Hearns at 154 probably could but Leonard is quite a different story. Leonard wasnt nearly as capable at that weight. Recall the problems Leonard had with kalule and Howard. Did he blow either of them away? No, he struggled even with the diminutive and mediocre Howard. And kalule has nowhere the speed Norris had. In both cases Leonard showed that he does not have enough power to burn down buildings ANY jr. middleweight.
Whereas Norris on the other hand can deal with leonard's speed just as he dealt with the speed of Taylor. No man other than Roy Jones and Hector Camacho has ever possessed the speed that Meldrick and yet Norris dealt with him convincingly-more convincing than Leonard ever dealt with any of his foes, especially that tko over Wilfred Benitez.
People here act as though leonard was at a severe disadvantage going into the Norris fight. Had the odds favored Norris I might well agree but Leonard was in fact a 3-1 favorite to win as Hagler was favored 3-1 to beat Leonard. The impressive thing is that Norris beat Leonard no sweat while Leonard didn't beat Hagler at all.
In a way, you could compare Norris-Leonard to the Johnson-Jeffries match in which Jeffries admitted afterwards "I could not have defeated Johnson even in my prime".
he was man enough to admit this so why doesn't leonard?
Add to that Jeffries had been inactive six years and took of 63 pounds for the fight. Now it seems kind of silly to be comparing Leonard's condition to Jeffries, laughable even, when Leonard was as close to his best weight he could be, was never forced out of retirement the way Jeffries was, had been fighting regularly, performed flawlessly against his arch foe previously without being touched I might add, and was actually FAVORED to to beat Norris too. Of course age wasn't a factor.
So now in comparison with what Jim Jeffries had to go thru it now, to say that leonard was anywhere near a shell not only looks ludicrous, IT IS LUDICROUS. These babies who complain that leonard was shot, etc. need to consider all that Jeffries had to go thru before shooting their mouths off "Leonard was over the hill". Bunch of babies.
Anyway, Leonard had his chance to silence his critics by accepting the challenge of Hagler in 1982. He didnt. he turned tail and ran. Then he came back 5 years later just to pick up the leftovers.
he had a chance to face McCallum in '87 but instead he just sat there in his seat petrified calling the action on HBO as McCallum took out Leonard clone
Don Curry with a single blow. He'd like the public to think lalonde was a much worthier opponent.
I would be satisfied if Leonard at least had the guts to make a few mandatory defenses with say Frank Tate, Micheal Nunn, and McCallum but he doesn't have the heart to even do the expected minimum. I can't understand how such an undeserving, pampered, son of the media ever made the HOF.
The Norris fight proved once and for all he can't fight his way out of a paper bag.
