Let's Hear It For Sugar Ray Leonard.

I can give you myriads of fighters in the same boat. Ezzard Charles for one, commonly found in the top 10 P4P. Hagler? He didn't fight on for us to find out. Roberto had some great wins later but copped some very ordinary losses while attaining them. How about Tyson? On the slide unbelievably early. How about your beloved Hawk? Over the hill at 30. The oft flogged Bobby Joe Young sparked him whilst he was younger than the Leonard who fought Norris, with Norris being a far far superior fighter to Young of course. Leonard dwelved in the fast lane too whilst first retired remember. These things certainly don't help later on.

 

Yea Griffo. I saw all of his fights and while he was a great boxer (in every way) his greatest asset was that he was fearless! To me a great fighter is not so much how good (although that helps:yep)he can fight, but rather how willing he is to fight. Salute to Ray (sugar Ray) leonard:good for having the heart/spirit of a warrior.

 

:yep:yep:yep:good

 

Why is it when someone likes a fighter he is accused of being in "love" or of wanting to hug said fighters nuts? :roll:

 

The guy was one of the Top 3 WW's ever to lace up the gloves- a class act in the ring, polarised opinions outside of it (let's leave all that aside though and appreciate the fighter). Check out this clip compilation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GC70st9y80 :good

 

Man, that was good.

 

Ray Robinson wold knock Ray Leonard out with a left hook.

 

leonard is one of my favorite fighters ever and is one of the best p4p fighters ever.......i think he is underrated on here

 

Leonard not only beat other ATG fighters, but he beat most while in their primes, or thereabouts.

Bentiez was without question was in his prime, but some others will see it differently simply because he was beaten on the night. Benitez would come back three years later and win the WBC title at 154lbs against Hope, but never captured the same form prior to meeting Leonard. Verdict: Prime

Duran's most defining performance of his entire career was 5 months before Leonard beat him in New Orleans. Many observers feel that Duran peaked the night he handed Leonard his first defeat via a 15 round decision. When Duran's lightweight reign ended, many feel his prime ended as well. Verdict: Past prime, just.


Hearns was at his brilliant best going into his fight with Leonard. His power and speed packaged together was never quite the same again after he left 147lbs. Some people may debate that he was at his best at 154lbs, as he held wins there against Bentiez and Duran. Nothertheless, its a safer bet to say he was at his very best a division below. Verdict: Prime.


Hagler was arguably "pound for pound" the best fighter in the world. But don't let it fool you. The struggled victory against Mugabi kept him at the top. He was becoming a more stationary target, more flat-footed shall we put it. Still a very damn fine middleweight, but the reflexes and speed were diminishing since he knocked Hearns out two years earlier. Prior to stepping into the ring against Leonard, he had one fight in two years. Verdict: Past prime, 2-4 years.

 

What do you want people to do, lie? It's like having a fat wife who just wants to hear compliments.

Not much to talk about.

An overall career record of 36-3-1 and you want me to lie to you and say he's top ten p4p.

Even tho a poor showing against Norris, as huge an underdog as you can get, reveals how poor strategist he actually was. He couldn't adjust when presented with a young, swift moving opponent who didn't make available to get hit and lost in the most pitiful manner.

even with all that world class experience he had had no clue how do deal with the movement of Norris. This is the guy who's supposed to be on par with the original Sugar Ray?

And why did he have such a hard time with Howard if he was only 27 and at his natural weight? he let someone 2/3 his size back him up throughout and then retire him.


That's not impressive!

On top of that he got floored in the bout which isn't supposed to happen to fighters with great chins.

But predictably, I'm going to get "people are always hating on Leonard" for pointing it out.

I'm also tried of hearing how leonard missed his prime. He wasn't stripped of his title. He wasn't put in prison like Ayala or Tyson or Carter. He wasn't stripped of his license to fight like Ali and he came back on at least 4 other occasions so all that talk about "It's sad how he missed his prime years" is nothing more than propoganda. It's rhetorical.

He didn't "miss" his prime years. he made sure he wasn't available during his prime years. Tell it like it is!! This is the kind of crap only his fans would continually push on the rest of us trying to persuade the rest of us so that he'll finally become acceptable as a legit fighter which he isn't because only an illiegitimate fighter would need this many consessions from opponents of which the sky was the limit.


And besides, if he has no problem coming back in 84-97, then why would he have problems in 1982?

 

:bowdown


:happy

 

:roll: Like that's going to work.

By the way, that wasn't polite. You used profanity which means you probably lost your temper but even if you hadn't come across like an ass hole it wouldn't have mattered anyways.

You want me to do something you got to pay me for it. Not that you could ever pay me enough.

I read it and I still don't give a ****. And no I won't **** off and no it isn't garbage - it's setting the record straight and clearing the air. Do you stay off threads when the subject comes to leonard?

In fact I'm just warming up which is too bad for you. Go have nice cry now :|

 

Pea, Robinson went 110-1 at one point and very busy against top notch opposition. Rematches were common against the best of his era. Leonard's accomplishments fade into insignificance when compared with the true Sugarman. You want praise heaped on a fighter save it for Robbie, not leonard.

The fact is, his career was just beginning and 4 years should not be looked at as an enitre career but that's what happens with loyal misguided fans looking for accomplishments that weren't there and saying things like "Imagine if his career hadn't been cut short".

His quitting ways go back towards the beginning of his career. it's a well known fact that he gets easily discouraged whenever he's in a tough fight. this goes back to his early days with fireball rodriguez nearly quitting after the fight. again after roberto whipped him. you could see he already had a track record.

the clincher tho was the first comeback and immediately re-retiring. that confirms the true reason for quitting. His eye was just a front all this time.

It doesn't matter if he didn't take a fight with Hagler because I didn't expect much from him anyways and if you were around at the time you would well remember his extreme hesitance when offered a fight with Marvin. For years the answer was always no, no, no, no, no. Is it any wonder people like me get suspicous of the timing for comebacks?

I really think he was scared shitless of not only defeated but getting seriously hurt. he knew he was a twerp who'd get steamrolled in the middleweight division and even bowed out having made 0 defenses, instead aiming for lalonde.

The sport was infinitely more competitive than it was in the late 80's. At middleweights instead of bangers and brawlers, all you had was stylists. At 174, all you had was Lalonde and ancien retread Marvin Johnson. The time was ripe for Leonard to make a more permanent comeback especially with Marvin retiring.

Which is contrary to how it was when he first left the sport. '82 was a tough year even by boxings standards and too dangerous for a move up to middleweight.

If you weren't around fighting at the time you were a zero in my book. But Leonard with his low remedial standards should have had it easy because the young talent coming up was not that strong. He could have stayed in his division and no one including myself would blame him saying "well he's into defending his title".

Donald was no threat to him and McCrory was even less a threat. Neither knew what they were doing yet so 82 should have been an easy year for him.

BTW, If anyone is waiting for my videos to show up on youtube I am still having a problem as I haven't been able to find what I need to compress the size of the video files which is the main obstacle and couldn't find the right software to do the job but I'll persist until I get them on but will take a while longer.

 

There's so much crap here, one needs a pair of stilts just to get through it, and I'm not even so sure that would suffice.