Someone explain why Ray Leonard is ranked so highly?

...Or a career shorted by 5 prime years by a detached retina. Only someone with something against a great fighter would ignore that simple fact as we are seeing here.

Do you consider Norris and Camacho greater than prime Hearns, Duran, and Benitez? Leonard beat those men by KO.

 

Oh yeah, the famous detached retina excuse. Funny how it was not taken into account when he was winning. Or when he kept gatecrashing other peoples fights mouthing off.

Only a fool would claim he KO'd Duran. Even when he took 2 cheap shots after Duran started to walk away he couldn't drop him.

 

Detached retina `excuse` ??? Brilliance at it`s best As for gatecrashing, it wasn`t necessary for Leonard. Everyone crashed HIS party and wanted the big $`s that came with it...

 

Spot on ! After all, who are Duran,Benitez,Hearns and Hagler anyway ???

 

Bottom line is that Rooster knows he's great. No one, however loony, would spend THIS amount of time discussing the merits of a fighter if he weren't worth mentioning. You don't see 300-500 reply threads on Buck Smith.

 

...Or made Duran quit or Duran had a stomach cramp or whatever. It shows up as a KO. He was toying with Duran. That maybe worst than a flat out KO. Duran was not completely forgiven in Pamana until he beat Moore in 1983. He actually put Hearns and Benitez down.

Sugar Ray Leonard retired in 1982 after he KO'ed Finch as the unified welterweight champion. When he beat Hearns in 1981 he was crowned the "Fighter of the Year" by The Ring and the Boxing Writers Association of America, "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated, and "Athlete of the Year" by ABC's Wide World of Sports.

In short, he retired on top of the boxing world in his prime after having beaten 3 Hall of Famers, because of a detached retina that you call an "excuse".

 

Now I don't know if I want to do my 'Where do you rate Marty Jakubowski?' Thread...

 

He did beat Kirkland Laing.

 

That's so true.

 

I would totally post on that thread. We'd end up talking about cold war politics and pirogies by page 336.

 

Seven degrees of Kevin Bacon, right here. There ya go.

 

Great posts all you guys

 

So just to reiterate all you Leonard fanboys make him as high as 6th in an ATG list, on the basis that his record would be far better if he hadn't taken 5 ( necessary ) years out due to a detached retina?

I just want to check that fanboyism is still prevalent.

 

Ali is way overrated, too. Dude lost to Trevor Berbick.