What if Leonard never had a detached retina and had this schedule........

I can't bring myself to assume he maintains his peak.By the time he gets to hagler i'd expect him to be slowing down espeically if some of the fights have been gruelling.

There's also the fact we don't have any peak middleweight Leonard to go on.You can't just assume he'd have been as good as he was against Hearns, Benitez etc..

I expect he would win most of the fights up to Hagler(some like Hearns or Duran could be a loss), with some being extremely tough.

beating Hagler would still be a massive accomplishment.He either loses there and goes into a slow decline or wins a very hard fight and then gets upset by one of the later names on your list.

I find it extremely hard to believe he would fight unknown in America fighters like Graham or Kalambay anyway.Hell, he wouldnt even fight ultra hyped MIchael nunn in real life.The risk\reward ratio in those fights just isn't there.

Mugabi, Frank Tate and Michael Olajide would be better additions than those two imo, if you are going for the most realistic possible scenario.MAybe even Sibbo, he's got much more of a profile in america due to the Hagler, Collins and Lee fights.

 

1. Pryor 1982 Leonard W KO11
2. Benitez 2 1983 @ 154 Leonard W KO12
3. Duran 3 1983 @ 154 Leonard W UD15
4. Don Curry 1983/1984 Leonard W KO8
5. Starling 1984 @ 147 Leonard W UD15
6. Hearns 2 1984 at 154 Hearns W KO12
7. McCallum 1984-1985 Leonard W SD15
8. Hagler 1984-1985 / Hagler 2 Hagler WUD15 / Hagler WUD15
9. Kalambay 1986-1987 Leonard W UD12
10. Bomber Graham 1987 Leonard W UD12
11. Barkley '88-'89 Leonard W UD12
12. Nunn '88 Nunn W UD12
13. Hearns 3 '88 Hearns W UD12

 

1stly, their wouldnt be a 3rd Hearns fight because SRL would be 2-0 up.

2ndly, I would back him vs every single one of those guys, with Hagler having the best chance, especially after Leonard UDs him the 1st time.

3rdly, If he beat all those guys, he overtakes the original sugar ray as the no1 fighter p4p.

 

I do not think the detached retina had as much to do with Ray retiring as people think. He had a tough fight with Hearns and I think it took a lot of the steam out of him at the time. Same with Hagler and Hearns. I think Hearns was a great win for both, but at the same time he seemed to take a lot of steam out of both Marvin and Ray. Marvin was inactive for a year after Hearns, and Ray retired after Finch. Ray wanted a rest. He needed to retire, let people think he was soft and then come out and fight Kevin Howard. Get knocked down, then come back later and fight Marvin and win when the odds were against him. It seemed like an unconscious plan.

 

I do not think Ray could have beaten Hearns at 154. Hearns would have outboxed him like he outboxed Benitez.