Why did Sugar Ray Leonard fight Terry Norris?

He said it to promote the fight but the bottom line was it was not his natural weight and Ray knew this and knew making him drop weight would drain him .. and he was right as LaLonde badly faded .. Hearns looked terrible against Kitchen and the fight was only made because Ray wanted it ..

 

Get real , two alphabet belts ... what a load of crap .. sell that on General please .. Duran at 39 was not Duran at 29 .. he could stiul;l fight but had no legs , Manny Steward was screaming all about the fight during the promotion that Duran had zero shot and he was right .. ha,ha

 

I’m not making any claim of the legitimacy of winning two belts in one fight — but that was the promotional ploy and the reason Ray wanted the fight at that weight. Whether you or I or anyone else thinks the ‘two alphabet belts’ are ‘a load of crap,’ that is indeed why they did it that way.

(Didn’t you also claim that Lalonde was weight-drained and fading after the first couple of rounds? He was ahead on two of three cars and badly hurt Leonard just before being taken out.)

You said Duran’s style was all wrong for Leonard. Duran’s style was the same in the third fight as the first fight … he did not change fundamentally how he fought. He was less able to do it because Leonard boxed him … as he did in making Roberto quit and dominating him in the second fight.

This is the exact same Roberto Duran who fought Iran Barkley. But of course when Duran loses there must be excuses, as always.

(I keep forgetting how Leonard doesn’t age while guys like Hagler and Duran do.)

I’m unclear what Manny’s opinion has to do with it. Did Manny think Thomas Hearns was going to beat Hagler? I’ll go look it up.

 

Anyone think that Leonard meeting Benn instead of Norris, may have been a good match up....?

 

Very good question,Fergy. I reckon though by '91 Benn may have beaten Ray. Especially if he paced himself more as he was starting to do after the Chris Eubank classic of the previous year.

 

And it would also have been a dangerous fight for Ray, Stevie.
Benn had that type of power that could ko you, any round.

 

Yeah,definitely. Ray's day had passed and he could no longer beat the tough younger generation on the block.

 

Keep in mind LaLonde was eighteen months post Hagler and Hearns was over two years ... Ray was long in the tooth and still a highly inactive fighter ... it was one thing to fight other faded guys like Hearns and Duran or a weight drained marginal talent like LaLonde and another to keep going and challenge explosive guys , men with terrific speed and power in their youth like Norris and Benn .. There is no question that Ray Leonard was an all time top pound for pound fighter in his prime ... there is no doubt that he also used his leverage star power to manipulate the fights and terms he wanted .. he over shot on Norris who he underrated and then years later did the same with Camacho ..