BoxRec

It was the Friday night of September 15, 1978 in a packed house with more than 80,000 fans in attendance at the New Orleans Super Dome who came to see Ali's last hurrah against the man that took his crown, WBA World Heavyweight Champion Leon Spinks of St Louis, MO.

Spinks was the former Olympic Gold Medalist with only 8 fights. He took the crown from Ali in February in a brutal slugfest in Las Vegas, NV. It was one of the greatest boxing upsets of all-time.

This was the fight that got me into boxing. In that same card, Jorge Lujan of Panama, the WBA World Bantamweight Champion successfully defended his crown against future world champion Albert Davila of Los Angeles, CA by unanimous decision.

Danny "Little Red" Lopez of Los Angeles, successfully defended his WBC World Featherweight Crown coming from the canvas stopping challenger Juan Domingo Malvarez of Argentina in only two rounds.

And Victor Galindez of Argentina, lost his WBA World Light-heavyweight title to Mike Rossman of Turnsville, NJ by TKO in 13 rounds. It was the upset of the evening.

Ali at 36 years old, outboxed the young champion Spinks that came to the title defense listless and unmotivated, due to partying, alcohol, drugs and women. Spinks looked very sloppy and unprepared. And just fought because of contracting obligations to get it over with. He had lots of legal issues and problems due to partying instead than working on the gym for his first title defense.

Ali with much more experience, danced and out punched the young lad, and used illegal tactics by holding behind the neck on clinches. The referee never warned him nor deducted a point. It went 15 rounds, and Ali is champion for the third time!

After this, Ali retired undefeated champion in 1979.

46 years

The ringwalks were epic ! As for Lujan-Davila, I thought Davila got robbed.

BTW, attendance was 63 thousand and change-an indoor record at the time.

Harry Mullan made the trip as editor of Boxing News and described it as the greatest night of boxing he ever experienced, which is praise indeed. I made do with a 'live' screening from the Birmingham Odeon in the heady days when British cinemas screened the big American fights. The atmosphere was electric as it became clear that Ali was on his way to victory over the hapless Spinks, but Danny Lopez and Mike Rossman stole the show for me. Lopez climbed off the floor in the first round to destroy Argentina's Juan Domingo Malvarez a round later, retaining his WBA featherweight title; Rossman did a real number on the great Victor Galindez for the WBA light-heavyweight title, stopping Galindez in 13 one-sided rounds. Rossman had trained with Ali at Deer Lake in Pennsylvania and was in the shape of his life.
Most people found the third world title fight, Jorge Lujan against Alberto Davila for the WBA bantamweight title, a tepid affair. I enjoyed it. Lujan fought a slippery fight, forcing Davila to come forward which wasn't Davila's game. Davila was a counterpuncher. It was close but Lujan got the nod of all three judges. Great night.

Ali a true 3 time champion.

He was the man 3 times.

Holyfield wasn't the man when he won it 3rd time or the 4th.

Same with other like Lewis and if Joshua wins this weekend.