Why did Sugar Ray Leonard have so few fights?

what are you, PRETENDING?

was he not active 1987 and beyond?

Did he not win the WBC middleweight title in 87?

surely you must have heard of it!

 

Since you clearly weren't alive then, I'll fill you in.

When Leonard defeated the Hall of Famer Marvin Hagler in 1987 for the Middleweight title, Leonard was going to make his first defense of the Middleweight title against ... drumroll ... the Hall of Famer Marvin Hagler!

But, after months on the fence, Marvin declined. So Leonard decided to move up to a NEW division and fight the reigning Light Heavyweight Champion Donnie Lalonde for the Super Middleweight and Light Heavyweight belts.

After winning by KO, Leonard defended his Super Middleweight title against Hall of Famer Tommy Hearns (who had won titles in three divisions since their last meeting) and Hall of Famer Roberto Duran, the reigning WBC Middleweight champ.

After those, Leonard retired YET again. And when Leonard came back from retirement yet again, to challenge Hall of Famer Terry Norris, that's when he had nothing left to offer.



Since your ONLY frame of reference seems to be Floyd Mayweather (since you can't quit bringing him up) ... I'll put it in Mayweather terms.

Mayweather moved up to Super Welterweight to challenge Oscar De La Hoya for his title. Mayweather won a close decision. Oscar De La Hoya, unlike Hagler, WANTED a rematch with Mayweather. But Mayweather DIDN'T want to fight Oscar again. And when Oscar held Floyd Mayweather to his contract, Mayweather quit boxing, went on Dancing with the Stars, took up pro wrestling, and did everything but fight FOR TWO YEARS UNTIL OSCAR'S rematch clause RAN OUT.

Leonard offered Hagler a rematch, Marvin turned it down.

Mayweather quit the sport for two years until their contract expired rather than give Oscar, who desperately wanted one and had a contract for one, a rematch. See the difference?


OR, you can put it this way. When Welterweight Champ Ray Leonard came out of retirement to fight for title, he fought Hall of Fame Middleweight Champ Marvin Hagler. When Leonard came out of retirement a second time to try to win a title and had zero left, he fought Hall of Fame champion Terry Norris.

When Welterweight Champ Floyd Mayweather came "out of retirement" to fight for a title, he fought Victor Ortiz.

See a difference in opposition there?

Come back when you know something.

 

You almost had it right but the way it actually happened was that Hagler was trying for the rematch but it was the ever reluctant Leonard who declined which led to hagler's retirement a year later

"When Leonard came out of retirement a second time to try to win a title and had zero left, he fought Hall of Fame champion Terry Norris. "

Where does this come from? Who said Leonard went back into retirement? His second retirement came after the Kevin Howard fight

Maybe it was YOU who wasnt born yet!

 

Also two of his losses were when he was well past prime - Norris and Camacho. Two guys he would have easily beaten in his prime.

His only prime llss was a decision to an insanely motivated Duran. And he didnt embarass himself in that loss

 

He would never easily beat Norris.

 

Ironic, Leonard being criticised, for having so few fights. The 5 leading welters today, had a grand total of 5 outings in the last 12 months, if memory serves me right. Only 2 of those were competitive bouts.
In a space of 22 months, Leonard boxed 7 times, which included wins over Benitez, Duran, Kalule and Hearns. Having watched it again recently, the “loss” during that period to Duran, could easily gone the other way, or a draw. Leonard proved himself in Montreal.
The Norris, Camacho losses, are of little consequence, most of the greats had a similar fate.
Leonard may have alienated some, but his record is outstanding, fighting the best.

 

SRR is widely regarded as the greatest P4P of all time. His record was 174-19-6. That's rougly 9 wins to every loss. SRL has 12 wins to every loss. Most credible historians rank SRR as greater than SRL because their knowledge runs deeper than their respective W-L-D record.

 

Quality over quantity.

 

How on gods green earth is a 36-3-1 record terrible

 

A horrible record? How? Yes he didnt have a ton of fights and IMO should have had more but a horrible record? I dont see that at all.

 

It doesnt matter what you have is actual record at it is officially 36-3-1. IMO he did deserve the win over Hagler but it was up to the judges. Your so called actual record is nonsense.

 

What? Joe Frazier has 32 wins. Kostya Tszyu has 31 wins. Sugar Ray Leonard has 36 wins. Oscar De La Hoya has 39 wins. Jeff Fenech has 28 wins. Jeff Chandler has 33 wins. Michael Spinks has 31 wins. Even old-timers like Jim Jeffries has 19 wins. Jim Corbett even less.

Does Usyk need to win 30 MORE fights to be considered any good? Because he's only got 20.

Buck Smith has 179 wins, 20 losses and 120 knockouts. Nobody cares.

 

A great and very fair assessment of Leonard's abilities as a fighter
and flaws as a man. Cheers.....
Though Leonard had less than 40 pro fights, he was blessed
to come along at arguably the greatest era in welterweight history.
And unlike Mayweather Jr, he faced the very best at their very
best, and in their primes.

 

Hagler had well-documented personal problems after the Leonard fight. His wife of many years filed a restraining order against him. One of the demands in the restraining order was that he get help overcoming cocaine use, which he denied having a problem with. Instead, he divorced his wife and moved to Italy.
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After that story was written, Hagler agreed to do an extensive interview with KO Magazine in October 1987. In it, he said he wasn't sure if he really was motivated to continue fighting. He mentioned such things as he'd turn down a WBA title fight with Sumbu Kalambay. And "maybe" he'd wait until someone unified all the middleweight titles (even if that took years) because he wanted to win all his belts back together. (Even though the IBF and WBA belts weren't on the line against Leonard and went vacant when he lost.) As of October 1987, according to Hagler, he hadn't spoken to Leonard. Marvin wasn't even sure if he wanted to fight anymore. He seemed to want his belts back, but Leonard didn't have any of them at that time. And getting a business going seemed more of a priority. And he said he was incredibly motivated to fight Leonard the first time, and trained for three months, but he wasn't sure if he could get up for another fight again.
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Arum spoke about how, about a year after the fight, in 1988, Arum (who promoted the fight) had Leonard and Hagler in the same room at the same event. And Leonard asked Arum to go talk to Hagler and ask him to fight him in a rematch because they could make a lot of money. Hagler told them to get a life and declined.

https://www.badlefthook.com/2020/5/...ed-hope-work-more-other-promoters-boxing-news