Why did Sugar Ray Leonard fight Terry Norris?

Not sure but got to be ego involved there somewhere.

 

Ray thought that he could still beat all the top young champions out there. Around that time I read that had he have beaten Norris,Leonard's next intended opponent was Chris Eubank.

 

It was certainly out of character for Leonard in his 2nd career atleast. As normally he chose big fights where he thought he had best chance of winning, like Hagler slowing down vs Mugabi, Hearns being KO'ed by Barkley. It did seem strange he'd pick a hard hitting quick handed young champion like Terry Norris, but maybe he thought he had a suspect chin and could get to him ? I have no idea.

 

Yikes! Glad that didn't happen for SRL.

I kno he gets flack for being a diva and I get it but much credit for SRL for facing Norris. He could've fought someone FAR less challenging at that time.

 

I believe Ray thought he'd walk him down and land a big overhand right and stop him. Then he was shown how much quicker the younger man can be and he had zero answers

 

I think when fighters and athletes in general envision spectacular moments like that they usually don't take into account their current condition. Maybe he was envisioning him pulling off a win like it was the 80s again. Once faced w reality during their fight I wouldn't doubt that he realized that he thought of himself as more than he was in his hypothetical.

 

I think Ray needed challenges to get himself up.

Hagler after one bout in 5 years was certainly a challenge. Yeah maybe Marvin had some miles on the odometer but wasn’t he still P4P No. 1 or thereabouts? And still the dominant middleweight of his era. He ‘slowed down vs. Mugabi’ doesn’t mean the wheels fell off.

Hearns was always a challenge for Ray due to size and power, etc. Ray knew that Thomas would be super up for that fight and we’d get the best version of Hearns there could be at that time.

Lalonde was a full-blown light heavyweight champion and a power puncher.

If those are cherry picks … a lot of people who aren’t cherry-picking manage to find easier paths.

I think pure and simple Ray believed he could rise to the ocassion against a young buck and picked one out to test himself.

 

According to Julian Jackson, Leonard was planning on fighting the winner of the Jackson vs. Norris fight. Then he saw what happened in that fight and decided, "Erm, maybe I'll go for the other guy."

 

Never thought about it but you raise some good points.

 

It’d be interesting to see Eubank in with someone as good as Leonard regardless of what version of Leonard it was.

 

The answer is pretty obvious:

To give a lifetimes worth of pleasure to Red Rooster/MarkDunham.

 

Saw Norris get starched by Jackson and thought "I can do that too".

Anyone remember who Leonard was angling for after the Norris fight (if he won)?

 

Thats Ray Leonard in a nutshell for you.
Leonard viewed Norris as a vulnerable champion at 154, the most dangerous being Julian Jackson.
Norris would often get rocked and hurt during fights he'd go on to dominate, but that there I believe convinced Leonard Norris was apt for the taking.
I think Leonard probably saw Jackson destroy Norris a couple of years earlier and he saw Jorge Vaca a slow as mollases contender during that time (Vaca had been easily KO'd in his previous two fights by Lloyd Honeyghan and Simon Brown) well Vaca had taken Norris the full distance in a fight Norris won by split decision.
So Norris had well showed he had holes in his arsenal that Leonard thought he could exploit.

Though I think Norris was young, fast, and athletic, and beats this version of Leonard anyways, I do think ring rust played a role in Norris being able to dominate Leonard the way he did. Leonard had been inactive for two years when he met Norris.

 

There weren’t any marketable names for Leonard to face in a ‘superfight’ type deal in 1991.

Hearns and Duran were still around and ranked but neither were terribly attractive to do again in a major PPV. You look up and down the rankings and Norris is as viable as pretty much anyone in the weight range Leonard would be fighting.