Why did SRL come back to fight Norris ?

He had run out of tootsky for his nose and needing to feed his insatiable need for methamphetamine.

 

He wanted to fight in Madison Square Garden. $4 million. Hadn't tasted a real ass kicking yet. Couldn't leave the sport alone until he did. Confidence turned into hubris.

 

Hearns was campaigning at LHW. Came in a huge underdog to Hill a month later and beat on him. Probably could've sold that if the times lined up. Leonard was never a real LHW though. He came in at 165 versus Lalonde for his LHW belt. Hearns only got bigger. Grabbed a belt at cruiser as well.

Both were older names challenging young champs for $4 million in Feb 1991. Hearns won. Leonard lost.

 

Leonard said he was in the best shape he'd been since Hagler in his book. Suffered a rib injury in camp though. I don't really buy into the "draining" stuff people talk about. You can cut weight the wrong way, but that's not really what people mean when they bring it up. As I said, Leonard never weighed much more than MW. He was never out of shape even in retirement. He just got old. Harder to come off a 2 year hiatus than it was when he was in his prime I imagine.

 

And I think this demonstrated that Hearns always stayed active and was true to the game and didn't use weight agreements. So Hearns was more prepared to fight anyone than Ray was. He put in his time through the whole decade. No handpicking like Ray had done since Hagler, including picking Hearns thinking he would stop him easily after the Barkley and Kinchen fights.

 

Leonard winning gave him leverage to manage his career more carefully. Mike Trainer squeezed every penny out of everything he did. Got an advantage outside of the ring before they ever set foot in it. Hearns lost some key fights and had a lot of people to take care of with his boxing money.

 

Ego, ego, ego

 

In a 1997 interview Ray did some months after the fight he said..."the divorce and cutting to 154 really kicked my ass" he goes on to mention " the rib injury " meaning he couldnt take body punches in sparring but the biggest reason he says is a very late ankle injury that alnost caused him to cancel the fight and he states he had an injection on the night.

Going in Ray had said people told him " if you hit this kid its all over" based presumably on the jackson fight and ray being a bigger guy and viewed ,at least on his seniors tour comeback ,as a big puncher (brutal kayo of LH Lalonde and hurting Hearns badly twice).

Personally I wouldnt disagree Ray was poorly prepared. He showed a severe lack of movement and reflexes in this fight.He probably still had faster hands than Norris as evidenced by the flurry at the end of the 1st.....but norris"s reflexes and foot speed were a world apart,far superior on the night from Ray.

Bssically burning the candle at both ends caught up with Ray....his lalonde and hagler type returns ...the well was now empty....he was up against a very ruthless younger lighter faster fighter.....and he wasnt the same guy who fought lalonde...much less hagler....

Im in the minority....it was never gonna happen given Rays ego and arrogance at this stage...and it was always going to take a severe prolonged torturous beating like this to get him to quit......but I feel if Ray had prepared for the fight properly
....had 2-3 gym fights....against light middles...done a 6 month camp...been injury free than ray wouldve stopped him....but he was never gonna get up for a norris....a shame he didnt take a rematch..

 

Money and ego.

 

Tommy said he couldn’t make the weight that Ray wanted to fight at anymore. And no way was Leonard going to meet him at 175

 

I think the money and an opportunity to go out winning one more title was too tempting to pass up. Especially after all the criticism he got for some of his more recent outcomes. Terry Norris was still a relative unknown with a modest record of 26-3. For Ray to view him as a minimal threat was understandable. Hindsight obviously shows a very different picture..