Could Sugar Ray Leonard have been even greater than he was?

In a way yeah.

He had alot of high profile fights but his ring miles were lower than most great fighters. Ray had about 40 fights in his career. If he had to take on those great fighters back to back to back he would have been worn out alot sooner.



It just takes a toll on the body and the mind.

 

I think the perfect career path for him would be to beat Curry either at WW or JMW, then McCallum at JMW before moving up to take Hagler's title and beating Hearns once more at JMW or MW before retiring.

That would in fact perhaps make him the GOAT in reality, but he he wouldn't be seen as such by most since it's doubtful that Curry or McCallum would be that higly regarded in this scenario. And many would still claim that Hagler was shot already in 1985 if that's when Leonard would get to him.

I don't expect Leonard to win all these fights, though, even if they were made when they should be, but he would sure give it a good go.

 

Yeah, but once he got to 160, the limit increases.

 

If he had fought Pryor at WW that would have added to his legacy, you can never fight everyone theres always going to be some guy saying oh you ducked so and so but it would have been a great fight.

 

I clear win against Hagler would help a lot...

 

Ray's wins are incredible. What he lacks is the long resume or his contemporaries like Hearns,Hagler and Duran who fought much more than he did throughout the whole decade. Had he had the long record of those guys he would have been even greater. He only had 40 fights in his career. But I still put him top 10.

 

Hagler still complains about the loss to Leonard even to this day, he cant get over it, poor marvin

 

He has himself to blame. Marvin seemed to need to think a guy was a real threat and then he came out smoking like against Hearns. With Ray he thought it would be easy and came out righty.

 

In a legacy sense, yeah, he could have done more. Don't get me wrong - what he did was great alright, but meeting Marvin much sooner than he did would have elevated him even higher. (Provided he won.)
Meeting a Curry or a McCallum I don't think would have greatly enhanced his legacy, at least not compared with what he had already done. Wins over these guys would have added something to the legacy, but not a great deal in my opinion.

 

I think, scandalous as it may sound, that Marvin at least at first, was intimidated by Leonard.
Leonard was actually a little bit of a bully in that fight; he hit low intentionally a couple of times, and stood his ground at the end of some rounds, glaring at Hagler.
On at least one occasion, Hagler bowed his head rather meekly and walked to his corner with Ray glaring at him.

 

Did you watch that long interview with Leonard on Skysports? It's on Youtube. Really makes for a nice companion piece to the book.

 

Marvin, for all his toughness, seemed to have a bit of a weak psyche.