Donny Lalonde recalls fighting Sugar Ray Leonard

this farce never should have happened

and with two titles at stake

a total embarrassment

 

Ray was cherry-picking a bit there. Bigger opponent, but misleading to a degree because Lalonde was forced to pare down to an unrealistically low weight. And he was always one-handed anyway.

 

100% true but in fairness they both entered that ring with their disadvantages.

 

Slightly underrated win for Leonard. Lalonde's right hand power was huge and he threw it very direct. No easy nights work.

 

No one forced Lalonde to sign up he knew the deal and had two options. Take it or leave it

 

Very true. Was all to do with the contest between Sugar and Hearns, who could get 5 belts first. That's why the, super middle l and light heavy in one package.

 

Something to consider regarding the weight Donny came in the high 160s and low 170s for a long while before the fight. I don’t think it was so drastic. Though this is just me trying to remember stuff I read and a quick peak at Boxrec so maybe someone else could chime in?

 

I remember this fight well. Definitely similar vibe to Jones vs Ruiz, Canelo vs Kovalev or how Oscar would get a disputed decision over Felix Sturm and say he was a Middleweight champion. The late 80's/early 90's was the beginning of these type of fights.

Great boxer moves up in weight and beats good fighter or fighter that is faded and claims a belt. Leonard was kind of the beginning of the cherry pick belt grab guy.

Conversely, Hearns moved up and DID beat the real light heavyweight champ in Virgil Hill.

 

Yeah I know. I watched the fight. Ray was past his best and that is why his team went after Donny who was never anything special as a fighter. My point was it was a cherry pick fight.

I used Roy vs Ruiz as an example of a cherry pick just Leonard vs Lalonde was. Ruiz was not THE heavyweight champ just like Lalonde wasn't THE champ.

When I said similar vibe, I was referring to the matchup not how the fight played out. Those matches were about the star winning a belt against a 2nd tier or compromised opponent. If Canelo fights Makabu it will be another cherry pick for an alphabet belt. Makabu has a belt but Briedis is the real champ at CW.

 

It would have been interesting to see if SRL could have moved up to super middleweight in his prime without surrendering his speed and reflexes which made him great. As an aside that was the fight where LaLonde fired Teddy Atlas immediately prior to it and cost him $600,000.00. Teddy went to his apartment to shoot him but luckily he wasn't home.

 

Regardless of what anyone thinks, I always felt that it was a good fight. Lots of action and a dramatic ending. Perhaps it wasn’t a “ great “ win for Leonard but certainly not one to discredit him for either. Lalonde was a bigger, younger and hard hitting man with a world belt. Hardly a bad victory

 

I watched it last night. The size difference was immediately noticeable.

 

He weighed 167 for a fight almost exactly 2 years before.

In the three fights between that and Leonard his weight was between 171 1/2 and 173 1/4.

It was not a drastic weight cut.