This Day in Boxing History: Terry Norris UD 12 Sugar Ray Leonard

By Dave “Mythical” Siderski

Sugar Ray Leonard was, indisputably, the fighter in his generation, achieving legendary status by defeating Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvelous Marvin Hagler. After a rubber match win over Roberto Duran in December 1989, Sugar Ray had walked away from the ring. However, this man had retired and unretired more often than Brett Favre. Sure enough, on February 9, 1991, the now 34 year old Leonard stepped in to the ring to challenge WBC JR Middleweight champion “Terrible” Terry Norris. Sugar Ray was clearly past his prime but the nondescript Norris didn’t seem to be much of a challenge. However, Leonard had slipped more than we realized and he was completely overmatched against the younger, faster Norris. Norris pitched a shutout and pounded Sugar Ray with impunity, dropping him twice on the way to a convincing unanimous decision win.

Sugar Ray would retire only to come back again 6 years later and look even worse in losing by 5th round TKO to Hector Camacho. Norris would go on to prove he was the real deal, going on to win 21 World Championship fights and becoming one of the finest champions JR Middleweight history.

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