Flashback Friday | Muhammad Ali vs. Leon Spinks: The Rematch
Despite losing to Spinks just seven months before, Muhammad Ali (55-3, 37 KOs) confidently stepped into the ring on September 15 to try and avenge his loss to Leon Spinks.
As a crescendo of noise flowed through the arena before the opening bell, Cosell commented.
“So the moment approaches. It has built up, I think, to everything that the crowd expected by way of pre-fight tension and anticipation.”
The bell sounded to begin Round 1. The two met head on as Ali immediately began dancing and firing his left jab. He looked quick, sharp and graceful in the early moments. As he moved backward and circled, the champion pressed forward. Spinks looked to attack and to brawl, bobbing and weaving while looking to close the distance.
At 6’3”, Ali enjoyed a three-inch reach advantage and looked to use every bit of it while creating his offense off his long left jab. Spinks fired straight rights to the body hoping to slow Ali and take away his legs.
In the second round, Spinks stuck to his game plan, trying to trap Ali in a corner and maul him. Ali responded with a wrinkle from his own game plan, unloading a sizzling combination while moving to his left.
As the rounds continued, Ali was clearly more comfortable moving to his left, using his wisdom, experience and movement to befuddle Spinks. The crowd remained raucous, leaving Cosell to observe, “25 years in sports, I have never heard a crowd like this!”
In the seventh, Spinks was desperately trying to catch Ali, to land a series of combinations and to pin him against the ropes or in a corner. Ali was able to elude the champion’s traps, continue to box and work his left jab, and began to catch Spinks with uppercuts on the way in.
By the 10th round, Ali had taken total command of the action. As the round was winding down, he stepped back and broke out the “Ali Shuffle” for the first time in the bout. As the crowd thundered, nearly blowing the roof off the Superdome, Cosell screamed, “Even a little bit of a shuffle! That shows you how he feels! He’s in command of this fight!”
Upon entering the championship rounds, the crowd remained enthusiastically into the fight and firmly behind Ali. The pattern remained consistent, Ali controlling the action, still dancing, still firing. Spinks, giving all he had, never for a second showed any signs of relenting, but was beginning to show fatigue.
As the bell sounded to end the fight, the ring filled quickly as police then hurried to surround it. Ali stood in a corner, facing the crowd, and held up three fingers. Then, in a moment of vintage Ali, he combed his hair while patting it ever so slightly prior to the pending verdict.
As the decision was announced in the ring, the crowd roared as Ali had won a unanimous decision. Scored on rounds, two judges gave Ali 10 rounds and the third gave him 11. It was a resounding victory for the now three-time champion.
While the ring announcer concluded the decision, Ali was raised into the air, slightly tilted to his left, in the now iconic image of the new champion smiling and blowing kisses to the fans seated at ringside.
After the victory, Ali again hinted at retirement and reflected, “I killed myself to get ready for Spinks. I suffered and sacrificed more than I ever did. There’s nothing left for me to gain by fighting.”
This would be Ali’s last victory as he would officially step down as champion in June of 1979. He would make a comeback and fight twice more, suffering losses to Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick. After the loss to Berbick he hung up the gloves for good.
He is, still, widely regarded as the greatest Heavyweight fighter of all time.
Although Spinks would fight another 17 years, he would never reach another pinnacle as he did against Ali. He would get a crack at the new champion, Holmes, in 1981. Suffering a brutal third-round TKO loss, Spinks would moonlight as both a Heavyweight and a Cruiserweight in the years to come.
