Leon Spinks remembered
Michael Marley pays tribute to Leon Spinks, the fun-loving champion who conquered ‘The Greatest’
MAKING a mockery, an often meanspirited lampoon of his gap-toothed look and mangled speech and even his hair, was a sort of cottage industry for comedians. From Johnny Carson to the brilliant Richard Pryor and far beyond, it was open season on Leon Spinks.
Even his 1978 shock victory over Muhammad Ali did not stop the jokes. “Leon was upstairs brushing his tooth” was a typical jest. The fact that he survived and thrived first in the hellhole Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis and then served honourably in the Marine Corps and won an Olympic gold medal in 1976 in Montreal was rarely mentioned.
bchristensen@ironmountaindailynews.com FROM LEFT, 8-YEAR-OLD twins Joseph and James Powell practice hockey with 13-year-old brother Jacob on the 24-by-54-foot ice rink their parents, Jeff and Shannon, installed at their home in Breitung Township this winter. With access to indoor ice venues limited due to the pandemic, they decided to set up a rink at home for the first time. (Brian Christensen/Daily News photo) FROM LEFT, TANNER HELMINAN, Brooklyn Helminan and Braden Helminan play on the 30-by-50-foot ice rink at their Iron Mountain home. (Brian Christensen/Daily News photo) Kiel Ross, 33, steps out onto the ice behind his Norway home. The rink, which Ross has built for his children for a number of years, measures 50 by 80 feet. (Brian Christensen/Daily News photo)
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Leon Spinks guffawed through the trademark gap in his front teeth and shouted: ‘Thank God for that, man. There’s still some people out there not too happy that I beat Muhammad Ali.’
Then, just in case it had slipped our minds, he reminded us: ‘I am the only man ever to beat The Greatest when he was the world heavyweight champion.’
That he was in life, since the other times Ali lost his championship came with officialdom stripping him outside the ring.
That Neon Leon remains in death, untimely suffered this weekend from prostate cancer at only 67.
Spinks rocked Ali and the boxing world on to its feet with his famous victory in 1978
Truckie on trial over $3.8m tax office rort A trucking boss allegedly scammed more than $3.8m in fuel rebates from the ATO, creating bogus companies using fake identities, a court has heard.
Crime by Jordanna Schriever
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Subscriber only A trucking boss fraudulently scammed more than $3.8 million from the Australian Taxation Office over 3.5 years by creating three bogus transport companies to falsely claim fuel rebates, a court has heard. Reginald George Roberts, 67, is standing trial in the District Court charged with 75 counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage from the Commonwealth between December 2002 and June 2006. Opening the trial on Thursday, Jeff Powell, prosecuting, said Roberts created three bogus companies - RR Logistics, Inter Link Freight Services and Phillip Williams Pty Ltd - and used false identities to lodge 75 false claims totalling multi-thousands in rebates each month.
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