What Was Sugar Ray Leonards Best Performance

1987? This response is disingenuous. Why would you even use a date like this six years later to say Pryor wouldnt deserve a match in 1981???

It just goes to show the lengths some people go to to make excuses. Hell, if Pryor were that meaningless an opponent, couldnt he squeeze him in rather than someone like Bruce Finch???

He may not have worked himself into a genuine welterweight contender but did Leonard work himself into a middleweight contender for Hagler?

Did Michael Spinks work himself into a heavyweight contender going into the Holmes fight?

As I said, these are all lame excuses to protect his reputation and that "Pryor was offered 500K" is the worst excuses of all in order to save face

I wouldnt say that Ray was running from him but I can see that he definitely didnt want to fight him

 

I used 1987, as I stated, because Aaron Pryor didn’t fight at welterweight until that year. To say he deserved a shot at the welterweight title in 1981 when he was six years away from even fighting at that weight is disingenuous. That’s YOU going to ridiculous lengths.

He was offered a fight with Leonard at a higher purse than he had ever earned — how is that an excuse? Aaron is the one making excuses saying he turned down he fight over more money than he’d ever made.

Should they have have backed up a Brinks truck to a guy who by 1981 had fought on TV like three times, had never beaten a welterweight — not a contender mind you, not even a journeyman at that weight … because he had never fought at that weight.

Ray wasn’t obligated to fight anyone who said ‘hey I’d like to make a million dollars or more, pay me what I want and give me a fight.’ Especially a guy who was in the very same interview where he was talking about turning down he Leonard fight talking about moving back to lightweight.

Just because other fights happened doesn’t mean this fight SHOULD have happened or that he, as you stated, DESERVED a shot at Leonard. I’m sure there were guys who would have liked to fight Pryor who didn’t. Does that mean they all deserved to and should have gotten that opportunity?

Leonard had bigger fish to fry. You’re acting like a guy who took on Duran and Hearns and Benitez was somehow reluctant to face a 135/140-pounder who at that time was just beginning to make a name for himself. If Aaron wanted to be a welterweight, he could have staked his claim by fighting welterweights.

 

Pryor didn`t want to be a welter he just wanted to fight Leonard.

 

The two are one and the same, given that Ray was a welter and wasn’t dropping to 140.

I’m sorry Aaron didn’t get everything he wanted in life. None of us do.

But there is zero case to be made that he deserved a title fight against the welterweight champion at the price of his choosing just because he said he wanted it.

If he REALLY wanted to fight Leonard, he could have stepped up and beaten some welterweights to make the fight viable. He could have challenged Hearns and beaten him and that would have changed the equation greatly both financially and otherwise. Or Cuevas even. Or other contenders.

But ‘Hey I want to fight you and btw I want more than half a million dollars to do so’ doesn’t do anything to make a fight happen.

I want to win the lottery. I guess I deserve to win it since I say I want it.