Leon Spinks 2012 with shrinkage in his brain, which doctors said was likely caused by punches he took during his career. Spinks and his wife Brenda moved to Las Vegas in 2011. Spinks was hospitalized twice in 2014 in a Las Vegas hospital for surgery due to abdominal problems, from which he recovered. Leon Spinks Leon Spinks (born July 11, 1953) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1995. In only his eighth professional fight, he won the undisputed heavyweight championship in 1978 after defeating Muhammad Ali in a split decision, in what was considered one of the
Michael Spinks in Miami, Florida, and that same year captured the United States Olympic Trials Middleweight Championship by defeating Keith Broom in Cincinnati, Ohio. He went on to defeat the Soviet Union's Rufat Riskiev to win the Gold Medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Spinks finished with a 93-7 amateur record with 35 knockouts. With the Olympics behind him, Spinks returned to work at a chemical factory in St. Louis, "scrubbing floors and cleaning toilets," as one source tells it. He had no big contracts awaiting him and, while Michael appeared to experts to be the more promising