Leon Spinks (born July 11, 1953 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a former American boxer. He had an overall record of 26 wins, 17 losses and 3 draws as a professional, with 14 knockout wins, and was the former World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association heavyweight champion of the world. While still an amateur, he also became a member of the United States Marine Corps.

Spinks defeated 36-year-old Muhammad Ali for the undisputed heavyweight championship in what was regarded as one of the bigger upsets in boxing, but later was stripped of the WBC title for fighting Ali in a rematch in a fight which he lost via 15-round unanimous decision. In addition to being heavyweight champion and a gap-toothed grin (due to Spinks losing two and later all four of his front teeth), Spinks has become just as famous for the fall from grace he suffered after his career took a downward slide following his loss to Ali.

He won the gold medal in the light heavyweight division during the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, alongside brother Michael Spinks, who also won a gold medal in those games. Two years earlier, at the inaugural 1974 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Havana, Cuba, he captured the bronze medal. His Olympic teammates included Sugar Ray Leonard, Leo Randolph and Howard Davis Jr.

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; January 17, 1942) is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist. Considered a cultural icon, Ali was both idolized and vilified.

Originally known as Cassius Clay, Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964, subsequently converting to Sunni Islam in 1975, and more recently practicing Sufism.^{[clarification needed]} In 1967, three years after Ali had won the World Heavyweight Championship, he was publicly vilified for his refusal to be conscripted into the U.S. military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. Ali stated, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong... No Viet Cong ever called me nigger" – one of the more telling remarks of the era.

Widespread protests against the Vietnam War had not yet begun, but with that one phrase, Ali articulated the reason to oppose the war for a generation of young Americans, and his words served as a touchstone for the racial and antiwar upheavals that would rock the 1960s. Ali's example inspired Martin Luther King Jr. – who had been reluctant to alienate the Johnson Administration and its support of the civil rights agenda – to voice his own opposition to the war for the first time.

Bernardo Mercado was a heavyweight boxer briefly ranked as the top contender for the title of champion in 1980 by the WBC.

Born in Montería, Colombia on January 16, 1952, Mercado was once a sparring partner for Argentine heavyweight Oscar Bonavena, before turning professional on November 15, 1975.

Of his first 20 bouts, the 6'6 ft power puncher won 17 by knockout, nine in the first round. Mercado's first loss as a pro came in 1978, at the hands of future champion "Big" John Tate.

He went on to fight other future champions Mike Weaver and Trevor Berbick, knocking Berbick out in the first round of their meeting on April 3, 1979. In 1980, he earned a seventh round technical knockout over dangerous contender and multiple-time world title challenger Earnie Shavers and was ranked as the number one contender to Larry Holmes' WBC belt. He was defeated in an elimination bout with former champion Leon Spinks by 9 round technical knockout. He would go on to fight such name fighters as Randall "Tex" Cobb and Jimmy Thunder (with whom he fought in his last bout on December 8, 1989).

Larry Holmes (born November 3, 1949) is a former professional boxer. He grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania, which gave birth to his boxing nickname, The Easton Assassin.

Holmes, whose left jab is considered one of the greatest weapons in the history of sports, was the WBC Heavyweight Champion from 1978 to 1983, The Ring Heavyweight Champion from 1980 to 1985, and the IBF Heavyweight Champion from 1983 to 1985. He made twenty successful title defenses, second only to Joe Louis' twenty-five.

Holmes won his first forty-eight professional bouts, almost matching Rocky Marciano's streak of 49 straight wins, including victories over Ken Norton, Muhammad Ali, Gerry Cooney, and Marvis Frazier. He is frequently ranked by many boxing experts as one of the greatest heavyweight fighters of all time.

Holmes was the fourth of twelve children born to John and Flossie Holmes. When the family moved to Easton in 1954, Holmes' father went to Connecticut, where he worked as a gardener until his death in 1970. He visited his family every three weeks. "He didn't forsake us," said Flossie Holmes. "He just didn't have anything to give." The family survived on welfare.

Richard Alva Cavett (English pronunciation: /ˈkævɨt/; born November 19, 1936) — known as Dick Cavett — is a former American television talk show host known for his conversational style and in-depth discussion of issues. Cavett appeared regularly on nationally broadcast television in the United States in five consecutive decades, the 1960s through the 2000s.

In recent years, Cavett has written a blog for the New York Times, promoted DVDs of his former shows, and hosted replays of his classic TV interviews with Groucho Marx, Katharine Hepburn, and others on Turner Classic Movies channel.

Cavett was born in Nebraska, but sources differ as to the specific town, locating his birthplace in either Gibbon, where his family lived, or nearby Kearney, the location of the nearest hospital. His mother Erabel "Era" (née Richards) and his father Alva B. Cavett both worked as educators. When asked by Lucille Ball on his own show about his heritage, he said he was "Scottish, Irish, English, and possibly partly French, and, and uh, a dose of German." He also mentioned that one grandfather "came over" from England, and the other from Wales. Cavett's grandparents all lived in Grand Island, Nebraska. His paternal grandparents were Alva A. Cavett and Gertrude Pinsch. His paternal grandfather was from Diller, Nebraska and his paternal grandmother was an immigrant from Aachen, Germany.^{[citation needed]} His maternal grandparents were the Rev. R. R. and Etta Mae Richards. Rev. Richards was from Carmarthen, Wales and was a Baptist minister who served parishes across central Nebraska.^{[citation needed]}