Leonard beating hearns the first fight

At the time Hearns was like a Terminator......seek and destory, and it's always funny when people think SRL was scared of Aaron Pryor despite him KO'ing a fighter of Hearns reputation and skills.

 

SRL was at his best that time.. A classic masterpiece!

 

Pac beating barrera doesn't come remotely close.

 

Hearns boxed Leonards head off & was ahead by a street till he gassed out, Hearns camp ****ed up big time with the scales & absolute lunacy for a man of Hearns size & frame coming in 2LB under the limit & thats what cost him the fight. Every one back then demanded & expected a re-match but SRL wanted no part of Hearns again so Tommy moved up to 154. It was do or die for Leonard in that 13th round, well behind on the cards & needed a KO to win & all credit to him as he sucked it up from the gut & managed to snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat. SRL would'nt fight a prepared Duran again or re-match Hearns or Benitez which the public demanded & when cornered about having to take Hagler on after hinting that Hagler was his next target he could'nt scream retirement fast enough citing a detatched retina. He could have made these fights in 83/84 when opportunity was offered by Hearns & Hagler but chose to avoid certain defeat at 154/160 & just haunted every major fight ringside by being color commentator so as to steal the limelight from the protagonists who headlined the card.

 

Duran's win over Leonard was better. SRL was naturally bigger, naturally heavier, younger, fresher, faster, and in his prime at his prime weight. Duran moved up, faced all those disadvantages, and produced a breath-taking performance. For me, SRL's performance against Hearns was not him at his best at all. Great win, great finish, but Leonard-Benitez was a much more complete and all-round impressive performance from Ray.

 

Agreed. But Ray fought the complete wrong fight against Duran. As we saw in the rematch, Leonard, when using his complete boxing ability would inevitably frustrate Duran. Benitez was a great performance, but Hearns was one hell of a puncher and a VERY dangerous fight.:happy

 

Tommy took the fight 12-months too soon, and 7 lbs. too light.

 

You state that Leonard fought the wrong fight in Montreal.....WHO TOLD YOU THIS!!!

Did you read it in some old 80's mag or are you just following the rest of the know ****-all sheep on here who 99% hav'nt a clue as how SRL fought all through his career up too & after Montreal.

How many of SRL fights have you actually seen???

What do you know about the build up to the re-match in New Orleans!!!

 

Leonard would have avoided Tommy at 154 like a dose of herpes......

Actually he DID:yep

 

I agree, the focus & concentration that he employed in that fight was surreal & it had to be. I'am a big fan of wilfredo & in some of those rounds he made Leonard look like he was fighting underwater, he's a fabulous ENIGMA is Benitez, I had this fight with leonard up 1 round when it was stopped but there's a few rounds missing from my tape. All depends on what you prefer, defence or attack:smoke

 

The bolded part isn't 100% true. While he did get very tired. What turned the fight was when Leonard hurt Hearns with that over hand right perfectly placed on the jaw and then jumped on him. Hearns couldn't recover faster then Leonards speed, power and accuracy.

Also Hearns held the stylistic advantage, the size and reach advantage by a solid margin, It wasn't like he was some big slow plodder either. Stylistically Leonard shouldn't have won that fight and for the first 12rds it showed. So you can't blame it on 2pds. Leonard never gave up in the fight which he was getting dominated and found a way to win.

 

I don't buy that "Leonard fought the wrong fight" bollocks. SRL fought the same way he did against Ranzany and most others early in his career, he fought aggressively because he thought he could win doing so, he fought brilliantly, and he got beat. And if you watch that fight, it was never Leonard's choice whether to box or brawl, he was facing an elite ATG who produced the greatest performance of his life, Leonard had to fight tooth and nail just to stay in the fight, he was unable to extricate himself from the dogfight with a rampant, rampaging opponent, not unwilling.