What if Sugar Ray Leonard never had eye problems?

Dominates Welter for several more years, or moves to light middle. Benitez rematch?

 

There would have been some fascinating match ups with likes of Donald Curry,Marlon Starling, Lloyd Honeyghan, Milton MCrory, and a moving up Aaron The Hawk Pryor. These would be very competitive bouts that could very well define Sugar Ray Leonard's place in welterweight history, or deny it with a loss. Very talented competition. And quite possibly a Benitez rematch, Not to mention moving up to face Middleweight Champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler in 1984.

 

What about fighting McCallum at 154 after Mike beat McCrory?

 

I don`t think Honeyghan and McCrory were very talented.

 

exactly right. This is what I think. I think he knew he was at the top and losing at that point, would wreck that image.. And everyone would have targeted him. He wanted the breaks. The guys he beat Benitez, Duran and Hearns were such greats in their own right, he didn't have to keep fighting to be seen as a great. It is a rare situation. So he set up fighting Hagler when Hagler got old. I don't know if he planned it, but he stayed in the spotlight and watched Marvin up close with HBO to come back when Marvin slipped. Get the win and get a few more fights to be fighting of the 1980s. I don't think he fought enough to get that, but he did have the wins.

 

Well, he wouldn't have to rehab as much or worry about his eye. With no eye problems, Sugar Ray Leonard probably wins 1 or 2 more big fights. Back then the eye surgeries were not as good as today, so the fear of losing sight was understandably much higher back then. These days, the surgeries are more successful.

Even with the eye problems Leonard probably has the best resume of wins from his retirement to 2019!

 

That is true, but I don't think he could have fought the amount of fights Hearns or Duran did after Ray fought them and had that full a career. He wanted to have an explosion at the top and then to soak it in. Those other guys were different. Tougher mentally than Ray, not to say Ray was not tough in the ring, but mentally Hearns and Duran were tougher and boxing was their life in a way it could never have been Rays.

 

Think this is right. He'd have nipped in and out of fighting probably, maybe a year or two between fight s. Who knows, fighting regularly may have seen him suffer another loss pre Hagler even?

 

Would've taken a beating from a prime Hagler in 1984, maybe that derails his career somewhat.

 

He still would’ve gotten into cocaine and alcohol and probably lost to someone under his level.

 

I think it would have been hard for Ray to be motivated against those guys after fighting Benitez, Duran and Hearns. I think he knew after such a whirlwind he couldn't get up for smaller fights. His career was an orchestration.

 

One of the sport’s great ‘what ifs’ along with Ali fighting out the rest of his prime in the late 60s.

 

He would have announced the fight with Hagler for 1983 instead of his own retirement. That was the only mountain left to climb. And if that fight hadn’t happened straight away, he had potential rematches with Tommy and Roberto at light middle. Curry wouldn’t have interested him. I’m not sure Pryor would have either, although that could have happened.