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EPISODE: Episode 23
Neil discusses Leon “Neon” Spinks on this episode, among many of his heroes – boxers, trainers and coaches – from the ring on TalkinFight Monday to Friday – YouTube or LIVE at talkinfight.com/live Weekday’s at 7pm EST (6:30 on Fridays) #leonspinks @_leonspinks
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#boxer #boxing #boxingtalkshow
Transcribed:
Hello, there talking fight fans once again joining us neil the deal on the show thanks very much uh we’ve got uh leon spinks lined up tonight a great fighter from uh back in the 80s.
I know um.
What do you got for us hey good evening, graham, how are you tonight thanks for having me out hey guys? How are you tonight all the neil, the deal fans all the talk and fight fans, thanks for coming out? Uh we’ve been having some great success this week.
I want to thank you again for everything all the likes, the shares, the comments and the subscriptions lots and lots and lots more coming thanks a lot guys for telling your friends your family and all that jazz.
So tonight, graham we’re going to talk about a little bit about um, a guy who we mentioned a little while ago in regards to uh the only two brothers uh combinations that had held world titles.
Um.
Do you remember that little conversation – and it was the klitschko brothers and the sphinx brothers correct – was the answer: yep yeah yeah right on all right cool, so we’re going to talk a little bit about leon.
Spinks tonight leon spinks he’s the older of the sphinx brothers.
He has a younger brother named michael, who was also a fighter we’re going to have a um an episode on him coming up very soon, just to round out the sphinx family.
I guess you would say, but we’re going to talk about leon today, everybody, you know who’s.
A fight fan knows about the uh, the infamous fight between him and ali, where he won the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world from ali and is to this day the only person and will ever be the only person that took a title graham off ali.
In the ring, if you know what i’m saying yep, he was a challenger when he won and he was in non-title fights and stuff, but nobody ever actually took the title off of ali except leon spinks, so leon neon, that’s his uh, that’s his handle before uh.
What’S the other guy sanders neon dion sanders neon yeah? Remember: hey dion man you’re, pretty cool cat too yourself man.
I liked you you’re good, but anyway so leon was known as neon.
He was born july 11th, uh 1953.
That would make him 67 years old right now i was born in st louis missouri.
I used to call that misery, saint louis misery if you’ve ever been to missouri.
I don’t know about that place, but anyways i’ll tell you the guys in missouri.
It’S all right.
We, like you, i love the cardinals anyways they’re good, i like the arch.
So all right.
So let’s go over his stats here.
His career was pretty long career, guys uh 1977 to 1995, and he won the undisputed heavyweight championship again from ali in 78, and that was actually graham his only his eighth pro fight when he won that title off ali.
So that was his eighth pro.
He was like, i guess he was 7-0.
I guess i’m going into that one.
I guess so he had a pretty crazy amateur career, which i i really had no idea about.
Um.
Apparently he had 185 fights, graham as an amateur yeah i was like whoa.
I was like really i never.
I didn’t know right and uh i he had 178 wins like and seven losses, that’s it in his amateur career.
So that is pretty amazing, like that’s an amazing amateur record 178 and seven whoa holy cow anyways.
So then he went on to the uh.
He went on to become a us uh olympian for him.
He uh he fought for the us in the olympics in montreal 1976 in the light heavyweight division and won a gold medal, as a matter of fact not good.
For you leon nice, one gold medal man in in our hometown, our home, you know in our in our country: that’s that’s pretty impressive man.
So then he went to the pan american games and uh 1975 mexico city light heavyweight division.
He won a silver medal, so he did well there as well uh.
He went to the world championships in 74 uh when he was really young.
That was in a van of cuba, light heavyweight and he won a bronze.
I believe a bronze medal there.
So we went bronze silver gold pretty good, so he got better and better and better and better right.
You got better, not bitter.
That’S what i’m telling you you get better, not bitter, never mind the better, just get better! All right! That’S what he did! That’S what you got to do.
That’S what i’m doing! That’S what we all so anyway, he had that’s pretty cool for his amateur career.
Then he turned pro well actually before that he served in the u.
s marine corps, two grand from 73 to 76.
I did not know that right, so he started his um boxing career in 77, so once he was released from the us marine corps.
After three years of service nice work leon uh, he became a boxer, a professional boxer, so i guess he – maybe he boxed a little bit in the in the marine corps like a lot of these guys do, but there’s no uh there’s only.
He can tell you that hey leon, if you’re out there we’re here buddy we like you to talk and fight people, neil the deal show guys maybe we’ll get a hold of leon.
Spinks he’s one of the kind of cats.
I’D love to talk to that guy.
That’D be awesome, let’s see you producers over there are you listening to me, talk to leon spinks, please.
Maybe his brother too, maybe get him both on something like that.
That’D be fun, so he had an amazing pro career, but he really didn’t.
Have he had a number of big big fights but um he and then he really had a bunch of fights that really were just really kind of mediocre fights.
So, like i said his brother, his brother michael, he actually won a gold medal as well.
At the 76 olympics as a middleweight, so i didn’t know that that was the case, so they both won medals in the in the olympics, and i do remember i do remember watching it as a child like i was, you know, young and uh.
We were living in montreal at that time when that happened.
So i was watching that in montreal, so uh, that’s kind of when i first learned of these two brothers.
Basically because they were amateurs and they were in the olympics, so anyways he uh.
He did a lot of a lot of stuff after his career.
His his career totals were pretty good.
They they weren’t the greatest, but they weren’t too bad.
He had 46 total fights graham right pro career.
I had 26 wins 14 knockouts 17 losses in three draws.
So you know he won 26 out of 46, so you know he still had 17 losses.
That’S quite a number of losses to have in any career right, but he was in the big ones too, and he won the big one.
You know what i mean.
Probably the biggest upset in boxing history, you know when he beat ali and and that’s one of the only times.
Graham, if you watch that fight guys, you got to watch that fight is ali left.
The ring with a puffed out face like his eyes were bulged.
He was, he was hurt ali for the basically, the only time in any fight that i ever saw any like sure he got bumps and bruises, but he was actually really uh really puffed out and his facial his face was really really bad alleys right, but it’s The only times you’ll see that in any fight it’s the only time so he had he decided to retire 77 um, sorry 95.
.
He started in 77 retired in 95 and then he started into a brief career in um pro wrestling program.
Some of those smaller wrestling leagues that were coming out back in the 90s – i guess fw fsw, or something like that.
You know what i mean like these smaller ones.
He was in something called the bare knuckle championship.
Fighting bare knuckle, no brass, knuckle! Sorry, guys! Brass knuckle fighting championship, graham check that out.
I just heard about this.
This brass knuckle: he was the heavyweight champion of this brass knuckle championship boxing thing: i’ve never heard of brass knuckle boxing, so we’re gon na look into that.
Graham brass knuckle boxing without leon spinks.
What the heck, so he he presently lives in las vega, in las vegas nevada, uh he’s he’s living a comfortable life graham when he retired it was a.
There was a time and place where we all knew he was not doing so well and and this and that, but he seems to have recovered well and he lives comfortably humbly and uh low-key.
He basically wants to stay low pro.
You know what i mean he wants to be flying under the radar right.
That’S why you don’t really hear about him or anything, but he’s hanging out and he’s enjoying himself and uh.
He was inducted into the um in 2017.
He was inducted into the nevada boxing hall of fame, so that’s a pretty pretty nice accolade for him and he lives there and unfortunately um.
It says here that 2019 he was diagnosed with advanced, prostate cancer.
So – and he has some slurred speech, he uh from his boxing days, apparently that that occurred 10 years ago or more, where his speech sort of started going, but he seems to be coping well well leon, i hope you’re coping well, you know what i mean, so God bless you buddy.
I hope everything goes well with that cancer stuff, like we all know it’s a or b it’s nobody knows you just do your best and uh keep the faith.
Hopefully you know, god bless you buddy and uh.
I guess we’re going to talk about his brother coming up in a in an upcoming episode, graham may as well may as well.
You know what i mean so uh leon you’re doing well take care of your health.
Take care of yourself thanks for the great career uh, thanks guys again for the likes the shares and everything the the subscriptions everything’s been overwhelming.
I have thank you very much, all my buddies.
All my friends.
You know amanda kaley, chris all kinds of people.
You know thanks a lot for everything and uh, we’ll see you tomorrow tomorrow, we’re at 6 30 correct, graham 6, 30.
uh, tomorrow’s thursday, no thursday, seven, okay, it’s still thursday, yeah, okay, just making sure you’re on the ballgram.
Thank you.
So i don’t want any surprises.
Just happy didn’t ask me any math questions tonight.
Yeah, that’s hitting well, you i don’t know normally you’re you’re pretty spot on, so not normally.
All right, 59 out of 100 was good.
What percentage is that graham yeah? I know about 60, what good one all right! All right, cool man thanks a lot guys, we’ll see you tomorrow at 7 friday at 6 30.
I think i’m gon na have something special on friday, graham so i’ll just let you know guys.
Nice got some got something up my sleeve here for friday, oh yeah up my sleeve.
Oh, you know what i mean friday friday friday will be fun because look who’s playing on sunday.
You guys need to know who the winner is put all your money on this team.
That’S all i got to tell you all right.
Take care of yourselves guys have a good evening thanks for coming out, see neil the deal talk to you tomorrow.
Thanks, graham, have a good night
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