Weaknesses in Sugar Ray Leonard

His defense wasnt that tight & he was kind of short.

 

His chin and punching power were "only" above average. He got hurt, dropped and wobbled pretty easily in his 2nd career compared to ali who still had an iron chin when his reflexes and legs went and he started taking punches more flush. Leonard didnt take that much punishment in his first career, had a nice long break and was never KO'd before(as in had his chin cracked) yet his punch resistance eroded quite quickly once he came back.

However, the same thing can be said of Roy Jones who's punch resistance eroded quickly as well once he started slowing down and taking flush shots from the likes of Clinton Woods, John ruiz and Tarver. Also most of the guys that hurt leonard were real punchers, although the way an old fat Camacho knocked him out was very strange considering Leonard had never been stopped before.

Leonards chin was certainly not as good as Ali's but Ray had a ton of heart and all of his other attributes were elite, top notch!

 

I don't think there were any he was a complete package killer instinct, speed, power, smart what more could you want....

 

oh yeah, like what?

besides, it's not an argument but rather ENLIGHTENMENT, or INSIGHT

I base what I know on what I see, what is factual. terry's record is spotty (many greats have spotty records)

like I said on another thread, his mechanics are not as good as Leonard's but had the speed & temperment to exploit leonard's weaknesses and they were QUITE EVIDENT!

to sum it up, opponents who can be sharp, fast, with movement (AKA Norris, Nunn, Jones) but we dont LIKE those matchups, they arent FAIR!!!

 

Leonard was more complete than ALi. Ali's left hook at times look like slaps. Ali had no body work

but youre right, Leonard didnt take shots that well which we see going back to early in his career and really showed up in the Norris fight. once Terry caught hurt Ray, he OWNED him

regarding the Camacho fight you could see that Hector would hold behind the head, and bang Ray in the temple, and the REF NEVER CAUGHT IT!

anyways, that's how he softened Ray up and then applied the coup de gras with a one two straight on

a little extra follow up on the ropes. (he reminded me of a little Hagler ripping both hands to the head and body)

a lot of my favorite fighters seem to win these key matchups

 

I think Leonard has the best resume of wins in the past 30 years. He was very talented. His weakness? Perhaps he wasn't a good thinker in the ring, and despite his enormous physical gifts didn't believe in himself as much as he should have.

He was getting out boxed by Hearns until Dundee told him to slug with the " you're blowing it " corner talk. He also let Duran fight his fight when he had the better chin and power and should have thrown more back in my opinion.

Leonard could win box boxing, swarming or by being a puncher. His speed was exceptional, and his accuracy excellent. Did he like boxing? Maybe not as much as the other greats did. Even though he won the gold medal in with a did you see that type of performance, his initial plan was not to turn professional.

 

I actually heard that Leonard was going to become a janitor which would have been a huge waste of talent. Physical talent as well as intelligence because Ray was one of the more insightful commentators along with Mercante

What you had here was good starting material that was fully developed and well managed under Angelo Dundee (who cheated during the Ali - Cooper match), taken out of certain matches in which he did not match up well, and then brought back in when the time was right and the level of competition had settled down somewhat (I tried to put it as lovingly as possible)

His only problem was when matched with other speedsters, then you can see the problem he had that werent evident against the Andy Prices of the world

 

Whereas a prime Norris was losing to journeymen!

 

Bravo to you Robert!! This is exactly what I just got through saying in another thread...in different words, but the same thought to the tee!! We're on the same page brutha!!

 

As always my pal!!

 

Roy jones had much worse chin than leonard

 

Cheers, lol

 

Talk macho crap before the fight and get under his skin - like Duran in the first fight.

 

He had a very solid chin, unlike your guy, Norris.

He dealt with Bonds just fine.

I agree Nunn would have been too much for him, at least when they could have fought in the '88-'89 time frame.

He would have destroyed the smaller Aaron Pryor.

LOLL to the bolded part. Lalonde was chosen to get titles at 168/175 lbs.

By that time, Leonard had already beaten:

Benitiez
Duran
Hearns
Hagler

And he was way past prime when he lost to Terry.

Try again, son.

 

Inability to deal with fast, slick movers? How did Hearns fight him again and how did Ray get on? And how would you describe the 23 year old Wilfred Benitez?

And you always bring up the Camacho and Norris fights. He was nearly 35 against 24 year old Norris and 41 against Camacho having had one bout in six years. Both fights irrelevant when compared to his body of work in his prime

The fact is, you could make a very strong case indeed for him being the best fighter of the 80s, a talent-rich era, in which he beat ATGs in all styles; ATG inside brawler in Duran, ATG fast slugger in Hearns and ATG speedy boxer in Benitez. And whether you think Hagler was shot or not, it took some serious guts to fight a man who was naturally bigger when you had had one fight in five years and spent a good deal of the rest of the time having a load of nose up.

It's a battle you keep trying to win rooster but you're only going to make a c0ck of yourself (pun intended, offence not intended) for the simple fact that you're wrong and the evidence proves that many times over.