Hearns? Hagler? Duran? Benitez? SRL!!
When looking back on a boxer and his greatness I think you can only compare any fighter to his peers and how he matched up with them. On that end, Sugar Ray Leonard came up in arguably one of the greatest eras ever in terms of quality of competition and he, unlike many others, matched up with virtually every top fighter of his time and the results of those meetings are indicative of a truly great fighter.
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Who is the KING of the 1980's middleweights? There is debate as to who was the best of the FAB FOUR of Marvelous Marvin Hagler, "Sugar" Ray Leonard, Tommy "Hitman" Hearns and Roberto "Hands of Stone" Duran. We can even throw Wilfred "The Bible of Boxing" Benitez in there seeing how he fought three of the four, beat one of them and had close fights with the other two.
Their records against each other, though, would seem to imply that the man of that group was Sugar Ray Leonard.
They all had great overall careers with spots in Canastota assured but against each other, for what it's worth, they matched up like this:
Hagler was 2-1 with 1 KO.
Tommy was 2-2-1 with 1 KO.
Benitez was 1-2 with 0 KO's.
Duran was 1-4-1 with 0 KO's.
And Sugar Ray Leonard was 5-1-1 with 3 KO's against these guys who were a combined 406-14-3 at the time he fought them. He also stopped the guys he drew with and lost to (Duran and Hearns).
Food For Thought: How many times have you read about an upcoming fight and expected serious fireworks only to be disappointed? How many times has a promoter talked at length on a dais somewhere about the upcoming fight and he makes several comments about how great the fight would be? What an electric match up it would be? He gives it names like "The Brawl For it All" but when the fight actually happens you end up feeling you just got robbed for 49.99 worth of PPV money? Now, I am the type of guy that is all for good boxing, taking your time, picking your shots and being careful and if most fights were promoted that way it would be OK but nowadays there are so many guys that seem to do all this tough talking at press conferences and in online interviews but when the bell rings to start round one the reality of professional boxing seems to set in and they go back to being careful. Once in a while you will get Ward-Gatti or Corrales-Castillo but too often it is a thing where the guys that promise the best fights do not deliver. Maybe it is a style match up gone wrong or maybe one guy was not feeling well or maybe the stars just were not aligned right but I know myself that I sat through twelve rounds of Trinidad-DeLaHoya waiting for promised explosions and I am still waiting (Oscar boxed great for nine rounds, though, you gotta' give him that). Some of the most exciting sounding fights like that one and Taylor-Hopkins just never materialized and a big part of it was it seemed to me that the guys involved were not willing to take the risks needed to be great fighters and make serious statements. They rarely went for it all out for more than a few seconds at a time, you know?
My point is this: You look back on fights like the first Leonard-Duran and both Leonard-Hearns fights and ESPECIALLY the Hagler-Hearns fight and you know you are watching two men that were willing to go all out to win at all costs. In anticipated great fights, they delivered great fights. Hearns and Hagler went at it in the way you really want to see the best in the world go at it. Tommy unjustly gets a bad rep for losing the two huge fight with Hagler and Sugar Ray but the fact is there is nobody in history who brought more fight with him to the ring, for better or worse, than Tommy Hearns and if you want to see a guy (two of them, actually) who at least attempts to do what he promises, then pop in a tape of Hagler-Hearns.
Check it out:
Who is the KING of the 1980's middleweights? There is debate as to who was the best of the FAB FOUR of Marvelous Marvin Hagler, "Sugar" Ray Leonard, Tommy "Hitman" Hearns and Roberto "Hands of Stone" Duran. We can even throw Wilfred "The Bible of Boxing" Benitez in there seeing how he fought three of the four, beat one of them and had close fights with the other two.
Their records against each other, though, would seem to imply that the man of that group was Sugar Ray Leonard.
They all had great overall careers with spots in Canastota assured but against each other, for what it's worth, they matched up like this:
Hagler was 2-1 with 1 KO.
Tommy was 2-2-1 with 1 KO.
Benitez was 1-2 with 0 KO's.
Duran was 1-4-1 with 0 KO's.
And Sugar Ray Leonard was 5-1-1 with 3 KO's against these guys who were a combined 406-14-3 at the time he fought them. He also stopped the guys he drew with and lost to (Duran and Hearns).
Food For Thought: How many times have you read about an upcoming fight and expected serious fireworks only to be disappointed? How many times has a promoter talked at length on a dais somewhere about the upcoming fight and he makes several comments about how great the fight would be? What an electric match up it would be? He gives it names like "The Brawl For it All" but when the fight actually happens you end up feeling you just got robbed for 49.99 worth of PPV money? Now, I am the type of guy that is all for good boxing, taking your time, picking your shots and being careful and if most fights were promoted that way it would be OK but nowadays there are so many guys that seem to do all this tough talking at press conferences and in online interviews but when the bell rings to start round one the reality of professional boxing seems to set in and they go back to being careful. Once in a while you will get Ward-Gatti or Corrales-Castillo but too often it is a thing where the guys that promise the best fights do not deliver. Maybe it is a style match up gone wrong or maybe one guy was not feeling well or maybe the stars just were not aligned right but I know myself that I sat through twelve rounds of Trinidad-DeLaHoya waiting for promised explosions and I am still waiting (Oscar boxed great for nine rounds, though, you gotta' give him that). Some of the most exciting sounding fights like that one and Taylor-Hopkins just never materialized and a big part of it was it seemed to me that the guys involved were not willing to take the risks needed to be great fighters and make serious statements. They rarely went for it all out for more than a few seconds at a time, you know?
My point is this: You look back on fights like the first Leonard-Duran and both Leonard-Hearns fights and ESPECIALLY the Hagler-Hearns fight and you know you are watching two men that were willing to go all out to win at all costs. In anticipated great fights, they delivered great fights. Hearns and Hagler went at it in the way you really want to see the best in the world go at it. Tommy unjustly gets a bad rep for losing the two huge fight with Hagler and Sugar Ray but the fact is there is nobody in history who brought more fight with him to the ring, for better or worse, than Tommy Hearns and if you want to see a guy (two of them, actually) who at least attempts to do what he promises, then pop in a tape of Hagler-Hearns.
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