Sugar Ray Leonard once revealed his greatest ever opponent.
Leonard burst onto the professional scene just months after he walked away from the 1976 Olympic games in Montreal, Canada with a light-welterweight gold medal.
His crowning moment came at the end of 1979 when he knocked out Wilfred Benitez in the final round of their showdown in Las Vegas to capture the WBC world welterweight title.
After several successful defences, he was beaten by Roberto Duran in the summer of 1980, but avenged this defeat in their rematch just months later in the infamous ‘No Mas’ fight, which saw Duran sensationally quit during the eighth round.
Leonard went on to face an abundance of great fighters throughout the remaining years of his tenure including Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns.
In a round of ‘Best I Faced’, Leonard singled out ‘The Hitman’ Hearns as the greatest overall fighter he ever crossed paths with, having fought the legendary American on two occasions during his career.
“It was Tommy [Hearns]. I don’t think anything matches our first fight.”
Leonard’s first battle with Hearns, which was dubbed ‘The Showdown’, took place in September 1981. After a turbulent contest, ‘Sugar’ knocked Hearns out in the penultimate round to unify the WBC and WBA welterweight titles.
Their highly anticipated second encounter came four years after the first, and would be contested for Leonard’s WBC super middleweight title. After yet another entertaining match-up, the fight was declared a split-decision draw. A trilogy bout between the pair had reportedly been discussed, but never actually came to fruition before the end of their respective careers.
