I've been watching a lot of Leonard fights recently, and I think it's fair to say he's probably one of the best finishers in boxing history. Any opinions on the Sugar man?
he catches a lot of flack from the hagler fight truth is im a huge hagler fan and imo SRL won the fight by 2 points. hagler just did not punch enough
yeah it's tough to choose between the two of these fighters. love them both. i think hagler was all-in-all the greater fighter (possibly the greatest but that's for another thread) but to a fan of great boxing, watching leonard at his peak, he gets as near to perfection as any fighter got. nice call on how good a finisher he was, he gets plenty attention about his footwork, speed, skills etc but rarely about his finishing. you see him go in for the kill, man he had the devil in him for sure.
Leonard was indeed a great finisher. He certainly put Hearns away convincingly when they first fought and his finish against Lalonde was rather lethal to say the least. I wouldn't call myself a Leonard fan. He wouldn't make my top 10 personal favourties, but no disputing his greatness.
Each era has it's own star. Sugar Ray was the star of his era. That era was studded with supreme fighters in his weight category. Take Leonard out of that era and each of the others would have vied for the top dog position. He was poetry in motion! Sheer class! Believing in himself too much though, he went the 2 or 3 fights too many.
Ray Leonard in his prime was a sight to behold. Most fans remember him as a slick boxer, but he always regarded himself as a boxer/puncher. As far as finishing skills one need only remember one Leonard opponent; Tommy Hearns. Ray was losing the fight, and looked like some twisted monster from a Fright Night movie when Dundee told him; "You're blowing it kid. Ya gotta knock 'im out," and the rest is history! Boo
those are 25-30 years old, they wont be in HD And there isnt really the demand there to digitally remaster them and all that **** the way they do with old movies. You just got to accept the old shitty quality as its the best there is of those fights.
As a little boy I remember watching the Leonard/Hagler fight. I knew nothing of either fighter but I was rooting for Leonard by the end. He was the little guy in the fight making the big guy look bad. What's not to love? Now, being older, I can respect his entire career. Jeez, the sport needs another Sugar today. One of the greatest!