Ray Leonards chin

Well, he had 150 amateur fights and 40 pro fights - 190 fights total. Not counting the tens of thousands of hours sparring over the decades. He faced the best in the world in the amateurs and the pros. Some of them all-time greats.

And his chin was never a question, really, until his 190th fight ... where he couldn't seem to take anything.

Before that, his chin was never considered a liability entering a fight ... ever ... in 20 years of fighting.

So, let's go 10 out of 10.

 

I am going with 9 out of 10. After he came back, it seemed to go down a bit, actually did.

 

Well, he took a few flush but they were as he was dishing out punishment so the full weight of Hearns’ power probably wasn’t behind them.

 

Don't recall him being hit with many big shots in his career. He was more adept at just not being hit by them at all. Duran did hurt him a couple of times in Montreal, Geraldo and Kalule hurt him and Howard and Hearns dropped him. He did also take his lumps against Norris. So pretty solid, but also not George Chuvalo.

 

Probably like a 9, he walked down the man that is very likely one of the 3 hardest hitting WW's in history. Him getting dropped a couple times isn't chin, plus he was only stopped once (in his last fight) as a old man. He got everything out of his chin that one would wanna get out of it.

 

Ray's chin was very solid.

 

There's a bit to take on board here Joey.

From Hagler on he was simply facing bigger men and with diminishing reflexes and timing. He'd also lost some of that youth and the likes of Manny Steward thought he declined noticeably post Hagler. LaLonde was a fulled fledged light heavyweight boiled down a bit and had a massive right hand. Hearns was always far bigger naturally than Leonard and weighing over 160 in the rematch. Tho down twice he recovered superbly and that second KD was pretty hard. These were big guys and huge punchers and Ray was more susceptible to getting caught clean at this stage of his career. Duran was 160 and he seldom got caught tho he soaked up a good shot late and Norris at that stage was in hindsight simply too fast and sharp. He'd also boiled back down to 154 where he hadn't fought for 6 years. Camacho is irrelevant.

The other thing is we know for a fact he abused drugs and alcohol at least from 83-86, probably quite heavily, during his extended layoff. This in itself wouldn't have done him much good.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...1983-86/a5b682da-7d5a-4d40-9e4d-e3b71080b062/

 

He had great movement, not the best defense. If he didn't have heart and that CHIN . He would have lost the Hearns fight, Hagler fight, and maybe more .. Chin is a 9.5 on the richter scale

 

I would rather have that …I would rather be too good

 

His chin was probably an 8, but his heart was a 10 and his stamina was about a 8 as well, so overall, in the "toughness" category I rate him at 8.7.

Go check the math if you don't like it

 

Stamina an 8? He rumbled with Duran for 15 and actually won the last couple of rounds on most cards...stopped Benitez in the 15th......finished over the top of Hearns in the 14th round.....maintained momentum during the last rounds over a top 5 middleweight contender while weighing 153 and campaigning at welterweight............

During his prime his stamina was certainly above an 8.

 

I've never seen him tire really. hurt a few times. But he didnt tire against Hagler, you would expect the fight to go inside after he comfortably outboxed him the first half of the fight from the outside. And Hearns 2 is a great example of his stamina even in the later part of his career. His stamina is what kept him in the fight actually after getting floored twice , so really no problems with SRL stamina. He had that 2nd gear at times when most didnt

 

I did consider giving him higher than 8, he does have excellent stamina..
But I rank stamina as the most important attribute and hold very high standards for it.
I can't think of any fighter off the top of my head I would give a 10 to, plus I've seen Ray get tired in some of his fights.

 

Like Muhammad Ali before him,Leonard proved to his critics that he could take punches just as well as he could avoid therm.

 

I think it was after the Camacho fight that Ray commented on how the punches felt “different” to when he was younger - he said basically, each and every punch landed on him “hurt” but years ago they generally didn’t.

Besides relying on the pure and absolute integrity of their chins, youth, will, determination and competitive spirit go a long way in making fighters somewhat immune to the “normal” effects of punches that us mere mortals would endure.

At some point, factoring age, lifestyle and the wear/tear of their careers, even ATGs become mere mortals.

Imo, Ray looked irreversibly that much more fragile when he came back against Howard in ‘84. But then he came back again and did what he did - amazing.