Rate Ray Leonards 4 best wins

Leonard really was special. I was reading a book about the fab four yesterday in a store, and Manny Steward was saying that Leonard used to hang out a little at the Kronk gym back in his amateur boxing days. The guys in the gym were apparently in awe of him, and during the Olympics they had posters of him and all sorts of stuff up, almost making it look like that was his hometown gym.

 

Addie, is that "Wanna Ride Her" in your avatar?

 

:good:good

Hagler was the most over rated MW champ in history.....plodding south paw is all he was. An off balance bumbler.......:roll:

 

Nobody is claiming Hagler was prime time, Kerrigan. He'd come off a rough battle with hard hitting Mugabi, and Leonard fancied it. However, it still took a monumental effort from Leonard, who hadn't fought in THREE YEARS, to walk back into Boxing and beat a long reigning champion like Hagler, who was slipping, but who still had enough to beat most if not all active Middleweights around that time.

I have no arguments with people placing the Hearns fight higher, even though we still have people claiming Hearns was weight drained, but the Hagler win is under-appreciated for my money. We have more debating the decision and criticizing Ray for his stipulations than we have people simply congratulating him on a monumental effort. Nobody thought he'd win that fight, and I have it 7-5 at the end of the 12th. No robbery, more bull****.

And Hagler retired because he thought he was ****ed over by the judges.

 

No, it's Winona Ryder...

:bart

 

I appreciate your opinion Itrymariti, but I stick by my list. :good

 

You are out of your ****in mind!

 

First off,Addie,I disagree with you a lot,but respect your opinions.However,Hagler had been pondering retirement for a couple of years leading into the Leonard fight.The judge's decisions was just the end of it.This is a well known fact.Read Steve Marantz's book as he even told Leonard,whom he had considered a friend,that he was pondering leaving.ONE of the reasons that Leonard decided to challenge Marvin when he did(obviously the main one would be that he knew Marvin's reflexes were shot)was that he knew the right time to challenge Marvin was when Marvin was physically and mentally past it.Marvin still had the power and the chin,but if you saw Marvin against Juan Roldan and John Mugabi,you would know that Marvin's ability to get out of the way of a punch(in his prime,he was considered a very good defensive fighter) was practically non-existent,as both of those fellows landed many big punches that he would have easily slipped or blocked only a couple of years before.Leonard knew this and that's why he finally grew the stones to challenge Marvin when he did.No revisionism here,only fact.It's correct that Leonard hadn't fought in 3 years,but he had far fewer fights than Hagler,wasn't anywhere near as shopworn and was at least 2 years younger.AND Hagler was fighting only about once every 1-1/2 years at that point himself.Now answer me this.If Leonard wasn't waiting for Marvin to be shot by the time he fought Hagler,why did he wait so long to challenge Marvin after teasing Marvin and the boxing world for at least 6 years in discussing a possible mega-fight with Marvin?

 

There is no way I'm getting into a debate about this with someone who doesn't understand the concept of paragraphing.

 

:good:good

 

The Hagler win is the right choice for Leonard's best win... but it is only so because of the circumstances surrounding the win. It is dubious whether SRL actually deserved the decision, and it was not a truly great all-round performance whether you scored it for him or not. It still deserves to be called his best win on account of the scenario, but the Benitez fight was definitely SRL's greatest hour in my eyes, his performance against a superb opponent was sublime, undoubtedly the most effective and complete big-fight performance of his career.

 

Agree with every single word, Popkins. :good

 

1: Hagler
2: Hearns
3: Duran
4: Benitez



Hagler is the 2nd best middleweight ever IMO, behind SRR. For Leonard to have the wars he did with Hearns/Duran, the eye injuries, take time off , and come in and do what he did against a legitimate middleweight king when he never fought at 160...truly the best performance he put on. And I am a Hearns nuthugger

 

Benitez
Hearns
Hagler
Duran

Hagler & Duran fights are tainted by Leonards antics, beating Benitez was his best by far for me, he was brilliant & he had to be fighting one of the greatest box/fighter defensive masters i've seen, His focus was incredible, it had to be! & the way he came back to KO Hearns was awesome especially after being comprehensivly outboxed for 90% of the fight he found a way to claw Victory from the jaws of defeat which to me was truly incredible & no one could replicate that 13th round barrage he unleashed onto a stricken Hearns & to quote Leonard:

You've got too "Suck it up from the Gut" one of the greatest come backs in a fight i've seen:deal