Welcome Brutal! I have always been a big SRL fan for many reasons, one of those reasons was for a slick speedster he was also pretty tough which was often overlooked.
Thank you :thumbsup Yes, his performance against Duran in the first fight was about as tough a showing as you will ever see. He did well to keep his cool and not get drawn into dirty tactics as well, Duran used his head a lot in that fight from what I recall
I have just watched Sugar Ray Leonard's 20th win, a win over a fighter called Gant. A mediocre performance by Leonard who was very flat footed {for him} and struggled to land with much significance. However when he got Gant hurt the finish was brilliant. What a killer instinct he had. His combination of hooks and uppercut's was mesmerising.
SRL was certainly a special fighter, speed, skills, power, chin and a killer instinct are a rare combination to see in one fighter. And I think for the most part, the only reason he's generally ranked below Duran is because of the relative limited number of fights he fought. Had he fought another 20-30 fights or so, and won the vast majority of them against quality opposition, he may very well have been in most people's top 5.
Leonard fought- Benitez KO15 Duran L15, KO9, and W12 Hearns KO14 and D12 and Hagler W12 Going 5-1-1 (3) vs. these men is amazing. ...but he also beat- Dlck Ecklund W10 Floyd Mayweather KO10 Randy Shields W10 Tony Chiaverini KO4 Pete Ranzany KO4 and Andy Price KO1 among others before winning his first world title. He also beat- Dave Green KO4 Larry Bonds KO10 Ayub Kalule KO9 Bruce Finch KO3 Kevin Howard KO9 and Donny Lalonde KO9 Decent list of fighters but Benitez, Duran x3, Hearns x2, and Hagler is so good that nothing else really matters. If I had to pick a couple more I guess they would be Kalule and Lalonde. They were impressive wins vs. pretty good fighters.
I still have a hard time giving SRL credit for beating Lalonde considering he made him defend his 175 lb title at 168.
Beyond the obvious these guys were all top 10 contenders at the time of the fight: Mayweather, Shields, Muniz, Gant, Viruet, Chiaverini, Ranzany, Price, and Green Geraldo was unranked but a bigger man so that's a good win. Viruet was older and smaller but at least a southpaw. Muniz and Shields were the class of the group. Muniz was a bad call away from being a champion and gave Carlos Palomino hell. Shields was tough and slick; the hearns fight makes for interesting viewing. I think he had an amateur win over Ray or am I remembering something that didn't happen? It's a very, very solid collection of fighters. I'm not a Dundee fan but he was a tremendous matchmaker. By the time Ray got a title shot he had been in with every type of boxer you could want.
It really was an impressive run on the way to the title. Shields had a win over SRL in the amateurs, yeah. Gave him a tough fight as a pro, too. Still, Leonard did well to face and defeat him so early into his career. Muniz was just about at the end of his career, but was still good enough to have challenged for a world title in his previous fight. Ranzany was a mainstay in the Top 10 rankings, as was Price. Interestingly, his counterpart (Tommy Hearns) faced a similar level of competition on the way up, beating Clyde Gray, Harold Weston, Bruce Curry, Angel Espada, Eddie Gazo, Saensak Muangsuarin, and Mike Colbert. It could be stated that between the two, they completely cleaned out a pretty solid welterweight division by the time they faced one another in 1981.
yeah, Hearns and Leonard were matched perfectly in the context of their divisions at the time.Both faced good variety of styles from increasingly competitive fighters. As far as the outright quality of win on Leonard's record outside the all-time great wins.... Kalule is the best one.A very good and still often underrated fighter with excellent skills who was undefeated at the time.Leonard was really the only fighter to beat him as a pro when he wasn't dead at 154 or outright past his prime. Shields and Ranzany were solid Welters beaten in their prime by Ray.Not spectacular fighters by any means, but definitely the kind that could have had a decent run of title fights win some\lose some in a weaker era.Think the level of 95% of recent Welter champs outside Mayweather and Pac. Muniz was better than that.He was very good at his best, a very tough, stamina-laden swarmer\slugger with good power.He looked slightly faded in the Leonard fight, coming on the heels of his second brutal highly competitive, lengthy fight with Palomino, yet nonetheless a very good win for prospect Ray and strong, intelligent fightmaking. Price was a fine fighter too and most famous for his ten round wins over Palomino and Cuevas.A skillful outfighter who could be very sharp on his day, though he'd shown flaws in pacing and consistency in losing to a few fighters he probably should have beat, often in tight decisions.The Leonard fight was a bit of a rebuilding one for him, he had a few things to prove and Ray just destroyed him. Those 4 Welters would all be at the top of the division in recent years. Guys like Chiaverini and even Lalonde weren't very good, but were bigger than Ray and solid wins in context, though the Lalonde bout had it's own brand of bull**** title poaching involved.175 had some very average champs and top contenders at the time tbh, but the size difference still made wins over fighters like Lalonde and Andries solid for Leonard\Hearns.
Early on his opponents were vetted by Angelo Dundee, who did a masterful job of picking higher profile opponents which Leonard was both ready for , but also from whom he would learn.
Most of the top 10 was relatively weak when Leonard reigned at 147 lbs. But there were some elite champs like Benitez, Hearns and Duran, and he beat them all. So, he is lauded as a top historical 147 lb. champ for those great wins.
On that subject, Dundee vetoed an earlier fight with Hearns, on the grounds that Ray wasn't yet ready for Tommy, and added that it would be a superfight a few years later.
The division was pretty solid when he entered: Pipino Cuevas Pete Ranzany Randy Shields Harrold Weston Floyd Mayweather Bruce Curry Davey Boy Green Thomas Hearns Clyde Gray John Stracey Johnny Gant Angel Espada Andy Price
