Leon Spinks’ Death Felt At Saturday’s UFC Fight Show In Las Vegas
By Cassandra Cousineau for LVSportsBiz.com
Inside the UFC Apex building on Saturday evening, two massive heavyweights took to the octagon to firmly plant their name at the top of the Las Vegas-based promotion’s title fight conversation.
In the end, it was Alexander Volkov who earned a second round TKO over Alistair Overeem. And outside of the main event, post-fight conversation from fighters circled back to the passing of former boxing heavyweight champion, Leon Spinks, who died in Henderson.
Spinks (26-17-3), was a resident of Henderson, died at age of 67 after a long battle with cancer.
Spinks shocked the world at the age of 24 when he defeated boxing great Muhammad Ali in just his eighth professional fight.
A heavy underdog, the St. Louis native out boxed, and battered Ali for 15 rounds to earn the WBA Heavyweight title at the Louisiana Superdome, in New Orleans. Spinks would lose the belt to Ali in a rematch seven months later. That fight sold 63,352 tickets and drew an estimated 90 million viewers. It has been watched by 2-billion viewers worldwide.
Even though his life was rather complicated after the Ali fight, Spinks would often be seen around Las Vegas. The affable character couldn’t be missed in the championship hat he often wore.
The champ’s passing hit home for a handful of UFC fighters as it was announced just after the event got underway.
Lightweight fighter Beneil Dariush, who was raised in Iran, spoke about the news. “He shocked the world with that fight, right? We could only get video tapes of these fights in Iran. So, I saw that fight with Cassius on video. I remember being so shocked Cassius actually lost even though it happened years ago. He won a championship which is something a lot of people don’t get to say they did.”
Spinks was part of a boxing family having won a gold medal for USA Boxing along with his brother Michael in the 1976 Olympics. His son Cory, born barely a week after his father’s historic victory, was also an undisputed welterweight champion.
After his win, Devonte Smith commented “I don’t follow boxing too much, but as a fighter, I send much respect to his family.”
Known for his wide gap-toothed smile, Spinks had trouble managing his life outside of the ring. Often showing up to events in a long fur coat with Mr. T as his bodyguard, Spinks lost custody of one of set of his gold teeth to his ex-wife during a divorce proceeding. He would lose another in a mugging in Detroit.
According to Spinks, the coat and teeth cost him around $45,000. Years later he would say, “It’s so damn weird, people taking my teeth.”
Spinks ended up in Nebraska, working as a custodian at a YMCA and for minimum wage at McDonalds. He fought professionally for a final time in 1995 when he was 42 years old, a unanimous decision loss against Fred Houpe.
In August of 2017, the former marine was inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame. During the ceremony he stood up and said, “It’s about time!”
