Would Sugar Ray Leonard have fought Ezzard Charles?

There’s more criticism of Ray Leonard hypothetically ducking Ezzard Charles on this thread than I’ve seen of Gus Lesnevich or Freddie Mills for ducking Ezzard when he was actually fighting and they held the light heavyweight championship in my entire days on this forum.

 

If Charles fought him at 147 .... my point, zero shot ..

 

Too right. If Ray and Ezzard had fought in 1958, it would have been 'Leonard waited till Ezz was old and shot' - never mind that Ray was two!!

Not mad on the bloke but he gets terrible press round here.

 

Leonard is one of the absolute greatest fighters I have ever seen. But he brought it on himself.

 

True. But there is a massive gap between Charles and LaLonde, who wasn't even the 2nd or 3rd best 175 pound champion in 1988.

 

You should know better . SRL didnt step up to Lt hvy to fight Lalonde. It was a SMW, a CW fight at 168. He dosent take the fight unless he weakens Lalonde. Charles murders him

 

Of course not. He wanted nothing to do with Burley, let alone Charles.

 

Leonard old mate.

 

My bad

 

We all do it rest assured.

 

Oh, no.

That was just the kind of fight he didn't take at that stage, with good reason. To go up and face the absolute killer of the division but who has no belt and close to zero name recognition for non-insiders? Even prime fighters don't do that kind of ****, no to mention a past his best superstar who can pick and choose his opponents. Taking on a fighter like that at that stage of your career would be close to certifiable.

 

A bit of an understatement, but very true.

 

I kind of understood what he was getting at, but "nonsense" is a bit harsh.

Yes, Hearns and Duran were past their best, but so was Leonard, and these ageing legends were still relevant enough for those fights to make sense, even though I really don't like the catch weight nonsense in title fights. And you have to give Leonard credit for taking on a prime Norris.

So, yes, he stacked the deck a bit against Hearns, but the fights made sense.