Quote Originally Posted by X View Post
Quote Originally Posted by TitoFan View Post
Diva, maybe. But Leonard faced the best at their peaks without worrying about catchweights or waiting for the planets to align before facing them
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Oh, I'm not convinced about that Tito.

Leonard was a magnificent and courageous fighter, no doubt about that ......

But he was very very carefully matched on the way up, he agreed to defend against an already ageing Duran having his first fight at Welterweight, then didn't have the rubber match until Duran was truly ancient and fat.

He waited at least 5 years for Hagler to get old and for the planets to align, he made huge events from fighting substandard opposition (Kevin Howard, anyone?) and he cherry picked guys later on.

And you couldn't be more wrong about catchweights. Leonard INVENTED catchweights. The entire super middleweight division was invented to weight drain Donny Lalonde. It was a farce that history has looked kindly upon.

No, my friend. Duran was most certainly NOT aging when he fought Leonard... in what should be considered one of history's greatest fights. Duran was 29 years old, and pretty much in his prime.

You mention the rubber match... but no mention of the immediate rematch in which Duran was woefully unprepared (his fault) and given a boxing lesson by SRL.

Hagler? Sure... I'll give you that one. But what about the Who's Who of boxing ATG's on Leonard's resume, like Hearns and Benitez?

Can you imagine Ginger facing the same quality of opponent in their prime?? I can't.

Leonard can be accused of being a diva, arrogant, opportunistic at times.

But please............... PLEASE.......... don't anyone make the unforgivable mistake of putting an ATG and Coddled Ginger in the same sentence, paragraph, book.