Leon Spinks, a gold medal-winning athlete on the 1976 United States Olympic boxing team, has died. Spinks had been battling prostate cancer at the time of his death. He was 67.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Two years after winning the gold medal, Spinks bested Muhammad Ali in 1978 to become the undisputed heavyweight champion. The two fought for 15 rounds, in a match most considered one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport.
Born in 1953, Spinks had a near-flawless amateur career, going 178-7 with 133 knockouts — a record that includes the light heavyweight gold medal at Montreal’s 1976 Summer Olympic. There, he defeated Cuban boxer Sixto Soria for the gold.
Shortly after the Olympics, Spinks got his pro debut against Bob Smith, a boxer he knocked out in five rounds. By the time Spinks came toe-to-toe with Ali, he only had eight professional bouts under his belt. Ali then won the WBA belt back later that year in a rematch at the Louisiana Superdome.
His win against Ali ended up as the biggest fight of his career. In years like 1979, 1981, and 1983, the boxer only participated in one fight per year. He finished his professional boxing career with a record of 26 wins and 17 losses, with 14 knockouts.
As Spinks got into the ’90s, he dropped boxing nearly entirely in favor of a professional wrestling career, where he was signed by Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling.
Spinks and his brother Michael were both inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame in 2017.
He’s survived by his wife Brenda, son Cory, and brother Michael. He was preceded in death by his son Leon Calvin.
Photo by Walt Disney Television via Getty Images
