Saw him at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas with Earnie Shavers a few years back. He was in rough shape, using a walker to slowly get to his chair next to Earnie. He's no longer in pain, he's in a better place now. RIP
RIP. I always felt he belonged in that category of great amateurs and poor professionals. Might just the luckiest guy to win a HW title, after that bum Joshua knocked out. Old unprepared Ali, and he avoided Norton like the plague too. He never won a big one after that. Ironically, Larry Holmes, who despised him openly, was one of the first to pay him tribute. Old Larry getting soft as his own end approaches, I presume.
You can do one of those 7 [9)-degrees-of-separation things from Leon Spinks, the 1976 Heavyweight Gold Medalist all the way down to David Reid, the 1992 Olympic Gold Medalist. I think it's : Spinks Coetzee Bruno LArry Frazier Jerry Halstead Rudiger May Johnny Nelson Guillermo Jones Laurent Boudouani David Reid You can move off in various directions along the way too.
Word is he had Parkinson's too. It was Holmes that said, "I always knew he'd wind up with 3 dollars in his pocket and cornflakes for brains". Boxing is fucking hard.
Anybody else ever notice how much Larry Holmes's face and head appear to have changed shape as he aged. At least Spinks still looked like Spinks.
Only difference I see in Larry is that he's now an old man, and his hairline has gone back, which gives the impression that his face has changed. Other than that, he still looks like Larry Holmes - only like a senior citizen now, which he is. Larry, even in his youth, sure wasn't blessed in the looks department, that's for sure.
Leon is now gone from his terrible world - whether there's an afterlife or not, either way, he's free of the craziness of Earth. My thoughts are with Cory and Michael, who are now without a dad/brother.
R.I.P. BTW, he was on Judge Mathis about 20 years ago and that episode is comedy gold. Not because of him but the guy who either he was suing or was suing Spinks. Spinks won the case.
