Sugar Ray Leonard is as celebrated a fighter as they come having defined a golden era in boxing.
One part of the Four Kings, Leonard competed professionally for 20 years beginning in 1977. He would become champion in no less than five divisions, and was the only out of the famous quartet – alongside Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns – that scored a victory over each rival.
Other notable wins came against the likes of Wilfred Benitez and Donny Lalonde. When all was said and done, Leonard retired with a record of 36 wins and just three losses, two of which came at the end and after long bouts of inactivity.
Though unwaveringly confident and charismatic during his campaign, it wasn’t too much for Leonard to once admit, in a conversation about the late, great Sugar Ray Robinson, that he couldn’t compare.
“Someone once said there was a comparison between Sugar Ray Leonard and Sugar Ray Robinson. Believe me, there’s no comparison. Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest.”
Robinson is commonly regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter ever witnessed. His record of 201 bouts can never be matched in the modern era, and he won an incredible 174 of them. He was stopped inside the distance on just one occasion.
He was world champion at welterweight for five years before an incredible run at middleweight which saw him win the championship of five seperate occasions.
Though Leonard is gracious in his assessment, the two have been compared for their incredible rhythm and speed. He actually adopted his nickname ‘Sugar’ early, years before he would ever don the gloves. It was given to him by his mother, who was a fan of Robinson and felt her son looked like him.
