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Spinks is best known for defeating Muhammad Ali in February 1978 and becoming the new heavyweight champion of the world. Spinks was 24 years old at the time and had only a few professional games behind him.
– I don’t think I was too young when I won. Everyone who has the opportunity they gave me would take advantage of it, he said in 2003 according to ESPN.
Ali then regained the title in September of the same year, a victory that would prove to be Ali’s last as a professional boxer.
Spinks tried to regain the WBC title in 1981, from Larry Holmes, but lost. He dropped to cruiserweight and didn’t quit boxing until 1995, when he was 42 years old.
As an amateur, Spinks, among other things, won Olympic gold in 1976, at light heavyweight. At the same Olympics he won, his little brother Michael Spinks took gold, at middleweight.
Leon Spinks suffered from cancer five years ago, a disease that took his life. He was admitted to a Las Vegas hospital in December last year, where he died on Friday.
“Hans fought his last fight with the same skill, graceful style and fighting spirit that led him to overcome many of life’s challenges,” writes his spokesperson.
Martin Yngve / TT
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