Roberto Duran
Sugar Ray Leonard
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Roberto Duran leads 2 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Roberto Duran at #6 and Sugar Ray Leonard at #7.
The case for Roberto Duran
Manos de Piedra, Hands of Stone, fought across five decades and four weight divisions, from a terrifying lightweight to a middleweight champion, over 119 professional bouts. His record of roughly 103-16 with 70 knockouts is anchored by one of the great division reigns in history: as lightweight champion he made 12 defenses and lost only one of his first 72 fights, a run of destructive pressure fighting, body punching and inside mastery that many rate the finest lightweight ever. He beat Ken Buchanan, Esteban DeJesus, Sugar Ray Leonard, in the 1980 Brawl in Montreal, Iran Barkley and Davey Moore, winning titles at lightweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight. The infamous No Mas surrender to Leonard in their rematch was a stain, but his ferocity, longevity, still competitive into his fifties, and sheer will made him a fighter's fighter and one of the most beloved and feared competitors the sport has known.
The case for Sugar Ray Leonard
The defining star of boxing's 1980s golden age, Leonard finished 36-3-1 with 25 knockouts and won world titles in five weight divisions. A 1976 Olympic gold medalist, he combined dazzling hand speed, showmanship and, when needed, real grit and power. His greatness is measured by opposition: he beat every one of the other 'Four Kings,' outlasting Thomas Hearns in a 1981 welterweight classic, breaking Roberto Duran in the No Mas rematch, and, most improbably, coming off a multi-year retirement and detached-retina layoff to out-point the fearsome undefeated Marvin Hagler for the middleweight title in 1987. That willingness to take the hardest fights, often after long absences, and win them defines his resume. He fought less often than the all-time volume leaders, and some of his verdicts were close, but few fighters have beaten a comparable concentration of Hall of Fame peers at their peak.