Does Sugar Ray Robinson have a better win than Duran beating Leonard in Montreal?

No. He definitely has the better overall resume, but Robinson's TKO over LaMotta, arguably his best win, is not of equal value

 

I think Sugar's defense against Kid Gavilan is in the same ballpark, unfortunately there's no film of it.

 

The Lamotta wins are comparable. SRL was a multiple-division champ, and Lamotta only 1, but a lot of SNL's big wins were controversial, and he fought in the era when titles were handed out in cracker jack boxes, whereas Lamotta was THE middleweight champ.

Just to catalog what I mean:

Hearns 1- Tommy was ahead on the cards and it was considered at the time a quick stoppage.

Haglar- We just re-hashed this an I am not going through it again

LaLonde- picked up belts in two divisions by beating a glorified fringe contender.

Hearns 2- Hearns put him down twice and most people felt won this, and yet it was alled a draw. Similar to Wilder-Fury, except that most who watched felt that Hearns won it pretty handily.

Just my opinion.

 

Ray was not a great fighter YET when Duran beat him. That settles that.

 

When exactly would you say was he a "great fighter"?

Also you didn't provide the SRR wins you rate above Duran's over SRL?

 

He beat Benitez and Hearns to become undisputed champ at WW. One of the best boxers the division has every seen and one of the best punchers. That's about as tough road to win it as any champ of any division ever. "Handed out in cracker jack boxes"... Ffs.

 

The manner in which he beat LaMotta in their last fight was mightily impressive, but as a simple W, I don't think Robinson has a single one that rivals Duran's over Leonard.

 

Could n't agree more. Ray's resume at welter,alone,makes him an all time great.

 

Yes. He has a few.
I don't rate Ray Leonard that highly.

 

No he doesn't , Most of the opponents Robinson faced he was the prohibitive favorite, and it was a shock when he lost. No one expected Duran to win in Montreal, (In hind site it was more of underestimating Duran's ability at the higher weights,than any knock on Leonard) No one expected Duran to carry the weight so well, and be as strong on the inside as he turned out to be, or to be as slick as he was defensively. Even the so called experts of the era had no idea of how special Duran truly was, and fell into the good bigger will defeat the good little man mentality (You know the way most on this website think about the heavy's today in comparing them to heavy's from days past) It was a shocking win for Duran, and a dominate one, and for yrs after he proved it wasn't a fluke. When compared to Robinsons most of his fights were seen as a forgone conclusion .

 

How about a 36 year old Robinson KO'ing prime iron chinned Gene Fullmer cold with one punch.

 

Robinson was a pretty big underdog against Olson in 1955, and against Fullmer in 1957, and knocked them both out in devastating fashion.
In 2 rounds and 5 rounds respectively.

Not that I actually follow the line of "biggest win" being "least expected" or whatever. A great fighter shouldn't be penalized for being expected to beat other top fighters.
But if you want to go down that route, Robinson pulled out some big wins as a big underdog too.

 

I never heard Robinson was an underdog in fights until he was pass prime, I have a hard time believing he was an underdog to Olson.

 

Yes, he was past prime in 1955.