Was Sugar Ray Leonard...

top 10 on his opposition. Not a long career but some of the greatest wins.

 

Mayweather would beat Leonard.

 

He was that good.

 

I read your thread, wonderful insight. If your grammar had been a bit better it would have helped a lot. Why do you type like that sometimes? You're very articulate in the other posts where you type normally.

 

Leonard had a detached retina when he retired the first time. That was essentially a death sentence to a fighters career at the time, assuming the fighter had a management team that cared about his welfare (which Leonard did). He also had a lot of money in the bank and decided at the time to not risk going blind. Your theory ignores this fact.

 

I think you're the only person on this site who believes this. Keep saying it over and over again and you might sway some newbies. Trouble is there's film of Leonard beating fighters who were better than Mayweather (at 147 at least). Your guy is high on the list, if not the top, at 130. But I'd give him about a 1 in 20 chance of beating Leonard (and I'm trying to be kind).

 

Floyd gets clocked by Leonard like he did against Mosely (which he would) and Leonard leaves him in a pool of his own blood.

 

Out of interest (I'm too young to have been watching at the time) what was the deal with the detached retina? From what I can tell, Leonard had surgery and then retired despite saying the retina had been fixed and was fine.

After coming back in '84 he retired again but as far as I'm aware that wasn't because of the retina.

How was it a death sentence "at the time" and what was stopping SRL from coming back once he'd had the surgery? He was certainly able to fight from '87 onwards without going blind.

 

Never been a big Leonard fan, but he was one of the best talents the sport has ever seen. Media still tried to hype him up and build him up even bigger than bigger, though.

 

he was overrated!!! he had what 30 fights in his career?? if Duran hearns hagler benitez were all overrated and arum marketed them well is ray the greatest? NO!

 

There were surely fighters who fought on with detached retinas. I believe Sugar Ray Seales was one of them and he ended up nearly blind. It was an injury that didn't have a real good prognosis at the time. I believe Leonard's first retirement was legit and due to fear of losing his eyesight.

Leonard came back in '84 and had a lackluster effort against Kevin Howard who knocked him down. By this time, Leonard had a coke habit and retired, feeling that it wasn't there anymore. In his book he describes having coke and alcohol habits for a couple years. He of course came back for the Hagler fight. The comebacks beyond that point got a bit sad (Terry Norris, Camacho) and even the Lalonde fight was sketchy (two titles on the line). The Hearns rematch was years overdue and actually a good fight. Leonard cedits Hearns with the win in that one.

Again, having been around and a fan of the sport at the time, I think the first retirement was legit and justified. Leonard was addicted to the competition and probably the adulation and couldn't stay away.

 

SRL was damn good period. The only criticism I have of him, was his lack of fights and the way he used his marketing power to dicate the terms of many of his fights. But give him credit, he still got in the ring and did what he needed to do to win.

And no, Mayweather would not beat him.

 

If Mosely hurts PBF, kind of scary to think what prime SRL would do to him ...PBF would have never even signed to fight Leonard ... Fact ...

 

Fights, Benitez, Hearns,Hagler and Duran and he`s a hype job ???

 

Agree.. :good