Why didnt Sugar Ray Leonard ever give anyone a rematch?

Despite teasing boxing fans and Marvin Hagler himself by discussing a possible Hagler-Leonard fight for at least 6 years,Leonard wanted NOTHING,and I do mean NOTHING to do with fighting Hagler until he was absolutely certain that Marvin was shot,which he was.Just look at how slow he was and how shot his reflexes were in the Mugabi fight.

 

I don't know about waiting for him to be shot, Mugabi was a undefeated beast back then. The SRL vs Hagler fight wasn't on the up and up. Think about it, why would Hagler try to box one of the best boxers he has ever met. I was very close to one of Hagler's family members and he confessed that the fight was not on the up and up. You or others can believe it or not. I just remember that Hagler was not the Hagler I grew up watching. If he mugged him like he did with Hearns, it would have been ugly.

 

It would have been a truly beautiful match . I've just re watched Hagler-Hearns what a brawl

 

Dude,he openly discussed fighting Hagler for YEARS.He had an "event" at an arena in Maryland-to which he invited Hagler,and charged the public admission-simply to feed his own ego and announce his 1st retirement.He went to the Hagler-Duran fight and ran into Duran afterwards.Duran said to him,"You beat him."Lenny replied,"I know."Read Steve Marantz's book,as it lays everything out although I saw almost all of it with my own 2 eyes,nashing my teeth the whole way.He definitely waited for Hagler's downturn to pounce.As far as the Mugabi fight,it's true that Mugabi was a tough undefeated fighter,and the no1 ranked middleweight by the 3 organizations,but if you saw the fight then you would know that Mugabi out boxed Marvin for long stretches,landing many,many bombs along the way.Hagler couldn't get out of the way of punches he would have easily slipped 3 years before.If Marvin didn't have a granite chin,it might have been good night,Marvin against a universally accepted inferior opponent to Hagler.Hagler's feet looked like they were stuck in quicksand that evening.By the way,I haven't seen the fight in years,but when it happened and afterwards,I must have seen it 5 or 6 times and believe that Marvin deserved at least a draw.

 

Leonard did'nt grant anyone rematches because he considered himself privaleged and America's sweetheart having won a gold medal.

Oscar DLH followed in Leonard's footsteps.

The thing about is had Leonard granted Duran after no mas, Hearns well before the 8+years that passed..... and Hagler after their controversial fight, immediate rematches.
.....victories in immediate rematches with them would have Leonard looked upon today in a much better light than what he's currently looked upon.

The fact that he did'nt grant rematches, and never dominated divisions, hurts Leonard's alltime standing.

Leonard was a great fighter to be sure. I have alot of respect for his abilites in the ring, alot more than I do DLH who I've always felt his skills were overrated.

......but lookking at it from the outside looking in, Leonard hurts his all-time standing by not granting the rematches the public wanted to see and waiting years to seek to make such rematches when he felt was more convenient to him.

The public wants to see fighters face eachother when they are at their very best.......Leonard's eventual rematches with Duran and Hearns were far from it.

 

It was pretty clear that Hagler had declined by the time Leonard fought him. His legs and defense had slowed. Hagler usually had good parrying and slipping skills...look at the frequency with which slow Roldan hit him and Mugabi as well. Leonard admitted that Hagler showing signs of declining, and later talking about how he was seriously thinking about retiring, made Leonard want to fight him more.

However I still give Leonard a lot of credit as he was the naturally smaller fighter who had fought just once in five years. It's not as if he were the same either.

Leonard fought the wrong fight in Montreal against Duran, but not because he changed his style. Because he DIDN'T change his style. Leonard sometimes gets an undeserved rep as being some dance-on-his-toes-boxer (likewise Hagler gets an undeserved rep as a face-first brawler mainly because of one fight), but usually fought flat-footed. Watch most of his fights and he fought flat-footed, circling, boxing in a relaxed manner, and looking to land his shots and then follow up with his great finishing ability. Leonard made the right adjustments in the Duran rematch and against Hagler to use more movement and frustrate his opponents.

Duran quitting in the rematch didn't exactly make the best public interest and hype for a rubber match. They felt cheated. Don King said he'd never promote Duran again (of course he did though) after that. When they finally had a rubber match it was one of the worst fights ever.

I would've liked to have seen a rematch with Hagler, and the rematch with Hearns to have been sooner. It actually turned out to be a much better fight than expected. Hearns was thought of by many as being shot. Surely if the message boards were around then, many many people would be bashing Leonard in 1989 for "ducking" Michael Nunn.