{"id":938,"date":"2021-02-06T18:45:03","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T23:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstandpen.com\/staging\/5861\/?p=938"},"modified":"2021-02-06T18:45:26","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T23:45:26","slug":"former-heavyweight-champion-leon-spinks-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firstandpen.com\/staging\/5861\/former-heavyweight-champion-leon-spinks-passes-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Heavyweight Champion, Leon Spinks, Passes Away"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sad news to report that former heavyweight world champion, Leon Spinks, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxingscene.com\/leon-spinks-67-years-old-passes-away-long-battle-with-cancer--155246\">has passed away<\/a> after a five-year battle with cancer. He was 67.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spinks had a career in boxing that spanned almost two decades. He began his pro career on January 15th, 1977 with a win over Bob Smith in Las Vegas. A year later, on February 15th, 1978 in Las Vegas, Spinks shocked the world by beating the GOAT, Muhammad Ali, in a split decision to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. While he would lose to Ali in a rematch seven months later in New Orleans, Spinks had made a name for himself in the world of boxing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leon Spinks was born on July 11th, 1953 in St. Louis. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and then, at the age of 23, he represented the U.S. in boxing at the Montreal Olympics in July of 1976 where he won the Gold medal. Spinks also had a successful amateur career. He won a bronze medal at the 1974 World Championships and a Silver medal at the Pan America Games in 1975. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spinks retired from the ring in 1995 <a href=\"https:\/\/boxrec.com\/en\/proboxer\/262\">with a record 26-17-3<\/a> and was inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame in August of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rest In Power Champ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sad news to report that former heavyweight world champion, Leon Spinks, has passed away after a five-year battle with cancer. He was 67. Spinks had a career in boxing that spanned almost two decades. He began his pro career on January 15th, 1977 with a win over Bob Smith in Las Vegas. A year later, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[52,176],"class_list":["post-938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-sports","tag-boxing","tag-leon-spinks"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former Heavyweight Champion, Leon Spinks, Passes Away- First And Pen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Olympic Gold medalist and former heavyweight world champion boxer, Leon Spinks, has 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