WAS SUGAR RAY LEONARD A BIT OVERRATED???

[Thread Stealer]

Aaron Pryor, a great (but underachieving) fighter, has become one of the most overrated fighters in history. Thank the HBO series Legendary Nights.

Thats one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Overrated?? The guy is relatively obscure because the only big name to give him a shot was Arguello, and we all know how Pryor handled himself against Alexis.

Yes, Pryor is overrated.

He is not obscure on boxing message boards because people always talk about how great he is and how Leonard "feared" him because they watched an HBO documentary.

Just a couple days ago, on ESB, I've read more than one poster say he's a top 15 fighter all-time. That's not an uncommon occurence either, I've read that quite a bit.

In 2002, The Ring had him at #35 of the greatest fighters of the last 80 years, ahead of more deserving and more accomplished fighters.

People talk about how the big names avoided him. Since when do welterweights have an obligation to fight junior welterweights? Because he 'called out' Leonard?

His best wins were over an Arguello who peaked 2 divisions lower, and an old Cervantes. He had some solid wins over contenders, but nowhere near enough achievement to get the rankings he often gets from the Legendary Nights Generation of Boxing Fans.

[Plopeater]

For me SRL was gud, overated no

[C-Lo]

I would say a little bit overated, but not much. The only thing i didn't like was how he ran against hagler and duran in the second fight. He got a gift stoppage against hearns, but other than that, when he didn't run, he was pretty good.

I actually disagree with all of that.

1.Hagler was at ATG Middleweight.
To stand and fight with Hagler would have been without exaggeration suicide.

2. Duran could beat Leonard in close.
"Running" or boxing on the backfoot, was the ideal way to frustrate Duran, as Duran in close would still have hurt Leonard.

3. Hearns was legitimately stopped.
Herans had outboxed Sugar comprehensively, but he was fatigued from doing so. Ray went out for the stoppage he stallked well and finished very very well.

If he didn't "run" from Hagler and Duran, he would have no shot at winning those fights.

Sugar Ray Leonard, overrated?!?!?! I can't believe someone would even say this! He's the only one who beat all of the guys when Duran, Hearns, and Hagler were fighting each other.