Leon Spinks, the 1976 Olympic champion who took Muhammad Ali’s heavyweight crown in his eighth pro fight, died of multiple forms of cancer Friday night, according to release from a public relations firm. He was 67.
His wife, Brenda Glur Spinks, other family members and a few close friends were with him at the time of his death.
Spinks shocked the world when he defeated a 36-year-old Ali to win the WBA and WBC titles on Feb. 15, 1978 at the Hilton in Las Vegas. Ali had begun to decline but Spinks earned the split-decision victory, fighting aggressively and outworking his legendary opponent.
The new champion was stripped of the WBC belt for refusing to defend against Ken Norton, instead choosing to give Ali a rematch. Ali, fitter and more focused, won the second fight and the WBA title by a unanimous decision seven months later at the Superdome in New Orleans.
Spinks (26-17-3, 14 KOs) would fight until 1995 but would never again win a major belt. He was stopped in three rounds by Larry Holmes in 1981, his only other heavyweight title fight. And, after moving down to cruiserweight, he was stopped in six rounds by titleholder Dwight Muhammad Qawi in 1986.
Spinks and brother Michael Spinks won gold medals as part of the great 1976 U.S. boxing team, which won five golds in the Montreal Games. Leon Spinks fought as a light heavyweight, Michael Spinks as a middleweight.
Michael Spinks would go on to win professional titles at light heavyweight and heavyweight.
Leon Spinks last fought in December 1995, when he lost a unanimous eight-round decision to journeyman Fred Houpe. Spinks was 42.
Spinks had financial and a variety of medical problems later in life. He had surgery after damaging his intestinal tract by swallowing a chicken bone in 2014. And he had been treated for prostate cancer off and on for a number of years.