It was quite a cherry pick by Sugar Ray MkII in my opinion. Lalonde won the vacant title that was vacated after Hearns hammered Andries, then moved back down to middle. Although he was a good fighter, he was only ever going to be a stop-gap champion so that's why Ray chose to take the light heavyweight title from Lalonde, rather than risk it against a more dangerous fighter like Virgil Hill or even Dennis Andries.
As for the weight, it was a cathweight bout. Sugar Ray Leonard was a great fighter. Fantastic, he had it all and could walk the walk like few others, but he liked to have things in his favour. Against Hagler he wanted the fight to be 12 rounds instead of 15 because he knew he wouldn't have the legs for 15. He wanted gloves with thumbs attached so he couldn't roughed up by Hagler too much up close. He wanted a larger ring than usual because it'd give him more room to run and hide when he needed to. He got it all.
Against Lalonde, the only advantage Lalonde had was size so Leonard took that away by forcing him into a catchweight. It also meant they could put the super middleweight belt on the line but personally I think it was more about gaining an advantage. Leonard was the big money mega star and called the shots so he got his way. To be honest I don't class Leonard as a light heavyweight champion, because the fight wasn't at light heavyweight. It was a way for Ray to add another belt to his collection. Leonard was an all time great at welterweight and a legit champ at middle but he never fought at light heavyweight so he can't be classed as a champion there. His claims to being a super middleweight champion are shaky too.
Donny Lalonde from Canada was one hell of a fighter in fact I thought he had a good chance to beat Leonard. In fact the sized difference did come into play. Donny was doing great until he got caught in the 6th round then Ray took it to him . Pu until this point it was a very close fight. Look we are talking about Ray Leonard was one of the best who has ever lived. They were trying to put the best fights on at the time with the least amount of risk. Donny is one of those fighters that no one ever talks about. I will tell you this if Donny were fighting today he would be champion. He would knock Cloud a$$ out.
the fight was for lalonde's wbc light heavyweight title, plus the inaugral wbc super middleweight belt. lalonde agreed to drop to 168 for the fight. leonard wanted to be the first to win titles in 5 divisions. hearns beat him to it by a week (if you include the inaugral wbo title the hit man won against kinchen).
effortless - definite he could get both belts. reason being is Ladone went down in weight class and captured the tremendous middlewieght identify, then went up and captured the gentle heavyweight crown also. at the same time as Sugar fought him it changed into agreed to placed both one of his belts on the table with the aid of both adult men reining in both class. there is little weight between both instructions.
somewhat bogus. one fight for a title of two weight classes? laid the groundwork for some of manny pacquiao's "catchweight" nonsense.
nothing to do with Pacquiao? His own fans cite this fight as "proof" that Manny is not the originator of "Catchweight". You asked me what i thought of the fight, and i answered your question.
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I am Joshua Mbngo Dmbungo TONGUE-CLICK Jnr. Jnr.
It was quite a cherry pick by Sugar Ray MkII in my opinion. Lalonde won the vacant title that was vacated after Hearns hammered Andries, then moved back down to middle. Although he was a good fighter, he was only ever going to be a stop-gap champion so that's why Ray chose to take the light heavyweight title from Lalonde, rather than risk it against a more dangerous fighter like Virgil Hill or even Dennis Andries.
As for the weight, it was a cathweight bout. Sugar Ray Leonard was a great fighter. Fantastic, he had it all and could walk the walk like few others, but he liked to have things in his favour. Against Hagler he wanted the fight to be 12 rounds instead of 15 because he knew he wouldn't have the legs for 15. He wanted gloves with thumbs attached so he couldn't roughed up by Hagler too much up close. He wanted a larger ring than usual because it'd give him more room to run and hide when he needed to. He got it all.
Against Lalonde, the only advantage Lalonde had was size so Leonard took that away by forcing him into a catchweight. It also meant they could put the super middleweight belt on the line but personally I think it was more about gaining an advantage. Leonard was the big money mega star and called the shots so he got his way. To be honest I don't class Leonard as a light heavyweight champion, because the fight wasn't at light heavyweight. It was a way for Ray to add another belt to his collection. Leonard was an all time great at welterweight and a legit champ at middle but he never fought at light heavyweight so he can't be classed as a champion there. His claims to being a super middleweight champion are shaky too.
TONGUE-CLICK!
Donny Lalonde from Canada was one hell of a fighter in fact I thought he had a good chance to beat Leonard. In fact the sized difference did come into play. Donny was doing great until he got caught in the 6th round then Ray took it to him . Pu until this point it was a very close fight. Look we are talking about Ray Leonard was one of the best who has ever lived. They were trying to put the best fights on at the time with the least amount of risk. Donny is one of those fighters that no one ever talks about. I will tell you this if Donny were fighting today he would be champion. He would knock Cloud a$$ out.
the fight was for lalonde's wbc light heavyweight title, plus the inaugral wbc super middleweight belt. lalonde agreed to drop to 168 for the fight. leonard wanted to be the first to win titles in 5 divisions. hearns beat him to it by a week (if you include the inaugral wbo title the hit man won against kinchen).
effortless - definite he could get both belts. reason being is Ladone went down in weight class and captured the tremendous middlewieght identify, then went up and captured the gentle heavyweight crown also. at the same time as Sugar fought him it changed into agreed to placed both one of his belts on the table with the aid of both adult men reining in both class. there is little weight between both instructions.
somewhat bogus. one fight for a title of two weight classes? laid the groundwork for some of manny pacquiao's "catchweight" nonsense.
nothing to do with Pacquiao? His own fans cite this fight as "proof" that Manny is not the originator of "Catchweight". You asked me what i thought of the fight, and i answered your question.