Knew about 13 months ago when his family announced he didn't have long to live due to colon cancer and then couldn't find any updates over the past 13 months on his condition.

Just saw the news a few minutes ago and had not seen this thread.

Leon Spinks was an inspiration as part of the 1976 US Olympic team in Montreal. I remember watching him win the gold medal live on TV. He was such an inspiration with a colorful character and humble personality. Seeing him win the gold medal in 1976 along with his other team members like Sugar Ray Leonard and Howard Davis and his brother Michael was truly an inspiration to me at that time as a 12-year-old.

In only his 8th professional fight he defeated a well past his prime Muhammad Ali, by fighting valiantly and bravely and doggedly over the entire 15 rounds, and when he won the heavyweight title that night, my entire eighth grade class at my middle school went wild because Ali was not that popular anymore since most of us thought he was getting gift decisions since 1975 or 1976.

Leon Spinks holds an interesting statistic in that HE IS THE ONLY FIGHTER TO TAKE THE TITLE OFF OF ALI IN THE RING.

He struggled with drugs and alcohol off and on throughout his career but gamely fought back each time to go through rehab.

A truck driver friend of mine who was driving through North Platte Nebraska in 2005 saw Leon Spinks working at a McDonald's and got his autograph.

He is a story of the highs and lows that human beings can hit in a very short period of time. He pulled himself out of the ghettos of St Louis took up boxing and joined the US Olympic team and won a gold medal and in an interview that he gave in 2010 he claimed that winning the gold medal was more special to him than beating Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight championship of the world.

God bless him and his family and the exciting moments he gave us in the boxing ring putting his life on the line like all boxers do. I have nothing bad to say about him whatsoever and I want to thank him.