How good was Leonard's win over Lalonde?

The fact that Duran had 90 fights under his belt seemingly escaped you then?

 

Yes, but Barkley proved his worth over a period of a few years, with a few good wins in the 90s, Lalonde's day in the sun lasted just a few months. Lalonde wasn't even rated in the top 10 by anyone, yet somehow achieved a #1 ranking by a sanctioning body (popular fighting style and good looks). He was the epitome of a fighter who'd only chance of ever being champ was in the days of split and vacant titles. Barkley was a better fighter than Lalonde, in a far better division and fighting at his best weight. It's a much better win. If you can't accept this, then you have the answer to why there's so many people not giving Leonard enough credit on here.

No, the fact that Duran had had 90 fights and looked like he had little left is what impressed people most. Leonard went into the Lalonde bout as a fighter who seemingly had a bit left in his tank after a career-best win.

 

It was a good win,like I said. But the measure of Lalonde comes in these Ring ratings you just mentioned (from Boxrec site):

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Now these appear in April 1988 but denote the year-end ratings for 1987, shortly after Lalonde became champ. "Seventh" he's rated- a world champ rated that low. That just about sums how highly regarded he actually was. I doubt there was a 'world champion' in boxing rated in such a derisory manner.

 

Wow, you are really spinning things.

 

Yes, great victory, Lalonde should have been way too big for Ray but that killer streak that all legends seem to have came thru for SRL & the great one delivered once more. Beautiful.

 

Lalonde is not heading to the hall of fame in a hurry. Very overrated fighter who was easy pickings for Leonard to pick up 2 world titles in the one fight. If mayweather tried that he would of been publicly crucified on this forum.

 

One would think that if he could perform at so high a level you keep mentioning with the extra pounds on him that he could have done something with Norris at a comfortable 154

 

This is a really good point and it tells us a lot about Leonard. Even into his forties Robinson was never dropped twice and overwhelmed in this fashion. Norris dominated Leonard.

Leonard was 34 years old for that fight and had fewer than forty fights. It wasn't like he had a lot of wear and tear on his body. He had been out of the ring only a little more than year, and in his previous performance he nearly shut out Duran by running. So his legs didn't appear shot.

Perhaps, the Hearns fight six months earlier showed us where Leonard was really at in terms of diminished skills. Of course Hearns always confused Leonard, but Hearns was quite ringworn by that time. Leonard had just turned 33 and, for all the reasons noted above, he shouldn't have performed so poorly, if he was a great as people claim.

Hagler was ready to be taken, so it was hard to tell much from that fight. Hagler made Leonard look good. Before that Leonard was embarrassed by Kevin Howard and struggled with Kalule.

Given how dominant Hearns was in their first fight before fading, and given how easily Duran handled Leonard in the first match, I think we see that Norris' victory over Leonard had something to do with Leonard's diminishing skills but more to do with the talent that Leonard always was, which is to say that he is overrated.

I think a case can be made for Leonard being an all-time great, but he isn't up there with the Robinsons, Armstrongs, and Gavilans of history.

 

Whatever the case may be he was certainly a talented fighter. And he did have drawing power but I cant believe he would have carried the sport all by himself regardless of who the opponent was. This is what what his fans were saying, probably picked up in the press. A most irrational group of people.

Leonard also needed to be matched up with another name fighter if he was to bring in bigger paydays as Leonard-Howard, Leonard-Lalonde, Leonard-Norris were not major events, surely not drawing much more of the fan base than most other title bouts involving other fighters.

You're always going to have someone such as this fellow spouting off because he sees the tide of public opinion going against his idol on public channel youtube. In desperation they make with dramatic and highly emotional statements such that

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A fighter with a 36-3 record at best and he comes out with "We will never see his like again" :-(

people with selective memories, filtering out memories of embarrassing performances while embellishing his few achievements.

I've had private discussions with these types thru private messaging who not wanting to let their true thoughts be known publically, have confessed Ray deliberately stall the Hagler fight otherwise "Hagler would have killed him"

Their own words.

As for Spinks, we all know the thought of 5 or even 4 titles would have been automatically dismissed. Only someone of Lalonde's caliber could ever possibly draw out Ray to fight even after he said the only fight he was interested in coming out for was a one time shot with Hagler