Damn, hard to proclaim someone as dominant and good as Terry Norris was at 154 as an ATG at his weight these days? He destroyed plenty of good fighters. King screwed him over against Trinidad and by that time he was one fight away from DeLaHoya, but Mullings was the latest guy to take away a big fight from a future DeLaHoya opponent. The "DeLaHoya Jinx" is what I called it. Happened to Kostya Tszyu against Vince Phillips, happened with Norris against Mullings, almost happened with Whitaker against Hurtado and again with Quartey against Jose Luis Lopez. I think prime Norris would've been problematic for Whitaker, Trinidad, Quartey and DeLaHoya.
you are right that Ray was higher caliber and technically superior BUT, Terry pulls the trigger faster and when you beat the other guy to the punch 9/10 times, then superior talent becomes irrelevant
you cannot compare Ray in 1991 to Ray in 1981 just on his inactivity and style. His whole style was about speed and activity. His struggles with Lalonde was more rust, but his fight against Hearns in the rematch he was beaten up..
Don't forget DKP biggest cash cow---Chavez. Terry was gunning after that guy and making lots of concessions to get that match done. Maybe it was somewhat close but I really don't think so. I spent an afternoon w/ Braverman when he was the matchmaker for DKP and he did not like the fight at all. Another factor was the manager of Terry, Soyatovich. He did a real good job but was not a favorite of Don King---who liked his son Carl in there as a manager or in that corner in some capacity. And Terry had lost those legs before the Mullings fight. tough competitive division and fighting 3 or 4 times a year wore him out. But one way or another & win or lose, he was an exciting fighter to watch. And enjoy. I sure enjoyed him. He was one of those guys that buckled down hard against elite competition but not so much against the others. And his style requires him to be razor sharp & anything less and he becomes very vulnerable. A tightrope act guy for sure.
Chaotic career, dirty fighter, never rose in weight, fought a lot of smaller has-beens. But he also had a real killer instinct and was must-watch TV for the unpredictability of his fights. Every hardcore boxing fan wanted to see him perform during his peak.
I thought Sugar looked great in the Hagler fight and once the ring rust came off, he only got better The Lalonde fight slowed him down becuz his fighting weight was much too high and I believe this hurt him in the Hearns fight but with more activity, once again became the near perfect fighter we were all in awe of and showed it in the Duran fight. Forget the one lucky shot Duran got in; Sugar was back and better than ever Unbeaten in 10 years, he was now up against the fastest fighter of his or anyone's professional career and as I said, Sugar was the more correct fighter but with Terry's ability to beat any opponent to the punch, that's the only thing that really mattered and like Larry Holmes remarked "Ray just ran into a guy who had the style to beat him"
I said it then and I'll say it now.... If Troy Waters could put Norris ON the canvas, Julio Cesar Vazquez would put Norris THROUGH the canvas.
You're playing up Leonard to rationalize that he was at the top of his game when he faced Norris, but I'm not buying it. He was not "better than ever" against Duran in 89 and then was inactive for over a year before the Norris fight. And he had to make a weight he hadn't fought at since 1984. Maybe poetic justice for making Lalonde fight at 168 though.
you're being too pessimistic Me, I'm more realistic about the situation for one, 154 was leonard's TRUE weight too much weight only slows him down as we saw in the lalonde fight more over, Ray had plenty of "just right" fights to get him ready for Terry, for the ring rust to fade one year wasnt a problem The only REAL problem was, he couldnt adjust to the new levels of speed; Ray had never been in the ring with anyone this fast and there are no sparring partners that can approach it so how does one prepare? How does one fight a Terry Norris? answer: you don't but before you come down on leonard, just remember how much better he did than the Mugabis, the Gattis, the Taylors, and the Currys of the world