In people's lists of great fighters, is it out of the question to have SRL in the highest 10? Does anyone on here have him that high or thereabouts?
His career was too short and not enough longevity for me to be ranked top 10, although he has 4 stellar wins his career as a whole doesn't have enough padding to it in my personal opinion. I don't know where i'd rank him personally, as i've never been into making lists ranking fighters. But somewhere in the top 25 sounds reasonably.
only if you don't think there were 10, 20 or even 100 better than him from Every Division & Every Decade over the last 150 years... he is definitely a Great and AMONG ATG Fighters... where in a list would he place, who the hell knows!
It certainly isn't out of the question for Leonard to be ranked in the top ten. He has a lot of great wins and no bad losses. (until he was old). However, I don't think he's there. He didn't fight enough at the elite level and his resume severely lacks title defenses. When we are talking about all time top ten in a sport that is well more than a century old, a fighter needs a complete resume to be considered that highly. I would have Ray in my top 25, however. His wins are that good.
no. maybe top 40 though Wins over prime Curry, Pryor, Michael Nunn would have elevated his standing exponentially
I think he has the best resume for someone with 40 or fewer fights. Is it enough to make the top 10 p4p ? Kind of a stretch. Awesome fighter and great public personality though
30 to 40 range would be generous. He is an ATG., but after he was beaten by Duran he just fought cautious and cunning. Plus he has too few fights and title defenses as was mentioned before.
On the cusp. I've had him anywhere between roughly 8 and 12 over the years. Depends on your criteria, but the quality of his elite few wins are outstanding and despite having relatively few fights compared to others competing for those spots, you can't say he didn't prove himself in just about every way, or that he doesn't pass the eye test with flying colours.
Tough one. SRR and Armstrong are above him. Probably Langford and Greb as well, but less versed in their achievements, so wouldn't say anything definite. Fitz as a p4p force? The more near the infancy of modern boxing the harder it gets to compare imo, but you can probably make the claim based on his p4p exploits. Pep? Probably, yes. Depends on how much you factor in his struggles with Saddler. So that's six. I think Ali and Louis also have a case based on their extraordinary domination of their division. A case can probably be made for RJJ, Pac and Mayweather as well, but then it gets harder imo. And since the cases for these guys aren't a given for many I can see him in the top 10. Let's not forget that besides his four top wins he also has a number of solid ones over the likes pf Shields, Ranzany, Kalule etc. He beat a fair number of contenders even though he fought relatively sparsely all in all.
