Even though they are brothers, they are different, like night and day. One quiet and the other outgoing. Having met both, take my word for it.
Both Spinks brothers Leon ‘Neon’ and Michael ‘Jinx’ won Olympic gold medals in 1976 in Montreal, Canada. Leon, the older of the two, had an amateur record of 178-7 with 133 knockouts.
Leon won the AAU titles in 1974, 1975 and 1976. At the Olympics, he defeated boxers from Morocco, the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland and Cuba. He was a silver medalist at the 1975 Pan Am Games.
Michael was 93-7 with 35 knockouts. He was the National Golden Gloves Champion in 1974 and 1976. In the Olympic Trials he went 3-0 and defeated Lindell Holmes, who would become the IBF Super Middleweight Champion. In the box-offs he split with All-Service champion Keith Broom.
At the Olympics, Michael defeated boxers from Cameroon, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union.
In the professional ranks, Leon’s highlight was defeating Muhammad ‘The Greatest’ Ali in his eighth fight, going 7-0-1. It was February 1978 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and he showed no fear in taking the fight to Ali, taking the split decision by scores of 144-141 and 145-140, and Ali 143-142.
In September, in the rematch at the Superdome in New Orleans, LA, in front of 63,350 in attendance, Ali won twice by scores of 11-4 and 10-4.
Leon’s career was then filled with ups and downs. In his next fight, he was stopped 21-0 by future champion South Africa’s Gerry ‘Bionic Hand’ Coetzee in the first round. He defeated South American champion Bernardo Mercado 26-2, then lost to WBC world champion Larry ‘The Easton Assassin’ Holmes 37-0 in 3 rounds.
In December of 1985, he stopped Kip Kane 15-1-1. I met him before the fight, and he was the kind of person you wanted to hug, so outgoing.
In his next fight, Leon dropped about 23 pounds and challenged WBA Cruiserweight Champion Dwight Muhammad Qawi, 25-2-1, but was stopped in 5 rounds.
Leon finished with a record of 26-17-3 with 14 knockouts. After the Ali win, he went 18-17-2.
In the professional ranks, Michael also became a world champion at Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight.
In October 1980, Michael stopped the tough Yaqui Lopez, 49-10, in 7 rounds at Atlantic City. Two fights later, back in AC, he knocked out former champion Marvin Johnson 27-4 in 4 rounds. He then defeated Eddie Mustapha Muhammad, the WBA World Light Heavyweight Champion, 38-5-1.
In his first defense, Michael Vonzell stopped Johnson 22-2, retiring him. Then stopped Mustafa Wasajja, 24-0-1. He defeated WBC champion Dwight Muhammad Qawi 19-1-1 in his sixth defense.
After nine defenses, Michael won the heavyweight title, defeating Larry ‘The Easton’ Assassin’ Holmes 48-0. In the rematch, he won a disputed split decision. In his third defence, he stopped Gerry Cooney 28-1.
In June of 1988, in his last fight, he was stopped in the first round by ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson, 34-0, who ended his undefeated streak at 31-1 and then retired.
I met the quiet one, Spinks, twice, once in Philadelphia at a show where I gave him a photo of his 1976 Olympic teammates.
