What happened to Ray Leonard?

It's easy sitting where we do to say "Oh, it's just a detached retina, what's the problem" but especially that long ago it was not at all a recommended thing to continue with a high impact sport like that after suffering such an injury.

As to why so few fights, well...…...that's what happens when you start making huge money with each bout the way he did. You don't need to fight so often. Look at Hagler, same thing happened to him by '85. Up until his retirement, he had actually been quite active. Of course, he retired and unretired more times than we can count, and that disrupts any flow as well.

 

A detached retina in Ray Leonard's time it was strongly suggested that the fighter retire. I believe in competition when I judge a fighter. Ray Leonard fought 4 fighters considered ATG's and a very underrated fighter Ayub Kalule while they were in their primes or very close to it . Some of the fighters he defeated before he won his 1st championship would be champs in today's era. Very few fighters in history esp with less than 40 pro fights can say that. Theirs are many fighters with more fights but how many had as many quality wins? Quality vs Quantity what do you prefer. If a fighter fought 100 fights but 80 were Tijuana cab drivers , Or picked his battles very carefully so he could go 50-0 taking the easiest way to that achievement does the more wins prove he was a better fighter?

 

After you get the championship and a few multi-million dollar paydays, what else is there to motivate you? Leonard has said the best advice he received about managing his career was from Ali (who should have taken his own advice), and that was to treat it like a business. He invested wisely, and was able to walk away whenever he wanted to without worrying about how the bills were going to be paid. IIRC, I don't believe he ever intended boxing to be a long-term lifestyle; the plan was get paid and get out with his health intact.

 

Ray Leonard was one of the five best pound for pound fighters of the second half of the 20th Century. In his prime at welter he beats anyone at 147 RR aside and gives RR his toughest fight by far.

 

Ray was well managed. I mean that in a good way. He got paid, fought the best and did it on his terms. It almost seemed unfair that he could dictate so much but $ talks.

Anyway he lost his drive after beating Hearns.

 

He did lots of cocaine and drank lots of alcohol. It wasn't the eye because he recovered and chose to continue fighting.

 

Let's not forget that SRL's retina issue came not long after Sugar Ray Seales had some pretty serious issues with detached retinas that nearly left him blind. Back then a detached retina was a much, much scarier problem than it is now.

 

Agree he was special very special

 

It’s still very scary, but if you get surgery and heal up, then you can fight like before. It’s not like your retina is just flapping around. It’ll be stapled or lasered down depending on the procedure and you’ll scar over in certain places too.

 

Ever see this from a few years back .. Bonaduce actually challenges Leonard to spar in the studio ..

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Love it!!

SRL might be the Greatest Competitor and Clutch Fighter in Ring History.

 

Bonaduce kept egging him on to do it .. at first Ray really didn't want to .. then he said F it .. coolest thing to me is he was so confident he didn't even take off his hat ..

 

He did what a lot of athletes do when they've reached the top - got much more interested in coke and women than getting up at 5 am every morning to run. The difference is that he was wise enough to face up to that and quit instead of losing to guys he really should have beaten.

After a while he got restless and felt he could beat Hagler and came back. Then he repeated that cycle two times too many before he hung up his gloves for good.

 

Trying to picture what Ray Leonard would be like on Coke? Going to the strip club lying to each one telling them they'll get rematches.