$US300,000 for Spinks

Press, 17 February 1978, Page 24

$US300,000 for Spinks

NZPA Las Vegasi Whoever Spinks fights next time it will be for a lot more than the SUS3OO.OOU he got yesterday.. Ali got SUS3.7M and, due to I the fact that be is a legend,; h< probably will not suffer! financially when and if he fights again.

I The former champion ’threw his left arm toward i Spinks in a gesture of "job Swell done,” then stood with his head bowed in his corner j after the final bell.

After the decision was an-; jnour.ced and the Spinks camp erupted joyfully, Ali ’and his entourage pushed {slowly toward the dressing {room without the possession i Ali nrized most of all.

[ “The important thing is to [leave with the title,” Ali had | said, whenever he was asked j about retirement. Now if ! he s going to leave with it,

he will have to come back and get it on 36-year-old leg.', and slowing reflexes. The defeat for Ali was just his third against 55 victories and it was the first {time the title has been- taken away from him by another Iman’s fists. Politics beat him I the first time but he rallied to regain the title with a i knock-out of George ForeIman in Zaire in 1975.

That was an example of AH upsetting the odds, but it was not nearly as shocking as Ali being upset.

The only other times Ali! has tasted defeat were when he lost to Frazier in his first; bid to regain the title in 1971 and when he had his jaw broken by Ken Norton in a non-title fight in 1974. Spinks, the light heavyweight gold medal-winner in th' 1976 Montreal Olympics, 16 years after Ali won the same title in Rome, turned professional on January 15, 1977 He won his first five fights in easy fashion but then was held to a 10-round draw by Scott Ledoux on October 22.

Spinks then scored a 10round decision on November 18 over the unbeaten Alfio Righetti of Italy, but he did not appear to observers to look like the next, world heavy-weigh* champion.