Sugar Ray Leonard has revealed when he actually should have called time on his legendary professional career.
Leonard is widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, becoming a five-weight world champion along with being a member of the iconic ‘Four Kings’ with fellow greats Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler.
‘Sugar Ray’ is the only member of that illustrious group to defeat the other three members, and in total he competed six times against those rivals, having met Hagler once, Hearns twice, and Duran three times.
It is after the conclusion of one of those battles that Leonard believes he should have hung up the gloves, telling Sky Sports about his second encounter with Hearns.
“The fight with Tommy Hearns in 89, he should have won the decision. He should have won that fight. It was a tough fight. Everybody said Tommy was shot, even my camp said ‘one punch he’s gone.’
“I said to myself, ‘when Tommy fights me, he’s going to rise to the occasion.’ Tommy did that. He hurt me so many times, I knew then I should have retired after the Hearns fight, even after the Hagler fight.”
Leonard and Hearns fought to a split decision draw in their June 1989 clash at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, though as ‘Sugar Ray’ alluded to, most observers believe Hearns had done enough to earn the win.
Following the controversy, Leonard fought again six months later, defeating Duran in their third meeting, before ‘Sugar Ray’ was then comfortably beaten by Terry Norris in a bout for the WBC light middleweight title in February 1991.
Leonard retired following that bout, but returned six years later to face Hector Camacho. There was no fairy tale ending though, as he was stopped inside five rounds by the Puerto Rican star, as Leonard’s career finally came to an end with a record of 36 wins, 3 defeats and 1 draw from his 40 fights.
