It was a brilliant piece of business. As a sporting achievement, it was considerably less convincing.
Lalonde was a natural light heavyweight who had to surrender seven pounds from his division limit. Leonard was not moving up to 175 to challenge the champion in a standard divisional bout. He brought the champion down to him while still receiving credit for winning Lalonde’s 175-pound belt.
There was little indication Leonard intended to remain in the division, either. He had fought Marvin Hagler in April 1987, then stayed out of the ring for 19 months before facing Lalonde. Long layoffs had become part of Leonard’s late-career routine.
Trying to remain WBC champion...
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