Sugar Ray Leonard fought each of his fellow Four Kings – Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran – but admits he was fortunate to escape without a loss on one occasion.
The first of these iconic encounters came against Duran, who pulled off a major upset to unanimously outpoint and dethrone the American in 1980.
Leonard then reclaimed his WBC welterweight title in their immediate rematch, orchestrating a punishing eight-round performance to beat the Panamanian into submission.
Remaining at 147lbs, the silky technician scored a 14th-round finish over Hearns the following year, before coming out of retirement to face Hagler in 1987.
Now campaigning at 160lbs, Leonard edged a contentious split decision in his only tussle with Hagler, who was left feeling particularly aggrieved by the result of their contest.
It was in his rematch with Hearns, however, where ‘Sugar Ray’ admits he deserved to suffer a second professional defeat, before losing to Terry Norris and Hector Camacho at a time when he was drastically past his best.
As it happened, his rematch with Hearns resulted in a draw in 1989, when the pair agreed to collide at a catchweight of 164lbs.
By this point, ‘The Hitman’ was considered past his prime but, even so, Leonard has told Sky Sports that he knew the fully-fledged super-middleweight would raise his game.
“Tommy should’ve won the decision – he should’ve won that fight. Everyone said Tommy was shot [past his best]. Even my camp said, ‘One punch, he’s gone’.
“[But] I’m [telling] myself, ‘When Tommy fights me, he’s gonna rise to the occasion’. I don’t care how bad he looked, I don’t care how shot he looked as a fighter – when guys fight me, they rise to the occasion. And Tommy did that.
“He hurt me so many times. I knew then [that] I should’ve retired.”
Leonard officially retired in 1997, following his fifth-round stoppage defeat to Camacho, while Hearns finally hung up his gloves in 2006.
