Sugar Ray Leonard has revealed the greatest fighter he ever faced.
He made his professional debut in 1977, just a few months after he’d picked up an Olympic gold medal at the Summer Games in Montreal, Canada one year prior.
Leonard captured world honours for the first time in 1979 when he defeated Wilfred Benitez via stoppage in the final round of their bout in Las Vegas, claiming the WBC welterweight title in the process.
After making a number of successful defences of his crown, Leonard suffered the first defeat of his career at the hands of Roberto Duran, who was declared the winner via unanimous decision after an entertaining fifteen round battle.
Leonard would get his revenge in their rematch just five months later, before going on to face an abundance of generational greats throughout the remainder of his career including Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns.
In a round of ‘Best I Faced’, Leonard made no mistake in naming Hearns as the best fighter overall he had ever locked horns with, after sharing the ring with ‘Hitman’ on two occasions.
“It was Tommy [Hearns]. I don’t think anything matches our first fight.”
Their first encounter, which is often called a classic by boxing purists, took place in September 1981. After a closely fought contest, Leonard stopped Hearns in the 14th round to unify the WBC and WBA welterweight titles.
They met for the second time four years after their first bout, with Leonard putting his WBC super-middleweight title on the line. After yet another closely fought contest between the pair, the fight was declared a split decision draw.
A third and final showdown had reportedly been discussed, but never did take place before they drew the curtain on their respective careers.
