By Cliff Rold

In this series, designed to culminate the week of the May 2nd showdown between Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KO) and World Junior Welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32 KO), Pacquiao’s previous title claims in five weight divisions were examined.  Identified were three lineal titles at Flyweight, Featherweight, and Jr. Lightweight.  Against Hatton, Pacquiao goes for overall title for lineal title number four.  How historically significant would it be?

In order to answer that question, the page now turns to the other men who have made claims to titles in four, five and six weight divisions, closing looking at how their championship accolades weather the weight of history.  Those men are:

Four Division Claimants

Roberto Duran - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19025

Pernell Whitaker - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19117

Roy Jones Jr. & Leo Gamez - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19243

Five Division Claimants

Sugar Ray Leonard

Thomas Hearns

Floyd Mayweather Jr.

And the lone Six Division Claimant

Oscar De La Hoya

Anyone who can be looked back upon and easily wear the label of ‘Great’ had to have some serious fighter inside of them.  Few have the extra something to make them a transcendent star.  The next fighter examined here was just that, as big a superstar as the sport ever produced and one whose finest moments, though limited by a career short on starts, have stood the test and debates of time.  Of interest, he was just three days shy of being the first man to hold a claim to world titles in five weight divisions and, in fitting fashion, there was some razzle dazzle to the accomplishment.

The Title Reigns of (cue the voice of Chuck Hall) Sugar…Ray…Leonard

World Welterweight – TKO15 Wilfred Benitez: Following his debut into national consciousness as a Gold Medal member of the legendary 1976 U.S. Olympic team, Leonard (36-3-1, 25 KO) began a rapid rise through the Welterweight ranks.  Turned pro in February 1977, he would ratchet 25 wins without a loss and challenging the undefeated WBC champion Benitez before his career was three years old.  Over fifteen fast paced rounds, the two prodigious young talents would take turns making each other miss, Leonard doing a better job in the making his man pay department.  A flash third round knockdown off a jab set the tone of the bout, Leonard always just a baby step ahead.  In the fifteenth, an arguably debatable stoppage was called as Leonard teed off in the closing seconds, referee Carlos Padilla perhaps caught up in a still growing aura.  After one defense against Dave Green, Leonard would split two memorable, for wildly different reasons better discussed elsewhere, fights with Roberto Duran to lose and regain his throne.  And, beyond doubt, it was the true throne in the class.  The lineage for both of Leonard’s Welterweight crowns was the same as the lineage discussed for Duran earlier in this series (though discussed slightly in error previously; the line traced to Curtis Cokes and not Virgil Akins).  In 1982, he would remove any doubt to the strength of his claim by stopping undefeated WBA champion Thomas Hearns in a classic.  Forecast: Clear, Lineal Claim to the World Title

World Junior Middleweight – TKO9 Ayub Kalule: Between regaining and the cementing his second Welterweight claim, Leonard made a brief sojourn up the scale for a showdown with undefeated WBA Jr. Middleweight champion Ayub Kalule, then undefeated in 36 contests.  It turned into a tougher fight than many expected with the tough Ugandan-by-way-of Denmark holding his own for awhile.  Eventually, fighting often at close quarters, Leonard would prove too much for Kalule, breaking him down in the ninth round to force the stoppage.  Again, while only holding a single belt, there was little to dispute about the lineage of the title.  Kalule descended in a straight line to the late 1960s undisputed reign of Freddie Little and, when Leonard chose to vacate, the lineage would go hazy until at least late into the run of Terry Norris.  Forecast: Clear, Lineal Claim to the World Title

World Middleweight – SD12 Marvin Hagler: The debates continue, unabated, over twenty years later.  Two of the judges at ringside (Lou Filipo and Dave Moretti) scored either way at a reasonable 115-113, or seven rounds to five.  The third judge, Jo Jo Guerra, turned in a 118-110 (10-2) score for Leonard so absurd as to remain one of the great black marks in Boxing history.  The fight demanded a third rational score; without one, it has been left to the fans to make their own and that’s probably the fun of this legendary fight.  No matter which way anyone scored or scores it, the official result stands and no one can argue Marvin Hagler, one of the best Middleweights of all time at the end of over six years as champion, was anything but the one, true Middleweight champion on Earth even if he’d been, by fight time, stripped down to just his WBC belt.  Forecast: Clear, Lineal Claim to the World Title

WBC Super Middleweight/WBC Light Heavyweight – TKO9 Donny Lalonde: This is where the razzle-dazzle comes into play.  Three days after Hearns snatched the WBO crown at 168 lbs. to mark his fifth divisional title, Leonard entered this odd affair on November 7, 1988 against WBC Light Heavyweight titlist Lalonde.  Somehow, this was also made for the new WBC crown at 168 and given the payday at hand, Lalonde agreed to come in below 170 lbs. for the first time since 1986.  After a strong start which included a knockdown, Lalonde faded as Leonard found a series of showstopping shots to down Lalonde in the ninth.  Let’s be serious though.  The lineage at 168, as previously discussed in looking at Roy Jones, belonged to Chong-Pal Park.  One fight later, he would be worked over for a ‘draw’ even Leonard will admit these days was a loss in a unification tilt with Hearns.  Furthermore, while not a bad fighter, Lalonde was at least a step down from fellow 175 lb. titlists Charles Williams (IBF) and Virgil Hill (WBA); probably more like two steps to be fair.  Leonard won a pair of belts on this night.  There is no need to make more it than that.   Forecast: Hazy, real hazy, on both counts

Having never tried, Leonard fell short of being able to claim the four lineal World titles Pacquiao is training to make a run at, though Leonard would have to have been favored had he gone after Park rather than picking up a vacant strap versus Lalonde.  Favored, of course, is not the same as winning an actual fight and so he falls short of that accomplishment.

In the next installment, whether calling him by Cobra or Hit Man, Leonard’s greatest rival goes under the microscope.

To be continued…

For Part I of this “Real History” Series and a look at Pacquiao’s previous title claims, log on to https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=18886

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com