Hector Camacho v Sugar Ray Leonard

[Mimmy]

Today back in 1997 Camacho stopped Ray in 5 rounds

How significant was the fight? It was Ray's final fight but Camacho went on and beat Duran several fights later. But looking at this match up was it just a nice little earner or did the fight mean anything?

Ray lost to Terry Norris the fight before so was this just farewell finance pay day?

[gilgamesh]

The loss to Terry Norris had come 6 years earlier, and it was a fairly one sided loss. This was just a classic case of a guy that shouldn't have been doing it anymore coming back for one more. I'm sure it made some decent money because of the name value of both fighters, but I think most fans would've known that both were just names really at this point and their primes had passed them by. Leonard especially obviously.

[SenorPipino]

Camacho beat a 40 year old washed up Leonard, who may have come back to support his habit.

Camacho also beat an over the hill Duran twice, when El Cholo was 45 and 50.

I don't think any of those wins are significant. Those victories don't diminish Leonard or Duran because of their ages and for the same reason, it doesn't enhance Camacho's legacy.

In his very next fight after stopping Leonard, a non-combative Camacho was shut out by De La Hoya.

That non effort was a better indicator of where Camacho was at that stage of his career.

Incidentally, today marks the 21st anniversary of the Camacho-Leonard fight, which was Sugar Ray's final bout.

[sweetviolenturge]

Not only was Leonard several years past his prime & totally shot by that point, but he also went into the Camacho fight nursing a bad leg.
But, as SenorPipino said, Leonard was in the midst of a bad patch in his life at the time & was likely making decisions based in part on his addictions, so even after the humiliation that he suffered at the hands of Camacho he still entertained the idea of fighting on later on in 1997. He even had a hand-picked opponent in mind in one Danny Phippen ( http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/19988 ) a nondescript 18-0 New England clubfighter who, at that point had been inactive for two years.
But, when the networks weren't willing to cough up the sort of $$$ that Leonard thought he was worth for a "farewell fight", the idea died on the vine.

[Kalan]

Today back in 1997 Camacho stopped Ray in 5 rounds

How significant was the fight? It was Ray's final fight but Camacho went on and beat Duran several fights later. But looking at this match up was it just a nice little earner or did the fight mean anything?

Ray lost to Terry Norris the fight before so was this just farewell finance pay day?

It had no significance whatsoever.... I hated the fact that Leonard was doing a money grab, but that's what it was... He didn't have a good chance to win and he knew it... You prepare a lot differently if you're deadly serious about winning... However if you need money badly It's better than stealing to grab the money and run... Joe Louis did it.

Ali did the same thing when he challenged Larry Holmes at the age of 38... I never thought for a second it was a legitimate effort to to beat Holmes, who Ali chose not to fight when he was engaging in fights with Leon Spinks years earlier... Holmes won the stripped title by beating Norton and a few pundits said, "Okay... Are we going to have Ali-Holmes or not?" ... NOT!

But this isn't always the case with old fighters... Wladimir Klitschko did everything humanly possible to beat Anthony Joshua and he was in fabulous physical condition and extremely serious... George Foreman was as serious as a heart attack when he made his comeback... He didn't look fit, but his mind was more fit than ever... Foreman's face wore the determined expression of Do or Die... Ray Leonard's face bore the expression of... "I wonder how many round I'll go and how hard I'll fall." I don't like fights that aren't legitimate efforts and there seems to be a lot of them.

[Nile4000]

Both were over the hill, but Hector had a bit more left than Ray.

[elmersalsa]

To me, that fight was meaningless.

[Nile4000]

Truthfully, it was.