He was a greeter at Mike Ditka's restaurant in Chicago. Spinks got divorced and lived briefly in an East St. 'Well, I'm still breathing, still making money,' said Spinks, who acknowledges he came here after being smitten by a woman he met on the road. Why is Leon Spinks here, in Columbus, a town of 20,971 split by the Union Pacific railroad tracks? He still carries himself with dignity, still flashing that internationally recognized gap-toothed smile, even as everyone is whispering why. But Spinks is putting in an honest day's work. The Louisiana Superdome, which hosted Ali-Spinks 2 just seven months after their first fight, is closed, ravaged by Katrina's wallop, and New Orleans citizens are still reeling and homeless. 'It's how you do it.Īli is puffy and shaky under the hold of Parkinson's Disease. 'It ain't what you do,' said the custodian. There are, he figures, people worse off than him. There's not a trace of sadness in Spinks. 'I have a friend named Leon Spinks and he'll kick your butt.' 'I tell guys I don't fear anything,' she said. He gives his glasses to Cassie Billings, a college student working the front desk, for safekeeping. Nearly broke but far from broken, the former World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association heavyweight titleholder (and Olympic gold medalist) spends his days fighting his demons - dementia, boredom, and hangers-on who have taken advantage of him. Leon Spinks, 52, has crash landed in the Great Plains.

Leon spinks