Leonard's performance against Kalule is underrated

Good effort for sure. He had his problems with him but Ray having problems is judged differently from other top fighters having problems. Huge expectations were cast upon him. He was an awkward southpaw and underrated at the time. Nice non heavyweight topic.

 

Tough tuneup prior to the fight with Hearns. Leonard deserves credit for taking this fight when there was so much on the line. His resume from Benitez in Nov '79 through to Hearns in Sep '81 is pretty much faultless.

 

I think that might have been a low-grade close circuit type fight in Dallas. I remember rushing home from grad-school to see it. SRL used some of his Olympic skills of fighting top amateur southpaws to beat Kalule.

• The Associated Press reported that Kalule got to fight Leonard because WBC Super Welterweight Champion Maurice Hope "priced himself out of the match."
• Leonard was guaranteed $2.5 million, while Kalule's guarantee was $150,000.
• The fight was shown live on closed circuit television and was rebroadcast by NBC on Sports World on July 5.
• Bob Arum's Top Rank promoted the fight. Arum predicted that Kalule would beat Leonard and told the media that it was only at the insistence of Leonard's attorney, Mike Trainer, that he agreed to promote the fight. "I don't want to take the blame when Leonard loses this fight," Arum said. "The match wasn't my idea." He stated that a loss to Kalule would hurt the gate for Leonard's upcoming fight against Thomas Hearns. "That's why this fight is idiotic," Arum said. Trainer responded, "I don't think it makes much sense for Bob Arum to make an issue of why Ray Leonard is fighting Ayub Kalule. But, then, Bob Arum quite often does things that don't make much sense." Trainer added, "I am Ray's business manager, but I don't make boxing decisions. When they make a decision on opponents, I don't even get a vote."
• Irving Rudd, a Top Rank press agent, brought a witch doctor named Mugimba to Houston to drum up publicity. Kalule wanted nothing to do with him. "I am embarrassed," he said. "Why do they do this to me, like I am a fool? I didn't just come out of the jungle. Take him away."
• Leonard's trunks for the fight were black and had a yellow cobra head on the left leg. While Leonard was training in Phoenix, he dispatched an aide to the local library to research Ugandan witch doctors. Witch doctors, came back the report, fear the color black and aren't all that happy with snakes, which are too quick to put a spell on.
• The crowd at the Astrodome was estimated at between 25,000 and 30,000.
• The Associated Press reported:

Leonard seemed to have the fight in complete control for six rounds, but Kalule came on in the seventh and eighth. In the seventh the defending champion landed two good rights to Leonard's head and followed with a right hook that backed Leonard up. Late in the round Leonard missed four straight head shots and Kalule answered with a left-right to the head that had the crowd roaring. Both men, who each weighed 153, scored well to the head and body in the eighth round, but Kalule was more aggressive and had the best of an exchange right before the bell. Early in the ninth, Leonard shook Kalule with a left hook and right to the head and backed him to the ropes with a flurry of head punches. But Kalule fought back with body shots and Leonard backed off. Then, suddenly, Kalule was in trouble again after taking two ringing rights to the head. Again, the left-handed champion fought back, but as the round was drawing to a close, Leonard shook Kalule to his heels with a right to the head. As Kalule staggered backwards, Leonard shot home a left hook and another right that dropped Kalule to the seat of his pants in a neutral corner. He got up, but the referee had seen enough.

• After the fight was stopped, Leonard attempted a full 360-degree, no-hands flip. However, although he had successfully practiced this move in training, he hadn't allowed for the restrictive protective cup and ended up on the seat of his trunks.
• Kalule told New York sportscaster Bill Mazer, who was doing the closed circuit broadcast, "I told the referee to stop it."
• In the co-main event, Thomas Hearns stopped Pablo Baez in four rounds to defend the WBA Welterweight Championship.

 

The confidence his camp must have had to take this fight just before his mega fight with Hearns. It's like Canelo or Golovkin would have taken on one of the best SMWs shortly before their meet. Big chance of that. And still Leonard is accused of cherry picking...

 

I agree. Kalule was a very good fighter.

 

If you watch the fight, you can see Kalule is much bigger than Leonard. It looks like a middleweight v. a welterweight, So, in that sense, it was impressive that Leonard stopped the much naturally bigger man.

Leonard was much faster with better defense. Overall, he was just much more skilled and naturally talented than Kalule.

Kalule was strong and tough.

The division was weak at the time and Leonard and Benitez were just too good for the rather ordinary Kalule and Hope, respectively.

 

"Butttttttttttttttttttttttttt...it took him 10 rounds to stop Larry Bonds.........................."

I'm joking. It was an awesome run by Leonard.

I was just throwing a little "Rooster" in there for fun.

 

Kalule was a slick operator, but he didn't have much in terms of chin and power.

 

I've never looked at the Leonard v Kalule fight in that light before ..but your absolutely right. It was a risky fight of sorts before taking on Hearns .And no ..a lot of big names wouldn't dare do that. So respect to the man .