Person attributes
Champion Brothers
Boxing has always held a special place in Leon's life. He was born in a poor neighborhood of St. Louis, where crime reigned. His father left the family when the future champion was very young. Spinks remembered his words for the rest of his life: "Dad went and told everyone that I would never achieve anything. I decided that I would become someone in this world. Whatever I paid, I was going to succeed in something," the boxer said.
As a child, Leon was a squishy. At birth, he weighed less than four pounds – the baby miraculously survived. As a child, he enrolled in the boxing section to be able to stand up for himself. He brought his brother Michael to the gym with him (in 1984 he became the light heavyweight champion of the world). Boxing helped the guys to succeed and get out into the world. In 1976, the Spinks became the first brothers to win gold at the same Olympics. Ali's future rival immediately attracted the attention of the promoters, unlike his brother. Leon was a rabid puncher, loved to put on real bloody shows in the ring. Michael was the complete opposite- calm and focused in the ring. "Leon Spinks was a murderer. He liked to fight, but Michael didn't. But Michael was more disciplined," recalls their first coach Charles Hamm.
After his triumph at the Olympics, Leon turned professional and knocked out five opponents in a row. A year later, the boxer got a chance to fight for the first title – immediately against Muhammad Ali. The boxing legend at first did not want to fight with the young athlete, because he had only eight fights. But in the end he agreed because Spinks was also an Olympic champion. "I grew up watching Ali's fights. I listened to his fight with Sonny Liston on the radio. I think he's still the greatest. He lived his life right, he chose religion," Spinks said about his opponent.
36-year-old Ali was considered the undisputed favorite in this fight. He didn't take this fight seriously. Firstly, Ali had more experience – by that time he had won 55 fights (37 knockouts). Secondly, Ali had not lost for five years by that time (in 1973 he lost to Ken Norton). Thirdly, he surpassed Spinks in size – this fight was like a battle of a heavyweight against a lightweight. Fourth, Spinks had to prepare for 15 rounds for the first time in his career – the champion already had 10 such fights.The applicant had only one advantage – he was 12 years younger.
The champion received a golden strategy from his team. After all, it's no secret that Ali knew how to defend very well. It was part of his DNA. Ali's task was to wear down Spinks. And when he uses up all his strength, knock him out. "Ali was going to knock out Spinks. It should have happened in the 11th or 12th round," said Ali's coach Angelo Dundee.
Leon trained in his favorite manner: he attended the gym at a minimum, and honed his fighting tactics in bars. "He went to bed at night, turned on the music loudly and locked the door. And then he jumped out of the second-floor window. The only way to find him is to follow his footprints in the snow," said his coach Sam Solomon.
There were cases when boxers completed their morning run, and Leon was returning home after another party, barely moving his legs. Solomon asked the local bartenders to call him immediately after his fighter appeared in the bar.
"He was drunk every night," said promoter Bob Arum. "Leon went where our people wouldn't dare to go. I'm surprised he stayed alive after his hangouts." Ali looked exhausted as he entered the ring. Spinks was relaxed and full of confidence. Leon from the first seconds brought down a hail of blows on his opponent. Ali pressed himself against the ropes, teased his opponent and asked him to strike more blows. To somehow slow down Leon's frenzied activity, Mohammed resorted to dirty tricks – the referee constantly warned Ali for holding Spinks by the neck.
There was a feeling that Spinks would finish Ali off in the second round. From time to time, Mohammed danced in the ring, standing on his toes. But Leon patiently ran after him and often threw punches – his advantage was undeniable.
In the third round, Ali turned to Spinks again: "Go on, go on." Leon, in response, cornered his opponent and began to work with both hands - Ali only defended.Spinks continued to build up the advantage in the fourth round. He hit the right square in the jaw twice. The "People's Champion" tried to snap back, but Spinks was so fast that the champion's blows flew past. Mohammed started to get lost, and the referee warned again: "Take your hands off his neck, Ali!"
In the fifth round, Ali went on the attack. The champion tried to find flaws in his opponent's tactics. And already Spinks had to feel like a punching bag - Leon missed two good jabs from Ali.But Spinks was stubborn. He was walking forward. At some point it began to look like a street fight – both boxers did not hesitate to go to the exchange.Closer to the ninth round, the fighters began to get tired, although sometimes both managed to carry out a couple of good attacks. For example, Spinks cornered Ali and shook him with a powerful uppercut. Mohammed lowered his hands and began to miss punches. However, in the end, the champion came to his senses. He hit Leon twice in the face–only the gong saved him from falling. In Ali's corner, everyone was happy: he was asked to "close the show."
Mohammed tried to do it in the tenth round. He pinned Spinks to the ropes and struck him from all sides. Spinks' head was twitching like a spring. "I was waiting for him to run out of gas," Ali said later– "but it never happened." Ali did not retain control of the fight. Spinks got tired of receiving and went on the attack – the advantage again shifted to his side.
In the 13th round, Ali looked tired, his face was swollen. He tried to deliver a blow, but Spinks immediately responded. Leon kept walking forward. In the 14th, there was an exchange of blows again. Going into the final round, it seemed that the title was in the hands of Spinks. Ali came out angry. He attacked Spinks with all his arsenal. Ali tried to fix the situation, but it was too late. Spinks dominated the last 30 seconds of the fight. He shook the champion with a left uppercut to the sound of a gong. There were shouts of joy in the corner of Spinks.Ali shook his head as he returned to his corner. He looked depressed. The champion understood: he had just lost the title. The judges gave the victory to Spinks. After the fight, Ali said he felt lost because of bad tactics: "In the first four rounds, my strategy was bad. She worked with Fraser, Foreman and Norton, but not with Spinks. He didn't hurt me as much as Fraser or Foreman. I had no right to lose."After the fight with Ali, Leon woke up famous. All the newspapers wrote about him. The three most popular words for the next day are "Leon", "Spinks" and "unbelievable". Pat Putnam, who covered the fight, suspected that Spinks was more than just lucky. "He held the championship belt as if he had owned it all his life. It feels like he never planned to part with it."
The new champion was wildly celebrating his success. He got drunk to unconsciousness, drove without a license and shouted everywhere that he had beaten Muhammad Ali. In April 1978, St. Louis police arrested a boxer for possession of cocaine and marijuana - the drugs were found in his hat. "It's not mine. One of the guys who was with me put drugs in the hat. I do not know if it was my friend or someone else. A lot of people tried on my hat," Spinks defended himself.
Although he does not deny that he used drugs at one time. "I tried it [cocaine]. I smoked marijuana, I was on pills. I've seen how it affects other guys. I understood that all this could have a bad effect on my health. But I tried this shit anyway."
For seven months, Spinks hung out in the status of a champion. A rematch was scheduled for September of the same year. For the first fight, Spinks was paid a modest 125 thousand dollars. In the rematch, Leon's fee increased significantly – the champion received $ 3.7 million for the fight.Ali didn't really care about the money – he wanted satisfaction: "You know, if I had beaten him the first time, I wouldn't have received any credit for it. He had only seven fights. This child was nobody. So I'm glad he won. It's the perfect scene. You couldn't have written a better script for a movie than this one. That's what I need. Competition! Fighting disagreements. Can the old champion regain the title for the second time? Think about it. The third time! Do it or die. And do you know what makes me laugh? He's the same guy. The only difference is that he got eight fights," Ali said.In the rematch, Mohammed defeated Spinks. For the third time in his career, Ali won the world title. However, Leon refused to recognize the legitimacy of the opponent's victory. "I was out of shape before the fight. Yes, I gained weight, but you can see that I was good in this fight. I spent 30 rounds with this man. I think I won the second fight. But they wanted Ali to win. This is politics," Leon complained.Spinks tried to repeat the success a couple of years later. In 1981, the former champion fought against Larry Holmes for the heavyweight title, but in the third round, the "Eastern Killer" knocked out Leon. His success story was complete. Many experts called him just lucky. And the former editor of The Ring magazine, Bert Sugar, even called Spinks an accidental heavyweight champion.
Perhaps he was never a great athlete. But he gained popularity by becoming the third boxer to beat Ali.
