Did Sugar Ray Leonard cherry pick Donny Lalonde?

Well, first, I think most uses of "cherry pick" are lazy and dumb. It's WAY overused. Moving up two divisions to fight a reigning champ is really NEVER a cherry pick.

Second, Leonard really wasn't active most of Spinks' reign and when Leonard returned to the ring Spinks had already move up to heavyweight.

To the point, the champions in the fall of 1988, when Leonard fought Lalonde, were Lalonde, Hill and Charles Williams.

At the time, Hill had stopped Leslie Stewart and was going 12 rounds with Willie Featherstone and Ramzi Hassan. Lalonde had just beaten Mustafa Hamsho (who wanted a rematch with Czyz) and stopped Eddie Davis and Leslie Stewart. And Williams had been sort of a lower rated challenger who it appeared had "one good night" after getting off the floor to beat Bobby Czyz for a belt.

None of the belt holders were considered all that great at the time. Williams, in 1988, was considered the worst of the three because he wasn't even held in much regard when Czyz signed to fight him. (Although, they turned out to be pretty good.)

So, at the time they fought, Lalonde was probably just as good as any other. None of the three were exceptional. (Hearns ended up beating Hill.)

Had Leonard beaten Hill at a catchweight and Hearns beat Lalonde, I don't know if history would've radically changed.

 

Michael Spinks was a HW.

 

Nice breakdown. Can we say Ray cherry picked a whole division due to its lacking in quality? Kidding.

Styles make fights and I can see perhaps greater issues with Williams but even more so with Hill who wouldn’t have been an unjustified pick over Ray. Believe me, Ray did his homework on the pros and cons of his next potential opponent.

At least Hearns beat Hill with both fighting as legit LHs. I don’t know if Williams or Hill would’ve necessarily acquiesced to the 168 lb catch weight either. Lalonde looked drained from the outset and exponentially so as the fight progressed though I will say Ray still looked pretty cool in winning - the KO was absolute highlight reel stuff.

 

Spinks was retired and had been at heavyweight the last few years of his career.

 

Oh for sure Leonard cherry picked L alone.
I believe at the time he and Hearns were trying to see who was going to get to winning 4 world titles first or something like that.
Lalonde was a weird boxer but he had tremendous one punch power in that right-hand and he caught Ray on the top of the head and dropped Ray.

 

and to think, there are people who find this to be an impressive feat.

 

Holmes had already moved up and fought Holmes twice by that point, and Cooney and Tyson.

 

Yes indeed. Ray was indeed one of the greatest ever but I don't look upon his victory over Lalonde as a bonafide Lt. Heavy match.

 

Hardly realistic.

 

I don't either. I don't see how it can. I never saw weight agreement fights legit title fights, since a title has to be fought at that weight.. Anything else cannot be for that title. Ray really wanted to beat Tommy for the 5 titles, which Tommy won 3 days before. As it turned out the joke was on Ray, since the WBO title Tommy won became legit.. Tommy never did weight agreements except for that Leonard rematch, which was set at 164, but Tommy came in at 162.

 

I didn't Lalonde at the time . Looked like a kid at school I didn't get on with ! .

 

I didn't Lalonde at the time . Looked like a kid at school I didn't get on with ! .

 

He picked Lalonde because Donnie was marketable.

Had a good look with the blonde hair, was a legit right-hand puncher, brought the Canadian market to the fight and had a good back story in that he was using his platform to speak out about child abuse and talking about his own abuse that he had suffered (which we would later learn Leonard has been sexually abused as a child).

He was also adaptable to make super middle for the extra belt (Lalonde had fought in and around that weight pretty frequently and was as light as 171 1/2 for one light heavyweight fight and had never scaled more than 173 1/2 for a title fight).

It’s a business and Donnie made by far the most business sense.