days. Spinks with his hide-and-seek drink and drugs antics was blowing his title. This time, Ali only had to show up to win. But while Spinks partied, Ali trained in solitude. There would be no repeat for a fighter who was chasing immortality and a third-world heavyweight title. Ali hired future world heavyweight champions Greg Page, Tony Tubbs, and Michael Dokes as sparring partners. Spinks seemingly had Jack Daniels and similar on the payroll.

A few days before Spinks was due to face Ali again in September 1978, the promoter Bob Arum on his way to breakfast, witnessed a drunk Spinks coming back from a night out. A story not without company. Spinks just didn’t care.

Spinks once said. “All I cared about was going on to the next party. Who was I going to get high with? My life was cocaine, weed, cars and women. And I enjoyed it.”

The day before the rematch, Spinks was in no mood to try and salvage what was already lost. Booze, coke, pot and women. If it was available he wouldn’t refuse it. By some miracle, he made it to the weigh-in. But Spinks still wasn’t finished. Later that same afternoon his then-bodyguard Mr T found him consuming more alcohol and cocaine. And still, Spinks wasn’t done. Just an hour before the fight was due to start Spink’s wife found him in a hotel room drunk. Spinks wasn’t alone. That would come later in the emptiness of defeat.

Spinks somehow made it to the ring, another miracle in itself, but lost a predictable one-sided decision in front of 70,000 fans at the New Orleans Superdome to an Ali who found something he needed in that ageing battered old body. The former champion tried to insist he didn’t blow his title on the vices that fame and money had given him. Few believed him. In all seriousness, how could you?

Spinks had gained a 70-strong entourage in between the two Ali fights. By the time Spinks returned to the hotel every single one of them had left town. No gravy train, so-called friends deserted him. Alone, Spinks just kept the party going.

Largely on his name alone, Spinks had further opportunities to win a world title. But Larry Holmes in 1981 and Dwight Muhammad Qawi five years later didn’t offer him the same luxuries Ali did in 1978. The fight with Qawi came when he was hoping to save his career by way of the Kronk Gym in Detroit. But even Emanuel Steward couldn’t change him. Or save him. The losses kept mounting up until one sad night too many ended his career in 1995. In truth, it ended the night he beat Ali.

Spinks received a reported $3.75 million for the rematch with Ali. In the five fights before his cruiserweight challenge to Qawi, Spinks earned just over $26,000. Bankruptcy wasn’t far behind.

There is a narrative that the heavyweight championship of the world came too soon for Spinks. But if it didn’t come when it did. It wouldn’t have come at all. It would be unfair to label Spinks a lucky fighter, but on any other night, he wouldn’t have beaten Ali or any other legitimate heavyweight contender. Not because of his skills. Because of his lifestyle. Spinks had the ability, an Olympic gold medal would testify to that. But his story is another sad case of what could have been. Leon enjoyed being Leon a little too much. His life started in the ghetto and you just couldn’t take him out of it.

Spinks once told the New York Daily News, “I never had nothing. All of a sudden I had something. I tried to do too much. I was crazy. I didn’t care about nothing. You think it’s never going to end.” Sadly for Spinks, it did end. Incredibly quickly.

Spinks died in 2021 after a long battle with cancer. He was 67.