I'm currently reading Sugar Ray Leonard's The Big Fight and have previously read the Four Kings (awesome book). One thing that is reiterated is just how good Sugar Ray Leonard's rate of progression was. Like he did for Muhammad Ali, Angelo Dundee was praised heavily for giving Ray the best opponents at the right time. He claims this leads to the fighter who goes on to beat Wilfredo Benetiz and the other three kings. A fighters rate of progression is interesting to me. Whenever someone mentions Miguel Cotto one of the first things I think of is how well his early career was handled. He fought few opponents with losing records and after his first 10 fights was taking on well known, well-schooled capable guys. He showed consistant improvement and clearly benefited from this. Of course I have seen all of Leonard's big fights, but never those leading up to them. Looking at his record he only faced 2 guys with losing records. Just how tough was his road to the top- did he deserve his title shot or did he beat 20 odd average guys and get a title shot based on his name? And did he clearly improve from early on?
Philly-Tough,, One thing that I never forgot,,,,,,,,,what Ray Leonard had said back in September 1978, right after he defeated Floyd Mayweather. He stated, that he had tougher bouts in the Amateurs in 1974 thru 1976, than he had in the 'Pro-Ranks' in 1977 and 1978.
He absolutely deserved the title shot. He ran through five or six rated fighters within the division in a year. Off the top that included Floyd Sr, Randy Shields, Johnny Gant, Pete Ranzany and Andy Price, as well as Tony Chiaverini at 154 lbs. He earned every bit of his legacy through 1982.
Would have been 'one great bout' to see the Great Uganadan, Ayub Kalue versus the 20 year-old Ray Leonard at the 1976 Olympics (July 17 thru August 1) in Montreal. The 22 year-old southpaw Ayub Kalule was the #1 Rated World Amateur at (-63.5 Kg) 140 lbs. Unfortunately, with the 1976 Summer Olympic protest by the African Nations, Ayub Kalue left Uganda and moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, and turned professional in April 1976. 1976 (63.5 Kg) Light-Welterweight Rankings; #1...... Ayub Kalule (Uganda) #2...... Andres Aldama (Cuba) #3...... Ray Leonard (USA) #4...... Ulrich Beyer (East Germany) #5...... Jozsef Nagy (Hungary) #6...... Bruce Curry (USA) #7...... Calistrat Cutov (Romania) #8...... Ronnie Shields (USA) #9...... Valeri Limasov (USSR) #10......Ulf Carlsson (Sweden) #11......Vladimir Kolev (Bulgaria) #12......Kazimierz Szczerba (Poland) #13......Clinton McKenzie (Great Britain) #14......Duque Stable (Cuba) #15..... Jesus Navas (Venezuela) Other Top-Rated Light-Welterweights (#16 thru #34) Ernst Mueller (West Germany) Lemuel Steeples (USA) Milton 'Pete' Seward (USA) Victor Corona (Cuba) Jean-Claude Ruiz (France) Luis Portillo (Argentina) Christian Sittler (Australia) Chris Clarke (Canada) Luis Godoy (Columbia) Robert Colley (New Zealand) Steve Samples (USA) Francisco De Jesus (Brazil) Ismael Martinez (Puerto Rico) Gerry McMillan (Great Britain) Jesus Sanchez (Dominican Republic) Antonio Antino (Italy) Tai-Shik Park (South Korea) Jesus Marte (Dominican Republic) Yuri Tchorovski (USSR) African Top-Rated Light-Welterweights Moro Tahiru (Ghana) Jones Okoth (Uganda) Philip Mathengue (Kenya) Obisia Nwankpa (Nigeria) Mark Harris (Guyana) Karim Ibrahim (Nigeria)
Would have liked to have seen 'Moro Tahiru' from Ghana versus Ray Leonard. The guy was a 'crazed terror' in the ring,,,,,,,,,,unstoppable. Nickname,,,,,,,'Moro the Mamba'
1976 Olympics; (63.5 Kg) 140 lb. Light-Welterweight Championship bout. Many boxing people made a 'big deal' about 20 year-old Andres Aldama, the Great Cuban Knock-out Artist, who had obliterated his opponents in the '4' previous bouts. Mainly, it was Howard Cosell, who 'screamed' about Ray Leonard facing, a virtually unbeatable fighter, who many claimed would have been a 140 lb. World Champion had he been a 'professional' at that time.
Srl remarked that the Cubans had a lot of experience fighting, and were Older and advanced technically. Srl in effect beat professional level fighters in the amateurs. He was in effect a boy beating men. I was able to dvr and watch the Ringside episode on SRL. If you can get Espn classic, do so. Usually late sunday nights they show an episode, and they do show a lot of good fights, although they have many in Their archives they never show.,
Ray Leonard did beat a 'high-level' of opponents in the 1976 Olympics. We were led to believe, that all the Cuban boxers were older and far more experienced, when in truth, 139 lb. Welterweight Andres Aldama was only 20. He was, only 1-month older than Ray Leonard. The 20 year-old, 'southpaw' Andres Aldama, was the 1975 Pan Am Games 139 lb. Light-Welterweight Champion. The 5' 11' tall 'pure-puncher' was nick-named 'The Sleek Cat', and he possessed 'one-punch Knock-out power' in his left hand. Aldama looked like a 'harder-hitting' and 'quicker' version of American Johnny Bumphus. Andres Aldama competition at the 1976 Summer Olympics; * KO 2...............Sabahattin Burcu (Turkey) * KO 2...............Jesus Sanchez (Dominican Republic) * KO 2...............Joszef Nagy (Hungary) * KO 1...............Vladimir Kolev (Bulgaria) * L DEC (5-0)......Ray Leonard (USA) Both #5 Joszef Nagy and #11 Vladimir Kolev were experienced, and very tough fighters, and both clearly would have been Top 20 Ranked fighters in the 'professional ranks'. #11 Vladimir Kolev had defeated the extremely tough #7 Calistrat Cutov (Romania) in the Quarterfinals, by Unanimous Decision (5-0). Andres Aldama [url] This content is protected [/url] Ray Leonard vs. Andres Aldama in the 1976 Olympic 139 lb. Light-Welterweight Championship This content is protected
