I agree with this almost completely, but I have to give him credit for his ridiculous boxing IQ which is one of the characteristics that made him such a great fighter.
SRR- At welterweight, Leonard wins one out of three, and runs SRR close in the other two. Arguably more elusive than the original Sugar Ray, has comparable hand and foot speed, and has enough power to keep SRR at bay. Walker- Walker sometimes struggled a bit against guys who were faster and boxed off the back foot. Leonard adopts this approach and wins a clear decision. Burley- See Leonard-Benitez, without KD's. Gavilan- Leonard plays the role of SRR, and Gavilan plays the role of Leonard. Leonard wins 2 of three close ones. FMJ- See my thoughts on Leonard-Burley Napoles- Mantequilla's tendency to cut and size disadvantage works against him against a guy who matches him offensively and defensively. Uncertain on Griffth and LMR match-ups, but I think I currently lean SRL in both.
Regarding Ray Leonard's defense. Some claim it was over rated. How is it rated? Ray was very elusive. He slipped punches but his footwork was quick and intelligent. Compare him to guys like Mayweather and Locche? No I dont. Ray was a more complete boxer than those guys. He took more chances offensively. In other words he fought. It's one thing to fight a defensive, cautious fight throwing just enough to keep the other guy off you and quite another to go out and fight a guy. You can slip and roll with Carlos Baldomir or Ricky Hatton it a little different when its Duran's right hand your trying to roll with. What if you gotta try to gauge Hearns jab and cross? Point is those guys are gonna hit you. Even a good defensive fighter isnt gonna get away clean. Ray Leonard could fight like Floyd Mayweather if he had to or even wanted to. IDK that Mayweather fight like Leonard. I'm talking strictly of Floyd at 147.
Agreed as he won big fights with different styles and his masterful ring IQ .. He knew what he was doing.. Yes at times his knock is his defense as he was there to be hit .. But when he his giving up height reach and against one of the very best jabs with Hearns, that is going to happen.. But what did he do? He was patient, made his move, closed the distance on Tommy and started going to the body and breaking Tommy down and fast because he was behind and running out of rounds.. He knew Tommy was gassing and he hurt him .. But he also knew that he was the bigger, stronger fighter in that fight with a chin and a heart of a Lion .. Now with Hagler, it was different, and as you mention his masterful footwork which confused Hagler … And he used this footwork and his speed to outbox him thru the first half of the fight .. getting off faster and landing the better shots … But he knew Hagler was stronger than him and that Hagler would eventually get in and get to him .. Which is why it was so important for Ray to use that footwork and speed and build a solid lead thru 6 and then finish well
Have a look at how often Hearns, an incredible offensive fighter and one of the very best in history caught him clean and hard in their first fight. all that height, reach, speed and deception but he found it very difficult to time Leonard sweetly.
I would agree, but with the caveat that most of Leonard's ability to avoid punches centered around his movement and elusiveness that came from that. His ability to parry and slip punches was probably only about what many other world-class fighters are. I wouldn't call him a great defensive fighter simply because of those limitations.
Would you rather that he “KEPT IT REAL “ like Adrian Broner ? Every time I look at Adrian Broner ...I thank God for Sugar Ray Leonard
Ray was very aware, intelligent in the ring. Almost like a Magic Johnson in basketball. He was thinking a step ahead. One thing he would do is try to finish round strong. He knew when to rest and when maybe his opponent wasnt ready for his offense. He would fake being hurt more then he was or so it seemed.
I would disagree somewhat on his slipping punches - i thought he was excellent at it. I would agree quite a bit of his defense involved movement but i'd also say he slipped a lot of punches as well. Definitely didn't parry much. Agree he wasn't a great defensive fighter but he was an extremely good one for mine. He was perhaps too aggressive to be great defensively. He liked to get in there and let his hands go rather than just box. A true boxer/puncher. This content is protected
I would say only SRR, but it wouldn't surprise me if he beat SRR. He may have been a phony to some extent and rumored to have some fruitiness issues, but Ali, Robinson, Arguello, and several others were hypocrites as well.
As great as Kareem was, didn't Wilt Chamberlain and Willis Reed give him fits? And Wilt may have been greater.
I never got the boxing fans who didn't like him. They are Hagler's fans with leftover sour grapes. Ray beat Hearns, Duran and Hagler. He shined gold in the 1976 Olympics ( watch the gold medal match vs. the Cuban ) and was a professional champion at welter, middle, super middle and light heavyweight. He has just one loss in his prime, which was avenged. Few had his power, speed, skills, or charisma in the ring. Just imagine what he would be worth to boxing today.
why don't you get people do not like him? He used his popularity to go in and out of the sport for the majority of his career to cherry pick fights and manipulate the sport of boxing to win titles. He didn't want to put in the work, he wanted the titles. He wasn't an active fighter. He also lost to Duran, Hearns 2 , and Norris .. He had his fair share of losses as well .. No one is disputing how great he was in his relatively short window compared to his entire career .. I'm not going to just give him 30 more fights and assume he would have been as successful as Duran, Hearns, and Hagler ,, they put in the work .. Ray didnt
