He's borderline HOFer but certainly not an ATG. He had a pretty underwhelming career despite his fan friendly style.
Cruz was a solid fighter with decent longevity but he was just the other champion during his time. He's not within a bulls roar of ATG.
Being honest, I absolutely hated Leo's career. He epitomised everything that was wrong with that era of PBC boxing. He fought on so many big cards, but would fight gatekeepers rather than real contenders. He had more tune-ups than real fights - it felt like. He had good 2 year spell from first Mares fight to Leo rematch, but that's about it. If He wanted to go down as an ATG, He should've fought Chemito at 118, Rigo at 122 and Loma at 126. He went a different path, made a lot of money and good for him - but He should be nowhere near any ATG discussions and I don't think He deserves to be on the HOF ballot either.
It seems the criteria is increasing for the requirements for being considered an ATG for some reason. He’s a 4 weight world champion, so don’t see how that isn’t worthy of being considered an ATG. Yes he is.
Rather the belts are easier to come by, so the raw statistic of X titles in Y weight classes don't mean as much. At Bantamweight He won a title against fighter from outside of world top 10 - and has not defended it against anyone of note. At Super Bantamweight He beat fighter considered to be the weakest out of the beltholders and against has not defended it against anyone of note. He won a vacant title at Featherweight. Here, to be fair, He did some good work - although it has to be noted that He fought guys who came from lower weight-classes just like him. He got gifted a secondary title at Super Featherweight against fighter who was not in top 25 at that weight. He has not fought any of the most talented fighters competing in the 118 to 126 range at the time He was there. Chemito, Yamanaka, Rigondeaux, Loma, Russell Jr... missed them all. He eventually stepped up to fight Gervonta at Super Featherweight, but was stopped and never recovered. That's not a HOF career, let alone ATG.
Yes. And almost all his worthy opponents not just were much smaller than him but also well past their prime. He is on the same level as Carl Frampton and their 2 fights prove that. In fact, Frampton's other best win (Donaire) is far better than LSC's one
I agree. Mares was still pretty good the first time Leo fought him, but He really does not have much depth beyond that. Too much cherry-picking. Guys like Gerry Penalosa, Fernando Montiel or Oscar Larios are not on the ballot - I believe - and I certainly would not put Leo above any of them, in terms of resume and accomplishments.
I got to see him fight live once (at 122) and really like his style. Didn’t play it safe behind his usual reach/height advantage … took it right to the opponent and worked non-stop. Enjoyed both the Frampton fights (which I saw via TV or stream, forget which, not in person). Wish they had fought a third time. As an aside, he’s responsible for the screen saver on my phone. I was leaving the weigh-in (this was day before I saw him fight in Vegas) and I end up kind of right next to him where he’s in the lobby area with his two or three person entourage and I was looking at his WBC green belt, which he had over his shoulder. He noticed and said, ‘Would you like to hold it?’ Um, yeah, haha. Just hands it right over to me, nice as can be. We chatted a minute about the belt (I love the WBC belt design) and the fight, I wished him luck and handed the belt back and thanked him, then asked if he minded if I took a picture of it. He said no problem and held it up for me. So the close-up of the belt is my screen saver on my phone to this day. He was as nice as could be, same for his manager and trainer or whoever. He interacted with a lot of fans in that lobby, took pictures and signed a couple autographs or whatever, had a smile on his face the whole time. So, yeah, I have to say I rooted for the guy from that moment on and made it a point to watch every time he fought when I could. I’d of course favor him going into the HoF, but I agree with the majority here that ATG is maybe a bit above his accomplishments.