The all things technical thread.

Leonard had no right winning that fight, imo.

Oh and DrMo. We're not talking about Roy Jones here...

 

I think Ali and Leonard are more different than people realise. 'Video game speed and athleticism' is more apt with Ali. Leonard was a COMPLETE fighter. Also we're talking about him not having a 5 year retirement and all those prime years not being taken away from him. People don't realise how much legacy Leonard lost in those 5 years. That's the point.

Leonard wanted to be the first to expose a fighter. He didn’t wait around and wait on other people to do it. Leonard beat 4 fighters that were just ridiculous with varying styles. He fought an undefeated Benitez and had to adapt. He fought Duran when he was also the top fighter p4p in the world at the time they fought. He beat Hearns in probabily the best fight i've EVER seen and had to adapt.

But from there his career was cut and the question what if it had continued and he didn't get injured. He fought Hagler after 1 fight in 5 years at middleweight when Hagler had not lost in 10 year, that tells you something about his potential 'staying power and sustainability'. Hagler also avenged both of those losses by brutal ko and he was the number 1 fighter in the world.

Show me another fighter who has beat the number 1 fighter p4p in the world on 3 separate occasions? If you throw in Ayube Kalule and a prime Terry Norris that he lost to but fought as a shot drug addict, you have a fighter who absolutely did not care who he fought and sought at fighters at the top of their game.

And so there's a great chance he would've fought those guys and as i said would've been favourite over them. I'm not saying he would have beat every single one that i mentioned, but he would have a great chance. Because his mix of athleticism and skill was insane.

There's a lot of myths that gets thrown around with Ray Leonard. Either from Hagler fans or just people who didn't like him because of his 'golden boy' status. The Pryor thing being the classic example.

 

Very good post, mate. I think he would come through with more.

I would've loved to have seen him fight Pryor too. But i think Leonard was all wrong for Pryor. I'll tell you why it really annoys me that this myth of him ducking Pryor is perpetuated.

Leonard actually offered Pryor the fight and Pryor refused. He offered Pryor a fight to just stay busy before he fought Hearns. After Leonard won his title back from Duran in 1980 he offered Pryor a fight. Pryor was running his mouth so Ray said, fine I will fight you. It’s a fact and Pryor admitted it. Pryor had only one title defense at 140 and he was not a househould name. I love Pryor but people don’t realise that the legend of Aaron Pryor was built against Arguello after Ray retired.

Ray was going to make around 4 million for the fight. Pryor was going to make 500k. I assume he could’ve squeezed a little more cash out of Ray. But Pryor turned down a career high pay day. He had never made more than 100k in his entire career. Duran who was much more established than Pryor only made 1 million in his first fight with Leonard. He didn’t hit the jackpot until the second Leonard fight. But Pryor turned the fight down and Leonard fought a southpaw named Larry Bonds.

He did that to get ready for Ayub Kalule another southpaw who he would fight next for the light middleweight title. Next up was his showdown with Hearns. So where was the duck that people talk about? Ray tried to fight Pryor, but Pryor turned it down so Ray moved on.