If fate hadn't smiled down on him enough, he just so happened to fight during the best non-heavyweight era in boxing history, which afforded him the chance to measure himself against other great fighters and champions. His record is a virtual who's who list of great fighters.

If all of the above wasn't enough to make anyone envious, he also had crossover appeal and was arguably the biggest draw of any non-heavyweight fighter in boxing history. Yes, even bigger than Oscar De La Hoya. Sugar Ray Leonard is actually the fighter Oscar measures himself against regarding his star appeal and accomplishments, although he'd never admit it publicly.

After Sugar Ray Leonard won a gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics, he was brought to Hall Of Fame trainer Angelo Dundee to help guide and teach him the pro game. What was it that Marvin Hagler said about him leading up to their fight in 1987? "He was named after Ray Charles, stole Sugar Ray Robinson's name, and had Ali's trainer." Guess Hagler called it. What most don't know is that his trainer really was Janks Morton who was aided by Dave Jacobs. But Morton was the one who had finally say. Dundee just came to camp a week or two out from the fight to help Ray and Janks with an attack strategy for the opponent in the upcoming fight.

Some fans and media members found Sugar Ray Leonard hard to take and very condescending. He was good looking, had a shark for a business manager named Mike Trainer and was an overall media darling. It was also perceived that Leonard, like De La Hoya today, had the powers-that-be in his corner. There also may be some truth to that, but none of them ever got in the ring with either and helped them fight. Forget the image, Sugar Ray Leonard could flat out fight and must be given credit for being a truly all-time great fighter. Fighting as a welterweight, Sugar Ray Leonard was as close to unbeatable as a fighter could be. Look who it was who gave him his only loss at 147, Roberto Duran, who is the best pound-for-pound fighter since Sugar Ray Robinson. It is the opinion of this writer that only Ray Robinson trumps Ray Leonard as an all-time welterweight great.

It's been mentioned by some that Leonard fought hand-picked opponents during his career. This is wrong and in fact Leonard only faced two fighters who were under .500 when he fought them, and they were both within his first seven pro fights. How many other greats can that be said about? On the way up the welterweight ranks Leonard was matched against fighters who had varying styles and more experience than he did. Leonard fought toughie Rafael Rodriguez, slick Floyd Mayweather Sr. who was 16-1, the durable Randy Shields, and three-time title challenger and veteran Armando Muniz before he challenged for the welterweight title.

Five months after stopping Muniz, Leonard decisioned middleweight Marcos Geraldo over 10 rounds. The same Geraldo would go the distance with top-ranked middleweight contender Marvin Hagler a short time later. In fairness, I must include that three years after losing to Leonard, Geraldo was KO'd by Thomas Hearns in one round. However, that was Hearns who punched harder than either Leonard or Hagler. Before challenging for the welterweight title, Leonard stopped 30-3-1 junior middleweight Tony Chiaverini, and devastated third-ranked contender Andy "The Hawk" Price in one round on the Larry Holmes-Earnie Shavers title fight undercard.

After destroying Price, Leonard fought 38-0-1 WBC welterweight champ Wilfred Benitez. Benitez is the youngest fighter in history to win a world title, doing so at age 17. Leonard challenged Benitez 10 months after he took the title from Carlos Palomino. Wilfred was a master boxer who had radar for defense and made fighters miss him with their punches, including Leonard, without moving his feet.

When Leonard and Benitez finally clashed, it was a chess match strategically. The difference was Leonard was the superior offensive fighter. Leonard took the title when the fight was stopped with only six seconds remaining in the 15th round.

In his first defense of the title, Leonard scored one of the most chilling knockouts ever when he stopped former title challenger 33-2 Dave "Boy" Green with a dynamite left hook to the chin in the fourth round. The Green KO was so brutal, some thought Leonard killed Green before their eyes.

In his second title defense, Leonard met former undisputed lightweight champion Roberto Duran, who was 71-1 and hadn't lost in eight years.

On June 20th 1980, Leonard and Duran met in what was titled "The Brawl For It All" in Montreal. Leading up to this fight, Duran did a number on Leonard psychologically by taunting his wife and making fun of him and challenging his manhood. Leonard already believed he could go through Duran before their fight; by the time they got into the ring he wanted to kill him. This played right into what Duran wanted. Roberto lured Ray into a toe-to-toe fight which he won by a close majority decision. Although Leonard lost, no one ever questioned his toughness again.

Five months later they met in a rematch, only this time Ray won the head game and totally frustrated Duran making him say "no mas" in the eighth round to regain his WBC title. Leonard may have been the sharpest and fastest he ever was in the rematch with Duran. He was totally wired and cat-quick. Anyone who's not sure or doesn't remember this, go back and watch the tape, I did. Seven months after winning the title back from Duran, Leonard stopped 36-0 Ayub Kalule, who was making his fifth title defense to win the WBA junior middleweight title. Shortly after winning the title, Leonard vacated it and went back down to welterweight, seeking the ultimate showdown.

Three months prior to Leonard beating Duran in their rematch, Thomas Hearns destroyed WBA champ Pipino Cuevas in two rounds to capture the title. Hearns was 32-0 (30) and a true killer who looked invincible at welterweight. On September 16th 1981, Leonard and Hearns met in what was the most highly anticipated welterweight championship fight in history, titled "The Showdown".

In the fight, Hearns started off very fast, scoring with his long hard jab which kept Leonard from getting inside. Hearns clearly had the advantage for the first five rounds, and up until that time it looked as if he was too big and strong for Ray. In the sixth round, Leonard got inside and landed a stinging right uppercut that shook Hearns. From this point on, Hearns became the prey and Leonard the predator. However, Hearns regrouped and maintained his lead in the fight, due to his underrated boxing ability. Knowing that he was behind in the scoring, Leonard stormed out of his corner at the start of the 14th round and opened up with a flurry of punches, hurting Hearns. Leonard, being a tremendous finisher, never let Hearns recover, which led to the fight being stopped late in the 14th round.

After making one defense of the unified welterweight title against Bruce Finch, Leonard retired with a detached retina. Leonard came out of retirement 23 months later and stopped ranked Philly welterweight contender Kevin Howard after suffering the first knockdown of his career during the fight. Leonard retired again shortly after the Howard fight.

After not fighting since May of 1984, Ray was bitten by fighting again and came back to challenge undisputed middleweight champ Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Hagler had been ruling the middleweight division for seven years and was unbeaten over 11 years. Ray was laughed at when he told everyone that he could take Hagler's middleweight title despite never having fought above 154 pounds, and only fighting once in the past five years. Leonard entered the ring against Hagler on April 6th 1987 as a 4-1 underdog. A fight with Leonard was a fight Hagler longed for since Leonard retired in November of 1982, and promised to destroy him.

In what is the biggest and supposedly the toughest fight of Leonard's career, he fought the most brilliant fight of his life. Look, this fight was very close. If you were rooting against Leonard, you can say he lost and really believe it in your heart. However, there can be no dispute that Leonard won the first three rounds, which cost Hagler the fight in my opinion. Hagler had to win seven of the last nine rounds and he didn't. This is the crowning moment of Ray's career; nobody ever thought this fight would be left up to the judges before the bell rang for the first round.

Leonard had studied Hagler and knew exactly how to fight him. The boxing world thought the way to beat Hagler was to back him up, which Leonard showed was a fallacy. Hagler, being a counter puncher, was vulnerable, as I like to say, when he had to be the Joe Frazier in the fight.

After Hagler, Ray fought and won the super middleweight and light heavyweight titles with a ninth-round stoppage of light heavyweight champ Donny LaLonde. After LaLonde, Leonard fought a rematch with Thomas Hearns that ended in a disputed draw. Hearns even dropped Leonard twice during the bout, but even that doesn't eclipse the larger than life image of Sugar Ray. Six months after Hearns, Leonard fought Roberto Duran for the third time. This time both fighters were way past their best fighting days and Leonard handled Duran, who was making the first defense of the middleweight title he had won from Iran Barkley 10 months earlier.

Ray retired after winning a decision over Duran, only to un-retire a year and a half later to fight Terry Norris. Norris showed Ray that it was time to move on, giving him a one-sided thrashing over 12 rounds. Once again, Ray couldn't accept that it was over (none of the greats ever can, that's part of what makes them great), and after a six-year absence from the ring at age 41, he fought Hector Camacho and was stopped in five rounds. Leonard retired for good after the Camacho debacle.

Like him or loathe him, Sugar Ray Leonard at his peak fighting as a welterweight is without question one of the greatest fighters in fistic history, regardless of weight division. Fighting at his natural weight in the welterweight division, I would only pick Sugar Ray Robinson to beat him in a prime vs. prime confrontation.

Writers Note:

Note: Two years ago I wrote a column on the five best non-heavyweight fighters from 1978 through 2003. Before doing this, I contacted 11 well-respected boxing writers and historians, asking them to give me their top five non-heavyweights of the last 25 years. Sugar Ray Leonard was the ONLY fighter who was included on EVERYONE'S list, more than Marvin Hagler, more than Roy Jones, more than Duran, Whitaker, Chavez, Arguello, M. Spinks, and Hearns. This was totally unsolicited, proving how respected Sugar Ray Leonard was as a fighter in the boxing community.

I've heard some say if he was so great, how come he lost to a lightweight? That lightweight was Roberto Duran, the greatest lightweight ever. And even at that, Leonard was fighting in only his third championship fight, and Duran was a relentless veteran that night who had won over 70 fights and would've handled any welterweight. This is the same guy who went 15 tough close rounds with Marvin Hagler for the middleweight championship three years later.

In fact, Hagler had to rally in the last three rounds to secure the decision over Duran. Hagler is regarded as one of the top five or six greatest middleweight champs ever. If Duran edging out Leonard at welterweight tarnishes his legacy, then what does it say about Hagler, a true middleweight great, who barely got by an older and slower version of Duran than the one Leonard split two fights with over a five-month period?