The legendary Sugar Ray Leonard paid homage to two heavyweight icons when naming his favourite fight of all time.
Leonard is widely regarded as being one of the greatest fighters to have ever graced the sport, an opinion that is shared by boxing fans and analysts around the world.
He made his mark in the sport during the early 1980s and would go on to become one of the sports ‘Four Kings’ alongside Roberto Duran, Thomas ‘The Hitman’ Hearns and Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
By the time he had announced his retirement from the sport in 1997, Leonard had captured world titles in five weight divisions, including a short reign as the undisputed world welterweight champion.
Prior to Leonard’s dominance during the 1980s came a golden era for heavyweights which saw the likes of Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, George Foreman and Joe Frazier rise to superstardom.
Speaking in a Q&A with Boxing News, Leonard didn’t hesitate to name the 1974 showdown between Ali and Foreman, perhaps better known as ‘The Rumble In The Jungle’, as his favourite fight of all time.
“When Muhammad Ali fought the beast, George Foreman – and beat him.”
Despite going into the bout as a heavy underdog, Ali produced arguably the greatest performance of his entire career to stop ‘Big George’ in the eighth round of their world heavyweight title showdown in Kinshasa, Zaire.
The bout itself is widely considered to be one of, if not the most influential moment in boxing history and is still a major talking point amongst the boxing community to this very day.
