Could Ray Leonard have achieved greatness above welterweight?

That was in '82. Hearns at least fought Hagler in '85. Three years after the operation.

 

Lets all hail the slick black American boxers, that don't need to rule their divisions with an iron fist, because they can just win the bouts on paper.

Leonard, RJJ and Floyd don't need to get in ring with their opponts, as they will win anyway, they seems to have all the tangeables when it comes to H2H and get a pass.

All three are ATG's , but they cannot get passes by picking and chosing the fights that they want or don't want or when to fight. They like most boxers will come against the wrong style or their chin etc.. will wear out then they will look like a shell of them former selves. The Macho Man , ( a feather fisted former SFW) had no business KOing even a shot Leonard, this would of happen alot earyier had he not had so many retirements and more bouts. A shot Erik just went toe to toe with a heavy handed Madina and came through the other side, so why could not Leonard?

While guys that win all/most of their real bouts like Rocky/Pacman etc... seem to lose all of their fantasy bouts, due to their non slick style, even though they clean house and take on all comers.

 

He wouldnt have to much trouble with Mccory:nono Not even in his class,he is a little overrated here. Leonard would stop him in the mid rounds, maybe even early.

 

This isn't some broken hand we're talking about here.Regardless of the operation,the damage had been done.Leonard's inactivity,part-time fighter status and selective choice of opposition was the direct result of his eye injury.Aside from one fight,Leonard was inactive and retired over a five year period.

 

So i see this is a feeble atempt to say Hearns wasnt stronger at JM and Duran was weakend at JM you Duran homers will go to any length to right this wrong get it thru your head,he could'nt beat Hearns at any weight its just a horrible match up for him.And Leonard was not nearly as good above WW besides the Hagler win i would say Duran was better than Ray past Welter,but Hearns was far greater than both of them above WW and it really isnt even debatable he actually was still great above welter...

 

Go **** yourself,******* and keep denying the truth.Answer me this,****face.Simple question that even an nitwit like you could comprehend.Why did Leonard challenge Hagler when he did after openly discussing(and obviously avoiding)a proposed fight for all those years?Just answer the simple question,cockboy.

 

You are such a ****ing ******.A truly shamelessly stupid post.As if the same detached retina prevented Leonard from fighting the great Kevin Howards of the world.Remember that cookie you recommended I have?Hope you love the taste after you've stuck it up your *******,jerkoff.

 

ok. benitez, kalule and hagler were all the top dogs in the division when leonard beat them. there is a good chance he would have succeeded had he not detached his retina since he still beat the top dogs anyways.

a badly worn hearns when the two were ranked 1 & 2 at light heavyweight in a unification bout.

of course the bout with lalonde was a disgrace, but we're talking WW - MW here and what i'm saying is in spite of his retina he still beat the top man in each division.

 

Hagler had no reflexes,footspeed or handspeed left when Leonard chose to fight him.****,Leonard was excited when slugger John Mugabi was making Hagler miss.Leonard actually admitted this publicly:http://espn.go.com/abcsports/wwos/leonard/hagler.html.If Leonard himself admitted that he chose to fight Hagler at that point in time when Hagler was looking shot,why can't boxing fans accept that fact?

 

The above site wasn't printed properly by Eastsideboxing.It's supposed to read after abcsports/wwo/leonard/hagler.html.

 

i don't need to accept anything, so hagler was declining and wasn't at his peak, he was fighting a Welterweight who had 3 years out with a detached retina lol. for the greatest middleweight in history it should have been a cake walk.

 

Agreed people want to make light of his comeback, but in reality he was the one at the disadvantage... Just going by what he did in his comeback/and his win over Kalule before quitting should tell you right there that he would have been great at Jm and Mw .

 

i agree. I mean at his best he managed to beat the best WW and the best LMW in the world as well as 3 ATG's all campaigning at the weights who would all go on to become champs after he beat them.

coming off a 3 year layoff he managet to beat arguable the number 1 middleweight of all time and the current middleweight champion. What happened after that is irrelevant and really he should have retired.

 

Don't accept it if you don't want to.That's your perogative.But it's the truth.It's that simple.Leonard even ****ing admitted it.Don't accept the truth,no problem.But here are more facts:Hagler himself was older,was fighting once a year at that point and had almost two times as many fights as Leonard did at that point.Plus he was shot.And Leonard knew it.A cakewalk for a shot fighter?Nah.Funny how Leonard never challenged Hagler before that or never made any of those comments like"Mike,get me that fight.I can beat him,"before that.And we can all see how much the detached retina prevented him from fighting Kevin Howard a couple of years before Hagler,or Donny Lalonde,Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran after Hagler lol.

 

Agreed.Leonard would have ko'd Curry,too.Probably inside 6 or 7.