10 Huge Boxing Upsets Nobody Expected To See
7. Leon Spinks Defeats Muhammad Ali
Anyone who defeats arguably the greatest boxer of all time in Muhammad Ali is going to be in with a shot of making a list like this.
Leon Spinks, then, is one man who definitely deserves his credit here.
The Olympic Gold medallist was known as a good boxer, but in the eyes of Ali, he was seen as someone who he could pick off with relative ease as he looked to continue his dominance of the heavyweight division.
Few gave Spinks even a sniff of pulling off the upset, but that's exactly what he did in Las Vegas on that famous night in 1978.
Spinks went toe to toe with Ali throughout the fight, ruffling the feathers of the champion on more than one occasion.
The fight went all the way to a split decision after 15 hard fought rounds, and, to the shock of many in the audience, Spinks was awarded the result on two of the judges' scorecards.
It marked a momentous rise for Spinks and while he was stripped of his title after refusing to fight number one contender, Ken Norton, he got his big pay-day in a losing second bout with Ali.