Muhammad Ali wins his third and final world heavyweight championship - September 15th, 1978

At the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, boxer Muhammad Ali defeated Leon Spinks in a fight for the heavyweight championship.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello again and Welcome to This Day in
History Class, a show that gives a quick look it's
something that happened a long time ago. Today I'm Gabe

(00:21):
Lousier and this episode we're talking about the last great
fight of the greatest of all time, Mohammed Ali. The
day was September at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans,

(00:46):
boxer Mohammed Ali defeated Leon Spinks in a fight for
the heavyweight championship. The victory made Ali the first fighter
in history to win the title three times. This records
setting match was a comeback moment for Ali and would
stand as the last notable fight of his career. Ali

(01:07):
had become a professional boxer eighteen years earlier in nineteen
sixty when he defeated Tunny Hunsacker in a six round bout.
Just four years later, Ali bested Sonny Liston to become
world heavyweight champion for the first time at age twenty two.
Ali continued his winning streak until nineteen sixty seven, when

(01:31):
his career was halted by the Vietnam War. After being
drafted for military service, Ali refused to be inducted into
the Armed Forces. He explained his decision by saying, quote,
my conscience won't let me go shoot my brother or
some darker people, or some poor, hungry people in the
mud for big, powerful America. How can I shoot them

(01:54):
poor people? Just take me to jail. Ali was soon
convicted of draft evasion and was banned from boxing for
three years, and the hits just kept on coming. In
March nineteen seventy one, five months after his return to
the ring, Ali suffered the first professional loss of his career.
Build as the fight of the century. The championship match

(02:17):
pitted Ali against Joe Frasier for fifteen grueling rounds. In
the end, Frasier was declared the winner by unanimous consent,
and Ali lost his heavyweight title for the first time.
On the bright side, in June of that same year,
the U. S. Supreme Court overturned Ali's earlier conviction. He

(02:37):
was no longer the heavyweight champ, but he wasn't considered
a draft dodger either. Unfazed by his loss to Frasier,
Ali quickly worked his way back up through the ranks.
Then in late nineteen seventy four, he won back the
heavyweight title when he defeated George Foreman in the eighth
round of their famous rumble in the Jungle match. If

(02:59):
you're wondering who took the belt from Ali the second time,
the answer is none other than Leon Spins. Seven months
before their fight at the Superdome, Ali and Spins faced
off for the first time at the Heavyweight Championship in
Las Vegas. Spinx was a newcomer to the sport. He
had fought professionally only seven times before going head to

(03:22):
head with Ali. He was considered the clear underdog at
ten to one odds, but on February, Spins beat those
odds and became the second person to take the heavyweight
title from Ali. After this shocking upset, Ali spent the
next seven months training for a rematch. Speaking to reporters

(03:44):
ahead of the fight, he seemed to imply it was
a good thing that he'd lost to a boxer eleven
years younger than him, As he explained, quote, do you
know if I beat him the first time, I wouldn't
have got no credit for it. He only had seven fights.
The kid was nothing, so I'm glad he won. It's
a perfect scene. You couldn't write a better movie than

(04:06):
this competition fighting odds, can the old Champ regain his
title for a third time? Think of it a third
time do or die. When the big day arrived on September,
Ali and Spinks climbed into a ring in front of
more than sixty three thousand spectators, including celebrities like Liza

(04:28):
Minelli and Rocky Balboa himself Sylvester Stallone At home, more
than ninety million people tuned in for the fight. The
entire country was on the edge of its seat, wondering
if the old Champ could pull out one more win.
Ali came prepared and poured everything he had into the fight.
He danced and dodged his way through all fifteen rounds,

(04:51):
dominating the fight and landing some solid punches. When the
final bell rang, a unanimous decision from the judges declared
that Ali thirty six had beaten Spinks. History was made
as Ali reclaimed the heavyweight title for the third and
final time. The next year, Ali tried retiring from boxing,

(05:14):
but it didn't take. His dwindling fortune compelled him back
into the ring for two more pay days, but after
losing both matches, Ali hung up his gloves for good.
At age forty. During his twenty one year career, Ali
tallied fifty six wins, thirty seven of which were knockouts,

(05:35):
and just five losses. Outside the ring, he also found
success as an artist, an entertainer, an activist, and even
a diplomat, but we'll save those stories for another day.
I'm Gabe Louisier and hopefully you now know a little
more about history today than you did yesterday. If you

(05:56):
have any comments or suggestions, you can send them my
way at this day at i heart media dot com.
Thanks to Chandler May's for producing the show, and thank
you as always for listening. I'll see you back here
against tomorrow for another day in History class. For more

(06:19):
podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.