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Obviously, me not being around then, makes it hard to know just how good his competition was. I always hear about how great the likes of Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran, Thommy Hearns, and Marvin Hagler were, but just how good was his opposition prior to him winning his first world title? Who were some of the best fighters he fought prior to Benitez? How good were they?
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I don't know but if you look at his amateur career he was already a great fighter. Most of the fights he "lost" were disputed, including dropping a guy 3 times, and another guy giving him the trophy lol.
Leonard became part of perhaps the greatest USA Olympic team ever... Including Leon & Michael Spinks, Davis, and of course big John Tate. Leonard dominated a great Cuban fighter Andre's Aldema, to win a gold. Aldema was a Knockout artist, and it was not even close...
He did beat Mayweather senior before fighting benitez. A feat attempted much later by Charles Zelenoff Kidding!! -
Fighters were brought along differently back then. He started out fighting guys with more experience (whereas a lesser fighter would be matched against fighters of roughly the same experience) and steadily worked through fringe contender types like ****ie Ecklund and Floyd Mayweather sr. He than went on to fighters in or floating around the top ten including Pete Ranzany and Andy Price while being ranked inside the top ten himself. He won the title relatively quickly compared to many other fighters without the same amateur pedigree, but he would be even more quickly fast tracked today if he were fighting. With his million dollar smile outside the ring and killer instinct and smarts inside of it he was a "can't miss" fighter that rarely comes along.Comment
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I don't want to pretend to know where they were ranked exactly ranked, but I think it's a reasonable guess they were in the top 20.
Edit: At the end of 1978 Floyd Mayweather was ranked fifth. I probably spoke out of turn on Ecklund as he could have been top 20, but seems to be more a gatekeeper.Comment
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SRL opponents' combined records, before Benitez, was: 562-133-31 (80%)
25 fights from Luiz Vega to Andy Price. -- only two fighters had losing records and 11 fighters had fewer than four loses.
COMPARED:
Teofimo Lopez opponents' record: 254-59-7 (81%)
15 fight before Lomachenko -- only three fighters had losing records and nine fighters with fewer than four loses.
At first I was going to comment that SRL was certainly prepared well for Benitez, (and I still feel that way) but now I am wondering that maybe Lopez wasn't as green as we all (and Loma) thought.
P.S. Numbers may be off a bit but are close.
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He fought pretty strong opposition tbf. Ranzany was ranked #6 by Ring Magazine when Ray stopped him in 4. Randy Shields was ranked #7 by the Ring when Ray beat him by UD over 10. Andy Price was ranked #10 by the Ring when Ray iced him inside a round. I think Mayweather Sr. was also ranked inside the top 10 when Ray stopped him in 10. Ray also beat Armando Muniz who was slightly past his best but had been a perennial top contender for the majority of the 70’s. Muniz had gone 15 with both Napoles and Palomino, Ray stopped him in 6.
Nowadays champions don’t have a resume half as good as that.
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This is exactly the kind of breakdown I was looking for thanksHe fought pretty strong opposition tbf. Ranzany was ranked #6 by Ring Magazine when Ray stopped him in 4. Randy Shields was ranked #7 by the Ring when Ray beat him by UD over 10. Andy Price was ranked #10 by the Ring when Ray iced him inside a round. I think Mayweather Sr. was also ranked inside the top 10 when Ray stopped him in 10. Ray also beat Armando Muniz who was slightly past his best but had been a perennial top contender for the majority of the 70’s. Muniz had gone 15 with both Napoles and Palomino, Ray stopped him in 6.
Nowadays champions don’t have a resume half as good as that.Comment
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