Why is Leonard so disliked?

True enough.

Yet how many predicted a Leonard win? How many fights had he been in the previous five years? How many times had he previously fought at 160? Neither were prime, although great nonetheless.

 

Yeah, no doubt it was a great achievement, a great win for Leonard. :good

 

Because I liked Pepsi

 

I don't hate him, but I can see why people wouldn't like him. He is a phony. Not real with people. He acts a lot when he is nice.

 

9 times out 10 people hate him for beating Hagler (an embarrassing loss for Hagler, all things considered), making Duran disgrace himself, and only fighting the other members of the Fab 4 when he wanted to. Some people also resent that he was a golden-boy media darling since before his professional career even began.

 

Great post!

 

I think it was because he was introduced as America's Darling on television, and to the general public. There were many stars at the time he became champion that many felt deserved the acclaim that he had. But in all fairness to Sugar Ray Leonard, he was carefully brought up as a professional, had a great trainer in the legendary Angelo Dundee. Leonard adopted the name Sugar Ray, a tribute to the great Sugar Ray Robinson. And also he did copy the flashy charisma of another Dundee pupil, Muhammad Ali. Even Leonard's style resembled flashes that prime Ali possessed in his prime years, 1964-1967. Those quick punches, reflexes, and speed of footwork. He also adopted the Bolo Punch, invented by the legendary, Kid Gavilan. I believe the boxing public wanted Leonard to prove his press clippings in each fight. He had been retired for 4 years, came back to win the WBC World Middleweight Title from Marvelous Marvin Hagler. He displayed the same skills that won him the WBC Welterweight Title from Wilfred Benitez, on Nov 30 1979, by TKO 15. The win over Hagler was quite a feat, against a great champion who had not lost since 1976.

 

I think it is more his attitude. He wants to come off as a real nice guy and he really just constructed everything. I don't know how nice he is as a person since I don't know him personally, so I cannot say. But the outside appearances are not complimentary after his whole career-the impression was that he was all about himself. Getting Hagler to that Armory or wherever it was to announce he would not fight him. How he constructed fights and weights and the Lalonde 2 title thing which was nonsense. Even when he fought for a nice guy he sure would hit on the break a lot and use a lot of illegal stuff. Hearns by contrast hit harder, yet he would not hit on the break... To me that is why I like Hearns more.

 

https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Bolo_punch

 

I think it is more appropriate to ask why is he so liked? He was one of the most popular boxers in the history of the sport

 

Even though he was very talented, he was introduced to the boxing public much the same way as today's talent. The media created Sugar Ray Leonard starting from the 1976 Olympics until his fame blossomed, during his climb to the title. Many have said that he was so charismatic. I saw him knockout Daniel Gonzalez live, on March 24 1979, very smooth fluid fighter with quickness. But the late Howard Cossell contributed to his exposure to the media.

 

Sour grapes

 

Probably because he was so very shrewd in his timing of taking big fights and in his negotiation of conditions of said fights.

That said, I look beyond that and realize he has an awesome resume.

He looked out for number one and, so still has beaucoup bucks.

Can't really fault him.

 

This is part of it. Duran and Hagler both played a part in allowing Leonard to dictate the negotiations. He had the $$. Nobody made Duran party to the extent that he did..he didn't have to snort up Peru. He could have toned it down after a month or whatever.

The other thing is that Ray Leonard achieved Superstardom before he had earned it. It's a funny thing. The Olympics can do that. Howard Cosell coddled him and it was like a Copy of Ali. Leonard out of the ring wasn't genuine and I am not sure he ever will be.
When you look at the careers of most great fighters it usually takes time and some baptism under fire before they come close to the type of fame and $ Leonard walked into as a pro.
Hagler and Duran had to put in work for years before even approaching the $ and fame that Ray got from the door. That would be a natural resentment. If you were in Duran or Hagler's shoes how would you feel about it?
That is where the resentment started. Ray did go on to prove himself one of the all-time greats. We can all accept that.
Not giving Hearns a rematch until he looked shot was a di ck move.

 

Good points. That was actually against the rules but they allowed it because he was Ray Leonard. The LaLonde farce. The way he lured Hagler to his retirement announcement was another di ck move.
The dislike of Leonard is so very called for.