Update: Ex-Champ Leon Spinks Remains Critical, Fighting For Life in Las Vegas Hospital
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Here is the updated official Statement from the family of former World Heavyweight champion ‘Neon’ Leon Spinks regarding Leon Spinks’ hospitalization in Las Vegas, Nevada, and current medical situation, which remains critical: “Leon is currently hospitalized, and in the care of an exceptional team of doctors. We kindly request privacy be given to our family at this time. His wife Brenda Glur Spinks, and our Spinks family would like to graciously thank all of Leon’s friends and (sports) fans for all of the outpouring support of (your) love and prayers.” All other inquiries about Leon (please) can be directed presently to Lindsay Feldman at [email protected]. Thank You.” Wife Brenda, and Leon’s son Leon Spinks III, are asking for prayers for Leon.
Much like other veteran boxers who have incurred blunt force trauma to the head and brain, Leon, 66, was diagnosed with brain trauma in 2012 due to his fight career, within 2012 his brain diagnosed with brain shrinkage doctors believe was due to blows to the head over time incurred form his boxing career, and is part of the longitudinal study conducted by neurologist Charles Bernick of the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, Nevada, operated by the Cleveland Clinic. Leon previously went into a coma in 2014 due to a lodged chicken bone that pierced his intestines and required successful abdominal surgery.
In 2012, Leon Spinks, and the man he defeated for the world heavyweight title, the late Muhammad Ali, gathered for a $1500 dinner and show at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas introduced by video by then President Barack Obama, to benefit, in Ali’s name, the new Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in downtown Las Vegas, where researchers today are continually busy trying to unlock the puzzles resulting from damage to the human brain caused by a variety of circumstances, including athletics, genetics, and accidental trauma. Leon and his brother Michael Spinks are the only two brothers to have won the world heavyweight championship. In 1992, Leon fought for Frontier Martial Arts-Wrestling and won its world championship, making Leon the only world champion boxer in history to have also won a world wrestling title.
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