[8.5] LEON SPINKS 46-26(14)-17-3 [Heavyweight & Cruiserweight 190-225 lbs] Jim Brady -
The magical, mystical carpet ride, that began in Montreal in 1976, when Spinks won the Olympic light-heavyweight gold medal is over. Now, fate has bought him a one-way ticket to nowhere – with occasional whistle stops in places like Reno, Nevada or Miami Beach. Jim Brady, The Man Who Could Beat Ali But Still Couldn’t Win
No, today, Leon Spinks, the Last Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, knows he’s lucky to pick up fifteen grand, jousting with local gladiators like Rocky Sekorski, in bar room parking lots, in God-forsaken Twin Lakes, Minnesota. ibid.
Once upon a time, in seemingly another life, young, rock-hard Leon Spinks won the heavyweight championship of the world – in just his eighth professional fight. In defeating Ali, it was a case of the crude apprentice whipping the master craftsman, in one of sports history’s greatest upsets. ibid.
Nobody, but nobody, ever self-destructed faster than Leon Spinks. ibid.
Long, long ago, and seemingly far, far away, when Leon Spinks was one of the most famous men in the world, he could proudly strut in his blue fox fur and his wide-brimmed pimp’s hat, top-heavy with glimmering jewellery, flanked by as many as 70 flunkies, some of whom Leon never knew, and laugh at fate. ibid.
But when Leon lost his rematch with Ali in August of 1978, the gladhandlers suddenly disappeared. Leon trudged that long lonely mile back to his hotel room all alone. ibid.
There’s no question that Spinks has a penchant for self-destruction that burns like a butane torch. But in an age when slick media manipulation, or ‘public relations’ is allowed to pass for truth, nobody ever bothered to find out that Leon Spinks, everyone’s favourite punching bag, is a highly complex, perceptive, intelligent human being. ibid.
There’s a terrible vulnerability to Leon Spinks, this kind, decent, misunderstood, unpretentious free spirit, who’d much rather have been back home in Detroit watching women’s soaps and kid’s action-adventure cartoons on TV. Yet, circumstance demanded he come to Miami, in this, the winter of his discontent, and sell what remains of his tattered dignity, in front of thousands of strangers. ibid.
v Muhammad Ali 15 September 1978 Superdome New Orleans: What an extraordinary career! What an extraordinary man he has been! ... That’s the mark of the man ... A combination and the crowd goes wild … US fight commentary
[8.5] HENRY COOPER 55-41(27)-14-1 [Heavyweight 188-217.5 lbs]: British Boxing Heroes TV - UK Fight Commentary TV -
One of the most controversial fights in British boxing history. British Boxing Heroes: Cooper v Bugner
He’s given it to Bugner! He’s given it to Joe Bugner! And I find that a-mazing! He’s given it to Joe Bugner, and Cooper has lost three titles. And that I do not understand. And the whole of Wembley erupts into a storm of booing. And how in the world can you take away the man’s three titles like that? Harry Carpenter, UK fight commentary
37) Muhammad Ali Lost TKO5: When Ali Came to Britain TV - Alan Hubbard - Harry Carpenter & UK Fight Commentary TV - Angelo Dundee -
But Cooper was certainly the underdog. Cassius Clay was the Olympic champion, undefeated in eighteen professional bouts and about two stone heavier. When Ali Came to Britain
Sitting at the ringside was Elizabeth Taylor ... who had just made the film Cleopatra. His eyes widened and he mouthed, ‘Hiya, Cleopatra.’ And a few seconds later Henry hit him. Alan Hubbard, boxing correspondent Independent on Sunday
It’s sixty-five seconds instead of sixty. Harry Carpenter
v Muhammad Ali 18 June 1963 London: [r1] And Clay has said I’ll beat him in five ... Cooper quick to pick up the left hook, and he’s going in and he’s hurt Clay ... The left hook of Cooper scores quickly. And Clay’s nose in bleeding in the first minute from the left hook of Cooper ... [r2] ... Clay trying to open up his own left jab and hook ... Clay now working on Cooper’s face ... Now Cooper seems to be cut slightly underneath the left eye ... It’s a battle of left hands [r3] ... Henry Cooper is cut over the left eye ... His arms are down by his hips ... This is complete cheek on the part of Clay ... Clay has taken all of Cooper’s punches and has stood up to them ... [r4] ... Poor Cooper keeps putting his left glove up there ... The bell has sounded and he is up at about three, Clay ... There’s a good left hook ... A left hook. Clay took one chance too many. And he still doesn’t know where he is. He’s still half out, Clay. And they are working furiously on him in the corner ... He doesn’t know where he is. He is looking at his corner ... [r5] ... I think Clay has got a torn glove. No, he seems to be all right ... Cooper’s left eye pouring blood ... It’s all over in Round Five. Harry Carpenter, UK fight commentary
He got nailed. Thank heaven the bell rang. Angelo Dundee
I stood him up. Angelo Dundee
[8.5] JOHN L SULLIVAN 44-40(34)-1-2-1 [Heavyweight 165-200 lbs]: Donald Barr Chidsey - In This Corner: Great Heavyweights TV - Bert Randolph Sugar - Elliott J Gorn - The Badass of the Week online -
He stood in awe of nobody, In his own world, and he knew no other, he was sure that he was the greatest man who had ever been or ever could. Donald Barr Chidsey
The newspapers of the 1860s dubbed him the Boston Strong Boy. His Fistic Holiness. In This Corner: Great Heavyweights
He would be Boxing’s last bare knuckle champion and the first Heavyweight champion under the new Marquis of Queensbury rules with the requirement of gloves. ibid.
He was our biggest icon ... He was a hero. Bert Randolph Sugar
The men were the same age and height, though Kilrain weighed 12 stone 12 pounds, 30 pounds fewer than the champion. Given his recent troubles, Sullivan appeared to be in excellent shape: ‘Neck firm, head set squarely on the shoulders, massive shoulder blades, great width of the chest, perfectly rounded, properly developed arms, and that grim savage determination that marked the man of strong animal courage and extraordinary physical endurance.’ Elliott J Gorn, The Last Prize Fight
From high culture through folk culture, Americans lionized Sullivan. ibid.
Sullivan held a gala reception at his hotel. The state indicted him for the offences of prize fighting and assault and battery. ibid.
Back in the days before Ultimate Fighting, Ultimate Frisbee, Ultimate Xtreme Face-Kicking, or any number of other sports that may or may not include the word Ultimate in the title, the most testosterone-laden, mega-asskicking competition available to humans was bareknuckle boxing. This badass, Fight Club-style face-smashery is as old as time itself, and back before everybody thought it would be cool to put the sport on skates and call it professional ice hockey, hardasses across the planet spent their days ruthlessly dishing out knuckle sandwiches like pissed-off chefs at the International House of Asskicking. For as long as Homo sapiens have had opposable thumbs (and therefore the ability to close their fingers into a fist), men have used the time-honored tradition of face-punching to appropriately determine who, in fact, truly is the most hardcore bastard out there.
If we choose to go by that criterion, then John L Sullivan is probably the manliest man in American history, and the most hardcore bastard to ever sucker-punch a Gorilla in the chops for no good reason and then go off to a bar and celebrate by pounding a fifth of Jameson’s, breaking the bottle over someone’s head, and nailing some skanky, corseted 1880s street prostitute. Sullivan was the last of the great bareknuckle boxers, the first gloved boxing world champion, and a man so badass he could have detonated those giant blocks at Stonehenge into rock dust with a right hook and still have enough energy left over to resurrect the Druids, punch their heads off, and then go back to pounding whiskey until he passed out from being too awesome.