Ray Leonard: Best Fighter of the 80's?

Al no one said a walk over , and hearns with his power yes was dangerous but lets be honest in the two fight's previous to leonard agreeing to rematch hearns. hearns had suffered a bad ko loss to barkley and a life and death fight with james kinchen and I for one can remember a lot in the media saying hearns punch resistance had gone and he should retire before he got hurt . then amazingly leonard agrees to a rematch:think

 

Absolutely Hagler was classic cherry picking. Almost 7 year champ, couldn`t have picked an easier opponent...

 

I vote for Terry Norris ! Look what he did with, Julian Jackson, Keith Mullings and Simon Brown. Outstanding body of work

 

Norris did more with his title than Leonard did w his

compare the numbers

11 defenses vs Ray's 4

In my world, less does not add up to more

just as a butt kicking from Norris does not put Sugar ahead of him

its common sense

as for Sugar being fighter of the 80s that's wishful thinking

whipping Nunn in 89 would have gone a long way. as it was, Sugar didnt give him a second look. instead went after fat lethargic Duran, a relic

and Lalonde. that's a real shame in my book. I dont have low standards like you

 

Much love to Tyson and his aura of invincibility but people are saying he's the best fighter of the 80's?!

He fought nobody in the 80's.
Leonard, Chavez, Hagler, Hearns were above Tyson in 80's.
Salvador Sanchez's 3 year streak was better than Tyson's 80's career.

 

it is amazing that Leonard is the fighter of the decade and he only fought a portion of the 80s to get that. That just proves the guys he beat and his quality of opposition.

 

As for his whole body of work throughout the 80's, Mike Spinks absolutely has a very good case for being considered the 'best fighter of the 80's'; certainly a much stronger case than Marvin Hagler.

 

Yes, alright then we'll forget about Hearns 2. What about all the other fights I mentioned including his pre championship days.
Like I said, I've just got an issue with the comment by boxing fan Phil about him not wanting to take on "anyone he considers a risk.
I'm not a Leonard nut hugger by the way. I went for Chavez as my no1 for the 80's.

 

You are THE true boxing genius on here ...I think you should strt a thread and see how many people are on board with your Norris love-fest... Mullings, Brown, Jackosn, Rosenblatt should we continue dear friend ??? If you want to start a `greatest anything post involving Terrible Terry. Maybe you should start with china chins Rooster, where do you rank Julian Jackon ? After all he left your boy a quivering wreck in their `fight` ???

 

This is a tough call... Chavez was a beast in the 80`s, Tyson tore up the heavies,Spinks was a dominant lt. heavy and first 175 lbs guy to take the heavyweight belt. Hagler owned the middles. What a great decade of fighters !!

 

confession I have leonards career set :yep but if he had replaced finch and bonds with pryor and a rematch with hearns or even a young don curry and faced hagler instead of howard in 84 and got a win now that would of been impressive . although to be honest I think if he had faced hagler in 84 he would of got ko'd

 

Not sure how people can talk about Tyson being the best of the 80s when his resume is one of the least impressive when looking at past HW champions. Tyson became huge because he was a beast and the media were drawn to him - so don't confuse biggest media star of boxing to the best. As soon as the fear factor went Tyson never came back again. Leonard, who had his own demons in the 80s, came back after practically 5 years out to beat arguably the greatest middleweight of all time

He beat everyone. "Hagler" cherry pick?- let's be reasonable and put his achievement more into perspective - what Leonard did was equivalent to Floyd Mayweather going up to 160 and fighting Sergio Martinez which would never happen. Actually no, it's not the same because Hagler was 32, not 38 and Hagler was far more dominant and a middleweight champion who hadn't lost for 11 years! And I'm being kind there as Floyd is more a 154lb fighter these days than 147 - and people call Hagler a cherry pick? LOL

And Leonard DID transcend boxing - in fact his popularity paved the way for Tyson to be the media star he was. There hadn't been a media star since Ali when Leonard came about.

There's no doubt Leonard was the fighter of the 80s

 

Chavez
Leonard
M.spinks
Hagler
Tyson
Sal.sanchez

Not in order but boxers that stand out to me

Hon mention to the hawk pryor

 

Yeah, and if Hagler had spent 85-86 defending against Graham, Kalambay and McCallum as well and then went up to challenge Virgil Hill he wouldn't have suffered the ignomity of losing to Leonard. Actually he'd probably lost to one of Kalambay and McCallum before even coming to challenging Hill (which he of course never would anyway).:yep

 

I was a big fan of Leonard's in the day although more Duran. If he had of fought those others and beat them he would of been my top pìck most definitely even if he had of lost to Hagler but give him a fight. As for Bonds and Finch, I think all champs of the past haven't always fought the very top man every time out. I think I'd of definitely picked him over Pryor who I always thought of as a lightweight.
You look at the Ring ratings end of 1980 and 81 and Leonard had already beaten most of those fellas on his way up the rankings. It's a shame he had the eye problem because as you say there was a good looking young generation coming up in Curry, McCallum, McCrory and Starling. Can't see none of them though ready for Leonard circa 82 except perhaps Mccallum at light middle.
How do see a Hagler Leonard fight going 1984? Hagler younger and Leonard without the break in his career and a solid light middleweight who could box. I don't think it would of been that much of a foregone conclusion as everyone thinks. Leonard in 84 after the layoff, I would give no chance.