leon-spinks - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

50 years ago today, Ali and Frazier stepped into the ring and delivered a divided nation its greatest sporting spectacleProfessional boxing had come a long way in the half-century that preceded March 8, 1971, the night Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali stepped into the Madison Square Garden ring for what remains history’s greatest heavyweight championship fight....

Remembering Leon Spinks’ forgotten upset over Ali 42 years agoLeon Spinks passed away on February 5 due to prostate cancer at the age of 67. On February 15, 42 years ago, he starred in one of sports’ larger-than-life upsets over one of the most unforgettable boxers to have ever stepped into a ring. If you compile your own Tale of the Tape retrospective, withou...

How Terry Funk Ended Up In A Match Even Weirder Than Mayweather/McGregorTerry Funk, along with being a legendary professional wrestler, deserves recognition as a sort of godfather of the Boxer vs. Other fight, a matchup of differing combat disciplines of the type that will captivate the world for however long Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Conor McGregor lasts....

Why I Fixed Fights

I fixed a lot of fights over the years. In two I didn't fix but should have, people paid heavily for my carelessness. Even though I set up Mitch "Blood" Green and Leon Spinks cushion-soft in their comeback fights, I managed to get one embarrassed and the other nearly killed. There had been opportuni...

Mind The Gap

From the New York Magazine archives, here’s the late, great Vic Ziegel on Ali-Spinks II:...

No One Knows Exactly How Boxing Broke Ken Norton's Brain

LAS VEGAS—Ken Norton never fell down in 39 rounds of professional boxing with Muhammad Ali. But Ken Norton did fall down on Jan. 23, 2012, while posing for a picture after a press conference at the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. I saw it happen. Ken Norton, the esteemed special guest...