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Terry norris was a really good fighter,,, SRL was done at the time,, as others have mentioned: coke problem, aging, and all the tough fights with duran, benitez, hearns etc finally caught up to him, dropping 2 weight classes and norris was very good and very hungry,,,, It was a perfect storm of elements lining up against SRL.....
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You have to wonder if angie Dundee would have advised Ray to take such a fight.Comment
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Somewhat strangely...Ray made a novice's mistake right at the end of a career which he had managed and judged so expertly.
He so often took the right fights, at precisely the right time and for the best money on the table. SRL was a bright guy in and out of the ring.
But the Norris fight was a rare (sole?) lapse in judgement; face a hungry fighter and at his preferred weight but you're actually the star who can set the agenda and with the clout to make Norris worry about adding some pounds. Not a smart move from SRL.Comment
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@rightsideup...agreed, but SRL was the master of the calculated risk rather than someone who just played safe every, single time. Hence my extremely high respect for him.
But against Norris he forget the usual, smart calculations and just walked into some self-created trouble.Comment
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Leonard would have been better off fighting Nunn. He'd have lost and done so comprehensively, but I still think he could have remained fairly competitive and not get trounced in the manner that he was against Norris, simply due to the fact that he would have been competing at his then natural weight as opposed to draining his mid thirty's year old body to make a weight he hadn't made in many, many years.
The only plausible explanation for Leonard fighting Norris is that his ego kicked in and he wanted to prove he could handle a top level talent who was young and in his prime, and he saw Norris as being more beatable than Nunn. Neither Hearns nor Leonard felt they could beat Nunn at that stage in his career.Comment
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