Leon Spinks fighting an even greater foe
Forgotten champion of the heavyweight golden era is battling a brain condition that came from repeated blows to the head during his career
Mr T was his bodyguard, which right away tells you about Leon Spinks and his brief yet wildly entertaining stint as the heavyweight champion of the world.
Someone had to keep watch over Leon and his full-length fur coat. Someone had to know where his false front teeth were, and Mr T and his gold chains had yet to make it big in television.
Ah, yes, the teeth. His ex-wife once had custody over one set of them during their divorce proceeding, and Leon lost another in a mugging in Detroit that also cost him the US$45,000 fur coat.
I was trying to bite the guy and they came out and he stole them. It's so damn weird, people taking my teeth
"I was trying to bite the guy and they came out and he stole them," Spinks would say years later. "It's so damn weird, people taking my teeth."
A lot of weird things happened to Spinks on his meteoric rise to the top and equally quick fall back down. So many that Spinks could be excused for not always flashing the gap-tooth smile that even Muhammad Ali found so endearing.
He was still smiling just two years ago, as he went to find out the results of tests on his brain at the Cleveland Clinic's Lou Ruvo Centre for Brain Health in this fighting town.
"If it's gonna be bad, don't show me," Spinks told the doctor.
It was bad, though that was probably little surprise to anyone around Spinks in recent years. The mood swings and worsening speech were caused by a shrinking of the brain, which was in turn likely caused by the punches Spinks took in the ring and the alcohol he drank outside of it.