Sugar Ray Leonard has problems with clever boxers. Pernell is about as tricky as they come, and fights lefty Pernell gots an iron chin Pernell was recently voted greatest southpaw ever Pernell boxed pressure fighter JC Chavez silly and was nothing he could do about it Does Sugar Ray Leonard lose??? How would he prevail against this clever and sometimes dirty fighter???
Pernell would indeed have been very tricky for Ray. However I see a Leonard points win due to the Sugarman's equal albeit different skills plus his harder punching. Maybe similar to Leonard-Benitez.
you could see he had problems with Hearns when he got on his bicycle. Movement befuddles Sugar when he cant find an opening as in the Norris fight. Norris was the complete package with the ability to move and box, quick enough to beat Leonard to the punch or tie him up in close. However, Pernell was not as gifted or as fast or as hard punching as Terry and would have to rely on his CRAFTINESS alone to get a points win. Pernell also gives you very LITTLE to hit So I think Pernell takes this one on points. Sugar does NOT solve the left handed puzzle in time
I agree that Sugar was more gifted and one who I would rather watch but HOW dis he going to connect on Pernell? pernell has been in with several pressure fighters and we've seen that Pernell does not just let opponents hit him We have seen that Pernell is a quick thinker who can slip and counter. connecting with just the right combination at the right time I'm pretty sure that JC Chavez was a better pressure fighter than Sugar and JC couldn't do ****
I think that Ray can replicate and even exceed Jose Luis Ramirez's winning effort which we all so heartily applauded in Levallois-Perret.
The thing is Chavez lacked the SPEED of a Leonard to close the distance. And that speed is going to give Pea alot of problems. Buddy gave Pea hell the first fight so Leonard who is a class above Buddy should do better. Pea is as great a fighter as Ray and company. But more so at LIGHTWEIGHT. He's giving away too many physical attributes to Ray at welter- height,reach and Ray is just as fast. But make no mistake about anything - Pea is one of the greatest to ever lace up the gloves. He had some amazing performances and was very under appreciated.
Prime vs prime, Whitaker would be a difficult challenge for any welterweight not named Thomas Hearns. But being a difficult challenge does not give him a victory over the very best at the weight class. He'd hold his own against Leonard until Leonard figures he isn't a real threat to hurt him. From that point on Leonard's ability to lead with the right cross, which he probably wouldn't land initially, but the follow up left hooks to Whitaker's body would turn the tide in his favour. See the Larry Bonds fight for reference. Bonds was a very slick southpaw, ( Not as slick or talented as Whitaker) but the difference was he was a natural welterweight, unlike Whitaker. Leonard broke him down with precise lead rights to the head, and body. Stopped Bonds in 10rds ( Going off memory, may have been earlier) So Red I'm sorry Mark , despite your personal dislike for Leonard, and your agenda to disparage his career, with your repeated usage of Leonard's fight against Terry Norris as some indication of him having issues against slick boxers, though, you never admit the fact of Leonard's prime was almost 10 yrs prior to the Norris fight. ( For example Spinks beating Ali in 1978, yet Ali's prime was 1968 would Spinks have any chance of beating Ali in. 68? Yes he would of course,,,,,,, with a shot gun) Any Knowledgeable fan who's been on this site for a couple of years know your agenda. Whitaker wouldn't beat the very best welterweights in history as was demonstrated against Deloyhoya and Trinidad. He wouldn't beat Napoles, Curry, Rodriguez, Benitez, a motivated version of Duran, and certainly not Robinson, Leonard, and especially Hearns. Hearns is the only one I could see Ko'ing him though.
Lets be perfectly honest - prime Leonard vs prime Norris and Leonard stops him. Norris had one of the worst chins at world-class that I have ever seen and its a joke to think that a prime young Leonard wouldn't find that chin at some point in a bout vs Norris.
These are all great responses but much of them are based on assumptions that Leonard could close in on Pernell and somehow get in his combinations with consistency. Even though I vehemently protested Pernell's number one ranking as greatest southpaw ever, I must favor Pernell in this one. We simply cannot assume that Pernell would perform down to 1987 levels to which he put in no effort It's not that Ramirez did enough to win; it's that Pernell did enough to LOSE and we cant assume that he would ever hope to put in the same poor effort, especially against a Sugar Ray Leonard I for one, do not see how Leonard is going to cope with such a trickster. The unimpressive showing vs Bonds, a grade B fighter, who offered no resistance whatsoever, only adds to my doubt that he could handle a style as Pernell's. Frankly, I dont believe he could figure him out in time Further proof of this was his showdown vs Norris. Forget this excuse that "Leonard's prime was ten years before the Norris bout" especially when none of these skills had diminished in his prior bout (uno Mas) These are simply excuses used to explain away his inability to handle movers in UNO MAS as great as ever. The problem is they were of no avail against a mover like Norris and while Pernell is NOT QUITE the fighter Norris was, you have to favor him over Leonard Leonard tries to come on late but simply runs out of time
are you still fretting over the result over Norris V. Leonard? you really cant fault Leonard. He gave it his best but Norris was too elusive Whatever Leonard did, Norris simply did better It only shows that no matter how awesome Leonard was, and we all think that Leonard was awesome, he couldnt deal with the multi faceted attack of a fighter who could box, bang, N move and in the same way, I think Leonard was much more awesome that Pea Wee Pernell. It's just that Pernell with his tricky style, would frustrate Leonard to no end. It's as they say "STYLES" He couldn't handle another southpaw great - Hector Camacho, and he wouldn't be able to handle Pernell either
