Sugar Ray Leonard was a defining member of the Four Kings era of boxing, and will go down as an all-time great in the sport.
Sugar Ray Leonard retired for good in 1997 after an unsuccessful comeback against Hector Camacho six years after his initial retirement.
He won just one of his last four fights, fighting to a draw with Thomas Hearns, winning the trilogy against Roberto Duran, and losing to Trevor Norris.
It was the fight before that, though, and the penultimate win of Leonard’s career, that saw him beat his opponent so much that they questioned the sport of boxing altogether.
Sugar Ray Leonard forced Donny Lalonde to question his place in boxing
In 1988, 34-1 Leonard, who beat Marvin Hagler, faced 32-2 Donny Lalonde, the WBC light heavyweight champion of the world.
The fight was Leonard’s first without Angelo Dundee, the renowned trainer who oversaw the career of Muhammad Ali, as the pair had disputed over money.
According to BoxRec, Lalonde felt Leonard’s legendary days were behind him, and said at the weigh-in: “I’m not only fighting an old welterweight, I’m fighting an old, fat welterweight.”
Lalonde dropped Leonard in the fourth round but had no answers for what came next. Leonard was dropped for the first time by Kevin Howard.
Leonard, who KO’d Marvin Gaye’s fighter, regained composure and went on the attack, eventually finishing Lalonde in the ninth round.
Lalonde cancelled his next scheduled bout and said, “I can no longer justify hurting people for my own gain.” He retired, but returned two years later.
Sugar Ray Leonard was three days shy of breaking a dominant record
Leonard’s win over Lalonde made him the second ever boxer to become a five-weight divisions world champion, with the first being Thomas Hearns, who achieved the feat just three days before Leonard’s fight.
Hearns achieved the accolade with a win over James Kinchen for the super-middleweight world title.