Why CANT Sugar Ray Leonard be the best of all time?

[StarshipTrooper]

I thought he was a great fighter. He fought all the top guys at the time. The one thing I didn't like was that he ran a lot in the ring. It was allowed in the 80's but it cost De La Hoya the fight agains't Trinidad in the late 90's.

Prime Leonard wasn't a runner. Or even a dancer. And when he did get away with it late in his career it wasn't because it was the '80s it was because he was Ray Leonard. In the '80s running was frowned upon more harshly than in it was in the '90s or the '00s. Certain fighters will always get more leeway in any era because of who they are and Oscar never had the cache of Ray Leonard.

Poet

[Ray Corso]

Frank; I base my opinion on Leonard from watching him as a little kid box in the J.O. program (junior olympics) then on the Olympic team (I'm a former Region One coach) and Leonard trained at my gym as a young pro (3rd or 4th fight). What do YOU base your opinions on? Reading other folks opinions on him? Did you know him since he was 12 yrs old, maybe he trained in your gym? Come on now say something cute or better yet insulting, HA!
Ray.

[StarshipTrooper]

Oh here we go: "You didn't carry Ray Mancini's spit bucket and scrub the smegma out of his jock like I did so you do know anything about boxing" yada yada yada :yadayadayada9:

[MJ223]

I take nothing away from his win over Benitez.

I take nothing away from his win against Hearns. The only thing I will say is that he was fortunate that Hearns gassed and fortunate that the fight was 15 rounds. The second time they fought Hearns should have been given the decision but the fight was scored a draw.

His wins over Duran have question marks over them. By his own admission his intention was to fight Duran when he was not in prime shape ( which is what happened). In their third fight people nowadays wouldn't hesitate to say that Duran was battleworn, in a division too high, passed his prime etc.

His win over Hagler is highly debatable, I personally had Hagler winning 8 rounds to 4. He fought Hagler when he showed signs of decline and on top of that avoided a rematch for a controversial fight.

Sergio Martinez was fortunate to have knocked out Paul Williams.... If Paul had his hand ups he would've never been knocked out.....

Should he have went to train with Duran to make sure he was 100% ready??? A lot of ppl point to the fact that Duran was past it when they fought the 3rd time but refuse to acknowledge that it was Ray who went on to NEVER win another fight while Duran did and at a higher weight...

Yup sitting out all that time and coming back with no tuneup fighting thee middleweight champion of the world..... Ray was sharp as a tac

[Frank Ducketts]

I take nothing away from his win over Benitez.

I take nothing away from his win against Hearns. The only thing I will say is that he was fortunate that Hearns gassed and fortunate that the fight was 15 rounds. The second time they fought Hearns should have been given the decision but the fight was scored a draw.

His wins over Duran have question marks over them. By his own admission his intention was to fight Duran when he was not in prime shape ( which is what happened). In their third fight people nowadays wouldn't hesitate to say that Duran was battleworn, in a division too high, passed his prime etc.

His win over Hagler is highly debatable, I personally had Hagler winning 8 rounds to 4. He fought Hagler when he showed signs of decline and on top of that avoided a rematch for a controversial fight.

Hearns gassed for a reason. Body shots. Leonard wanted an immediate rematch with Duran because he knew Duran blew up between fights. Duran was in shape, but Leonard used the ring in the rematch. Leonard Duran 3 and Leonard Hearns 2, would not change the legacy of any of the 3 fighters. Hearns was up two points going into the last round in the rematch on my card, and Leonard beat Hearns from pillar to post to earn a draw.

And nobody had Leonard or Hagler winning 8-4 either way.

[MJ223]

Carbajal lucky that when he fought Arce it wasn't a 10 rounder cause he would've lost.....

Lol it was 12 and Arce got KTFO just like Leonard-Hearns was 15 and he..... Well you know the rest

[StarshipTrooper]

fortunate that the fight was 15 rounds.

How is that fortunate? Title fights were NORMALLY 15 rounds at the time. That's not luck, that's the standard conditions.

Poet

[Frank Ducketts]

Frank; I base my opinion on Leonard from watching him as a little kid box in the J.O. program (junior olympics) then on the Olympic team (I'm a former Region One coach) and Leonard trained at my gym as a young pro (3rd or 4th fight). What do YOU base your opinions on? Reading other folks opinions on him? Did you know him since he was 12 yrs old, maybe he trained in your gym? Come on now say something cute or better yet insulting, HA!
Ray.

Ray, I wouldn't care if you were his father. You don't know me from jack so dont tell me about YOU.

[Larrysbird]

Saw his fights on TV in the 80's. Made me a boxing fan from thereon

[MJ223]

He's gone. Beware of Own3d's alts though.

Alts suck if you can pinpoint their owner......