As great as Sugar Ray Leonard is, have any you long-time boxing fans ever felt that he always comes off as a phony and an opportunist...?

Question

as a person?

This is not to take anything way from the great legend, Sugar Ray Leonard but sometimes, I've always felt that some of his accomplishments such as his victory over Marvin Hagler and Danny Lalonde, are overrated due to his shady negotiation practices.

When you look past SRL's nice guy personality, you can tell that something isn't just right. He's always seems to be afraid to give out his honest opinion and intentions whenever he commentates a boxing match and he made his boxing career to appear greater than it actually it is at the expense of other talented boxers of the 1980s(Donald Curry and Marvin Hagler).

People in this day often bash Floyd Mayweather Jr for his trash talk personality, pulling all of the rigorous negotiation crap on certain boxers(Shane Mosley, Manny Pacquiao, etc.) and "running" in his boxing fights when Sugar Ray Leonard did about all of the same exact things(with Marvin Hagler regarding ridiculous negotiations and "running" during a fight) Floyd did and was the very first person to do these crooked things yet no one bats an eye or ever bashed Sugar Ray Leonard for it. I'm not even much of Floyd fan but at least he was honest about his intentions and didn't hide anything unlike Sugar Ray Leonard. I don't allow my dislike of a certain boxer to blind me from seeing their actual skills and abilities unlike all of the Floyd Haters.

Again, this isn't to really take anything away from Sugar Ray Leonard.

Jose · Accepted Answer

Leonard was an all time great when he was primed at Welterweight, but once he left that division, he started to take on more diva qualities.  Nowhere near the disgrace of today, but he did get the benefit of the doubt on some occasions.

One thing I read about was that after Leonard beat Duran in the "No Mas" fight, Duran went into a depression and then contacted Leonard to arrange another fight between them.  
Leonard refused.
Instead, he waited for Duran to age 10+ years before fighting him a 3rd time.
As you mentioned, he was the only one between Duran, Hearns, and himself who did not fight Hagler in his prime.

Still, aside from Duran (in their 1st fight), no one was able to beat Leonard straight up at Welter.

Dom · Answer

i agree that people look up to him but hate on floyd for no reason

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As great as Sugar Ray Leonard is, have any you long-time boxing fans ever felt that he always comes off as a phony and an opportunist...?

2 Answers