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Leon Spinks (right) versus Muhammad Ali
Photo:
via www.imago-images.de / imago images / Icon SMI
That one evening, that one fight was enough to catapult Leon Spinks into sports history.
February 15, 1978 at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel, the great boxing seventies, they ended on this night.
Leon Spinks beats "The Greatest", he defeats Muhammad Ali on points and becomes the new boxing heavyweight champion.
It's the sensation of the sports year, at least.
They face each other: Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer in the world, the man from the immortal fights against Joe Frazier and George Foreman, the icon of world sport.
And in the other corner: Leon Spinks, Olympic champion from Montreal, after all, but only with seven professional fights on the account.
Previously, Spinks had saved himself in a draw against Scott LeDoux.
Scott LeDoux, nobody knows him, he landed his most famous punch when he knocked the toupee off the head of the well-known US television reporter Howard Cosell after a scuffle.
Winning against Spinks, this 24-year-old youngster, would be fun for Ali.
That was the opinion of everyone, especially Ali himself. Before and during the fight he did his familiar clowning.
They showed what could be felt anyway: how little he took this adversary seriously.
That spurred Spinks on.
The champion is untrained
Again and again the outsider landed hits, also on the head of the great Ali.
As things went on like this, round after round, the champion suddenly noticed how this evening, this fight, how the world title slipped from him.
Ali tried to adjust, but he wasn't prepared for this situation, tactically, physically.
He had trained far too little, had done things in the months leading up to the fight that did not correspond to a focused boxer life.
A fair fight against a Japanese wrestler, a nonsense appearance on German television with Rudi Carrell.
This was no longer the Muhammad Ali that everyone admired.
Ali had just turned 36 and things weren't as easy as they were in his prime.
The whole world saw that night in Las Vegas an untrained champion who had stepped into the ring to ridicule his opponent.
And then suddenly myself looked like a ridiculous figure.
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New champion, dethroned champion
Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images / UPI Photo
After the end of the 15th round, the judges had no choice but to declare the ten-to-one outsider Leon Spinks the new champion of the WBA and WBC associations.
It was the first time in ages that a heavyweight champion lost a fight on points.
It was the first time a boxer had wrested the title in the ring from Ali.
A lonely high point
The picture of the new champ grinning into the camera was on all front pages.
Spinks crowned himself on February 15, 1978. After that, not much came after that.
The winner of Las Vegas was supposed to defend his title against the old driver Ken Norton, so that was arranged before the fight.
It was assumed that Ali would play against Norton, a big number, Norton was considered Ali's fearsome opponent.
But now the fight was Spinks against Norton, anything but the guarantee for the million dollar business that the promoters promised.
So a rematch between Spinks and Ali was scheduled instead.
This breach of the agreement cost the champion the WBC title, but Spinks still got the WBA belt, and for the fee of $ 3.5 million you can break the rules.
No chance in the rematch
So it came to the re-fight on September 15th in the Louisiana Superdome of New Orleans.
Ali was much better prepared, he had trained again like a berserk, the fight turned into a debacle for Spinks.
This time he was the unprepared, he had enjoyed his new fame in excess in the previous months.
That evening he had no chance and could be happy to escape the knockout.
Seven months after his triumph he was rid of his title and never got it back.
In 1981 Spinks stepped onto the big stage again, a title fight against the new superstar Larry Holmes.
He had more or less beaten Ali before.
Spinks fared little better.
It was a class difference in the ring and the end of Spinks' great career.
One of the anecdotes of boxing is that his brother Michael, of all people, dethroned Larry Holmes in 1985.
Spinks then tried himself quite successfully as a wrestler for a while, gradually disappearing from the spotlight.
His son Corey was also successful, and his grandson was a talented boxer too.
Leon Spinks died of cancer on Friday at the age of 67.
In one single evening he achieved everything that can only be achieved in a boxer's life, in an athletic life: he defeated Muhammad Ali.
It will last forever.
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