Leonard on Pacquiao: “Get Used to Getting Hit”

Sugar Ray Leonard says that for Manny Pacquiao to come back from his five-year retirement, he’s got to get used to getting hit and train hard at a high level for his title shot against WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios on July 19th.

Leonard’s Comeback vs. Manny’s

Sugary Ray mentions that he retired for five years and came back successfully. However, Sugar Ray was only 30 when he came back. It’s going to be a lot tougher for the 46-year-old Pacquiao to do what Leonard did because of his age, and all the ring wear from a long career.

“When I came back, I didn’t realize it was five years I’d been out. You got to get used to being hit. You got to get used to being trained that hard at that level,” said Sugar Ray Leonard when to Fight Hub TV, when asked about his thoughts on Manny Pacquiao coming back at 46 after being out of the ring for five years.

The opponent that Leonard fought aft being out of the ring for five years from 1982 to April 6, 1987, was Marvin Hagler, and he beat him by a 12-round split decision. Hagler wanted it to be 15 rounds, which would have favored him.

“It’s more psychological than it is physical. You have to have that heart, that feeling. And you know what? Do I question it? No. Maybe he can do it. Maybe he knows the right thing to do. It’s just the way you feel. We don’t think how foolish it is. Fighters don’t think that way for the most part,” said Leonard, talking about older fighters coming back after being retired for years.

In Pacquiao’s case, it’s going to be physical too because he’s 46, and he was looked past it in his last fight against Yordenis Ugas on August 21, 2021. He lost that fight by a 12-round unanimous decision. You’ve got to figure that even with a great camp, Pacquiao will have lost a lot of the physical skills that he showed in that fight. What he’s got to hope for is that Barrios lacks the talent to take advantage of that.

“I wish I had, but then again, you couldn’t change my mind. I was ready to go in that ring. Not 100%. I will say that. I wasn’t 100% prepared. But I did what I felt I had to do,” said Leonard.

When Sugar Ray was fighting, he was fearless, taking on killers like Marvin Hagler, Danny Lalonde, Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran, and Tommy Hearns. Towards the end of Leonard’s career, he took extended breaks from the ring. If he had kept fighting steadily, he would have enjoyed even greater success, but he had made so much money.

Leonard on Crawford vs. Canelo

“It’s a big difference,” said Leonard when asked about his thoughts on Terence Crawford moving up from 154 to 168 to challenge Canelo Alvarez for his undisputed super middleweight championship on September 13th. “When I fought Donny Lalonde, every time he hit me, he hurt me to a degree. Not knock me out, but he hurt me, to put it that way.”

When Leonard fought WBC light heavyweight champion Donny Lalonde on November 7, 1988, he was coming off a 19-month layoff, fighting a bigger, younger, and stronger guy. One advantage that Sugar Ray had was that Lalonde agreed to come down to 168 with Leonard’s WBC super middleweight and Donny’s 175-lb title on the line. Lalonde looked drained at the weigh-in and may have affected the outcome.

“He can do it. There’s no question about that. That’s true [Canelo being too big for Crawford], but there’s always a way to win,” said Leonard.

As Leonard points out, there’s a way for a smaller Crawford to win if he can find it against Alvarez. He’s got to fight smart, and avoid getting in any firefights with the bigger, naturally stronger Canelo.

Crawford looked visibly slower in his last fight, moving up to 154 after a year out of the ring to challenge Israil Madrimov for his WBA junior middleweight title. Now, another year out of the ring, Crawford is moving up 14 pounds to challenge Canelo at 168.

He’s going to be slower, more hittable, and will have to box Alvarez to have a shot at winning. Can he do it? Maybe. Canelo looked old and tired in his last fight against William Scull on May 3rd.