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On September 15th 1978, in the Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Muhammad Ali fought Leon Spinks for the WBA World Heavyweight Championship.
Earlier that year on February 15th, Ali lost his WBC and WBA World Championships to Spinks on a split decision. Soon after the fight the WBC stripped Spinks from his title for not facing their number one ranked contender Ken Norton but instead agreed to give Ali a rematch.
The fight began, even though old father time was catching up on Ali, he was out to avenged his loss and showed glimpses of his former self being up on his toes dancing, flicking out his jabs following up with single and double hooks in the early rounds and putting together all the little tricks of the trade he learned over 18 hard years in the professional ranks against the toughest men in the world, such as Sonny Liston, George Chuvalo, Jerry Quarry, Mac Foster, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Ron Lyle, Ken Norton and many others.
Pat Putnam of Sports Illustrated wrote, ‘The plan was simple. Ali would jab, jab, throw a right and grab. When Spinks came flailing in, Ali would hook his left hand around the back of Spinks head and pull him into an embrace, effectively limiting Spinks to one or two punches or pulling him off balance. And Ali would dance, baby, dance. He would tie up Spinks and then dance away from him on the break, circling to the right, circling to the left. And the fight went as plotted.’ Referee Lucien Joubert took the fifth round away from Ali for holding. The Associated Press scored the fight 12-3 for Ali, while the three judges had the bout 11-4, 10-4-1 and 10-4-1 all in favour of Ali giving him a 15 round unanimous points decision and becoming the WBA World Heavyweight Champion for a fourth time
After the fight Ali said, ‘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.’ Spinks said, ‘I congratulated Ali. He’s still my idol.’
In June 1979, Ali sent an official letter of retirement to the WBA. However, in October 1980 Ali returned to fight WBC Champion Larry Holmes but was stopped by TKO in the 10th round. Then Ali fought Trevor Berbick on December 1981. After this loss, Ali hung up the gloves and retired for good, thus making the Leon Spinks fight the final win in Muhammad Ali’s amazing colourful career.
