Sugar Ray Leonard - Greatness Cut Short?

Of course he would have racked up his victories, also imagine how good he would have looked against Hagler had he not been five years without a fight. Leonard was the best.

 

Uh huh, and imagine how how he would have looked if he'd had the balls to give Hearns a rematch when he should have and also fought Hagler somewhere near his peak. Leonard was the best manipulator.

 

Well, he was inactive when Hagler was at his peak, wasn't he? He took on Hagler soon after his comeback. You can't really ask for more than that. Also Hearns probably would have gotten a rematch sooner, if it wasn't for Leonards injury and subsequent lay-off. You can't reallt say that a guy that fought Duran twice, Hearns twice and Hagler soon after a long lay-off at a division above his natural weight, ducked anyone.

Yeah, he probably should have given Hearns a rematch sooner, but all in all I don't think you can fault him. Frazier seemed reluctant to give Ali a rematch after FOTC (it took him three years), but I don't see anyone critizing him.

 

cut short he had an afro!

 

Leonard felt Hagler struggled against Duran and promptly came out of retirement. Leonard felt Hagler struggled against Mugabe and promptly came out of retirement. What happened to the concerns over the eye when he made these two comebacks? Funny how retinas get better when your potential opponents dont look so good. "Iam not concerned about my eye at all" was what he said before the Hagler fight. This is the same eye that made him retire! Go figure.

 

That is a lot of speculating. To immediatly face a fighter like Hagler (even if he was somewhat past his best) after a three year lay-off is impressive, no matter what. There's just no way past that. Even if he felt the timing was right because Hagler wasn't quite the force he had been, it's still a great achievement. Hell, when you're coming directly off a long lay-off and fighting a great fighter at a division above your natural weight it's in no way unreasonable to show some prudence.

Every fighter tries to mangage their careers somewhat sensibly, but Leonard showed a hell of a lot more balls than most. He fought four ATG:s, not many can claim that.

 

If he fought a lot more fights and fought everyone who's anyone then he'd rank higher.

But he already did enough to be considered one of the best of his era anyway.

 

Then why didnt he face him earlier? he would be fighting with the same eye wouldnt he, but younger? Especially in light of the Howard fight in 1984. I think that one fight really destroys the argument that Ray had decided never to fight before 1987.

So you see, the eye really never had anything to do with his decision to fight but rather who to fight and when. This is why you would see him fight people like clubfighters like Lalonde, or Howard, or over the hill name fighters like Hagler, Duran, Hearns instead of Nunn, McCallum, Jackson. And similarly, this is why he never faced Hagler years earlier.

The result of the Norris fight was never any surprise to me nor was the one sidedness of the mismatch. Leonard protected himself from this kind of fighter the way he would protect himself from earlier versions of Hagler.

So we all know the eye was a bull**** excuse all along because he kept fighting.

It's not as though he had his license revoked the way it happened with Ali.

Leonard with Dundee behind him was always trying to emulate and parallel his career with ALi's in some way. His version of "the 3 year layoff" was not really a layoff at all since he could always decide when to come back and kept doing so.

 

Leonard deserves a lot of credit for his performance against Hagler.
I actually think Hagler deserved the decision but that was still a remarkable comeback from Leonard.

 

I think it would have been interesting to see Ray Leonard remain at welterweight for as long as he could and face the better hopfuls of the 1980's. That era was packed with so much talent that some of those fighters have already been forgotten. You had guys like Donald Curry, Marlon Starling, Loyd Honeyghan, Mark Breland, Buddy McGirt, Araon Davis, Simon Brown, Maurice Blocker, Glenwood Brown, etc. There was so much damn greatness in that division during the 80's, Leonard would have had one big pay day after another. Of course, as he aged, he might have been at risk to losing to some of those guys too.

 

and I basically believe that whoever he avoided: Hagler, Hearns, Ayala, Nunn, McCallum, etc, he would have lost to-most likely, KO'd by. I never had much faith in leonard.

 

Tell me how he avoided Ayala? Please? I'd love to know how a prospect with no standout wins was deserving of a title shot against the best P4P fighter in the sport?