Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑27 May 2025, 21:09
Editor Notes:
Duran was not in his 30s when he lost to Leonard. He was just 29.
Pedroza was just 29 when he lost to Mcguigan.
Robinson was 30 when he lost to Turpin.
30 is in fact older than 29.
Duran had 5 months between the first two Leonard fights.
By coincidence, Leonard had the exact same amount of time. Duran's management team could not have made the fight happen after "only" 5 months if Duran did not want them to. Duran had to sign the contract for the fight to happen. he could have waited 7 more months.
elmer seldom makes any sense.
Robinson had just 9 days off before the first Turpin fight.
9 days is fact a lot less time that 5 months.
Robinson had won the middleweight title 5 months before losing to Turpin.
Robinson had more fights before he fought Turpin than Pedroza had before he fought McGuigan, and Duran had before he fought Leonard. combined.
elmer is a big fan of Pedroza and of course Duran. He hates Leonard and Robinson. Claims to be a fan of Leonard but has said that he isn't a real fighter nor a sportsman.
elmer recently said we should not count Robinson's losses at middleweight. elmer has gone on and about it the Turpin-Robinson fights. The fight were at.... middleweight.
Roberto Duran was SOLD AND BETRAYED BY HIS OWN MANAGER, Carlos Eleta, for $8 million dollars. A type of cash that he thought he would never ever see again. Duran wasn't even around in the negotiation table. Do you think that Duran would have signed a fight that quickly in the midst of his party mode? No. I don't think that nobody would.
But, the fault was by his own manager. He got baited by $8 million dollars and the No Mas fiasco was history. All because of his betrayal.
Leonard's management team was superb. Never in the history of the sport, a management team has gone with a promoter to another country were the guy got the title and desperately so, offered a big amount of cash for a rematch. That has never been done before nor after in the history of the sport of boxing. Unbelievable!
Believe me, I don't hate that strategy one bit. It worked in their favor big time! If Sugar Ray would have been another fighter, that rematch would have never happened that soon. Not in 5 months.
Eusebio Pedroza's age was never truly verified. Some reports say that he was 32. Some say he was 29 by the time he fought Barry McGuigan.
But, you don't want to consider that Pedroza made 20 title defenses already. That's a lot of title defenses. Especially at featherweight. He had to lose some day. Nobody reigns forever. He had 7 years with the title, Alp.
And it showed that McGuigan was overrated after that. He couldn't help the title for a long time. The next year, a unknown American boxer, Stevie Cruz, gave McGuigan a shellacking in Las Vegas. That means that fighting in his comfort zone of Great Britain was the way that it looked how McGuigan wins. He beat Juan LaPorte, Bernard Taylor and Pedroza in London, England.
Would he beat those three guys outside of England? Probably not. Cruz was inferior to those three guys. Who was Stevie Cruz?
Most of Sugar Ray Robinson's losses were above middleweight. He lost as a welterweight for the first time when he was fighting a middleweight named Jake LaMotta. He had 18 losses at middleweight. Two of those Middleweight losses were in his prime. Duran didn't lose twice at lightweight. He lost once. And once at Welterweight of the dubious loss against Leonard. After that, and when he just turned 30, he started losing in bigger weight classes.
I don't hate Sugar Ray Leonard. That's one of my favorite boxers. But, he wasn't better than Duran in my book. I don't hate Robinson, either.
But, the fans had a total misconception about him as the most complete boxer ever when he was not. Like I have said. I gave Expug 10 or more boxers that in my view, were much more complete than Robinson. Leonard was one of them.
I have also stated many times in this forum that if Leonard or Duran fights Robinson at welterweight, I would pick Leonard or Duran to beat Robinson at welterweight.
At middleweight, being not biased, I would pick Robinson over Duran and Leonard. Duran and Leonard were not dominant above welterweight.
