Ex-Boxing Champ Leon Spinks Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer

WI Web StaffMarch 18, 2020

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In this June 12, 2011, file photo, former heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks waves during a Boxing Hall of Fame parade in Canastota, N.Y. Leon Spinks is in a Las Vegas hospital after a second operation for abdominal problems. The 61-year-old boxer who catapulted to fame by beating Muhammad Ali in 1978 had the second surgery in recent days after complications from the first emergency surgery. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

Former heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks, diagnosed with prostate cancer in June, has undergone three rounds of chemotherapy that failed to prevent the spread of the disease to his bones.

Doctors placed him on a ventilator in November, giving the 66-year-old, who also suffers from dementia, just two weeks to live. But his defiance of those odds clearly demonstrates his resilience, his wife Brenda said.

“He’s a champion, he’s going to keep fighting,” she told USA Today, adding that Spinks has lost 80 pounds over the past year and has been prescribed medical marijuana to improve his mood and get along with those providing care.

Spinks shocked the world in 1978 by defeating Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight championship.