Leon Spinks vs. Muhammad Ali II

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Leon Spinks vs. Muhammad Ali II
Date September 15, 1978
Location Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Title(s) on the line WBA and The Ring heavyweight titles
United States Leon Spinks vs. United States Muhammad Ali
Neon The Greatest
$3,750,000 Purse $3,250,000
Tale of the tape
St. Louis, Missouri From Louisville, Kentucky
7–0–1 (5 KO) Pre-fight record 55–3 (37 KO)
6 ft 1 in (185 cm) Height 6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
201 lb (91 kg) Weight 221 lb (100 kg)
Orthodox Style Orthodox
WBA and The Ring heavyweight champion Recognition Two-time undisputed heavyweight champion
Result Ali won by 15th round unanimous decision.

Leon Spinks vs. Muhammad Ali II, was a professional boxing match contested on September 15, 1978, in New Orleans for the WBA and The Ring heavyweight championships.

Background

After his shock win over Ali to become Heavyweight champion, Leon Spinks was stripped of the WBC belt for not facing its number one ranked contender Ken Norton; instead he agreed to a rematch with Ali. Ali entered the rematch as a 2½ to 1 favorite.

The fight was held at the Louisiana Superdome, with ringside seats costing $200 ($839 in 2021 dollars).[1][2] The card contained three other world title fights: WBA Bantamweight Champion Jorge Luján vs. future WBC champion Alberto Davila; WBC Featherweight Champion Danny Lopez vs. Juan Malvarez; and WBA Light Heavyweight Champion Víctor Galíndez vs. Mike Rossman.[3]

ABC paid $5.3 million ($22.24 million in 2021 dollars) for the rights to televise the fight live in the United States.[4][5]

The fight

Pat Putnam of Sports Illustrated wrote:

The plan was simple. Ali would jab, jab, throw a right and grab. When Spinks came flailing in, Ali would hook his left hand around the back of Spinks' head and pull him into an embrace, effectively limiting Spinks to one or two punches or pulling him off balance. And Ali would dance, baby, dance. He would tie up Spinks and then dance away from him on the break, circling to the right, circling to the left. And the fight went as plotted.

Referee Lucien Joubert took the fifth round away from Ali for holding. The Associated Press scored the fight 12–3 for Ali, while the three judges had the bout 11–4, 10–4–1 and 10–4–1 all in favor of Ali giving him a unanimous decision win.

Attendance and viewership

The Superdome attendance was 63,352, which, at the time, was the largest indoor attendance ever for a boxing match. Ticket sales of $4,806,675 ($20.168 million in 2021 dollars) was the highest live gate for a sporting event at the time.[4][1] The average ticket price was $75.87 ($318.34 in 2021 dollars).

An estimated audience of 90 million viewers watched the main event in the United States, with 46.7% of TV sets in the nation tuned in—a record for the time.[6][7][4] The fight was estimated to have been watched by a record 650 million viewers worldwide,[8][9] in some 80 nations.

Aftermath

Ali regained the WBA heavyweight title and avenged his split decision loss to Spinks from seven months prior. He also became the first man to win the World Heavyweight Championship three times.

In June 1979, Ali sent an official letter of retirement to the WBA. Promoter Bob Arum said he paid Ali $300,000 to announce his retirement because Ali's reluctance had delayed the scheduling of a fight between John Tate and Gerrie Coetzee for the vacant WBA title. "We knew Muhammad Ali was going to retire", Arum said, "but as long as he delayed, I couldn't make definite plans." However, in October 1980 Ali returned to face WBC Champion Larry Holmes but was stopped by TKO in the 10th round. He then retired for good after a lackluster loss to Trevor Berbick in December 1981, thus making this fight the final of Ali's career.[10][11][12][13][14][15]

Quote

"I congratulated Ali! He is still my idol." – Leon Spinks two weeks after the fight.

References

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