In 1991, the favored Sugar Ray Leonard absorbed a beating in losing a wide decision to upstart Terry Norris. Before the fight, there were some concerns, but it was widely believed that the famed Sugar Ray would dispose of his talented, but flawed and far less experienced foe.
Now everyone writes it off as a very good win for Norris, but a triumph over a spent force in Leonard. Not too many people said that before the fight, but the notion that Norris beat a depreciated Leonard is now a widely accepted one. And that’s how it usually works—a fighter is considered near his peak until something happens in the ring to disprove that.
Now here we are exactly 20 years later, preparing to watch Floyd Mayweather take on Victor Ortiz. The collective pre-fight vibe on this bout is eerily reminiscent of Norris-Leonard. We know Floyd is aging and has been largely inactive, but most are expecting him to clearly outbox his younger foe. But if Norris-Leonard taught us anything, it’s that we could be in for a big surprise that maybe wasn’t so difficult to predict.
Similarities Between Mayweather-Ortiz and Norris-Leonard
Leonard and Mayweather
Ray and Floyd were both Olympic stars, exactly 20 years apart, in 1976 and 1996, respectively. These fights are both taking place 15 years after their Olympic appearances, in 1991 and 2011. Both are exactly the same age at 34. Their recent bodies of work both showed long spells of inactivity. Ray was inactive for 14 months before he fought Norris, while Floyd will be seeing his first action in 16 months. Leonard and Mayweather each had 4 fights in 4 years before these matches.
Adding to the bizarrely-similar numerical data, Leonard and Mayweather’s last wins were both over 38-year old fighters. And both of those 38-year olds (Mosley and Duran) were apparently-depleted forces who had recently buoyed their careers with out-of-the-blue upset wins over heavily-favored, but flawed and inconsistent fighters (Antonio Margarito and Iran Barkley). Against Leonard and Mayweather, Duran and Mosley both lost moribund 12-round snoozefests that lacked drama.
And while Leonard did well against Duran, his face was alarmingly battered at the end of the fight. Similarly, Mayweather dominated Mosley, but watching him get buzzed by a big right hand or two in the 2nd round wasn’t especially comforting, considering that we haven’t seen Sugar Shane land that punch in a while.
Floyd might at first glance appear to still be at his peak, but that is based solely on a pair of wins over a rapidly declining Mosley and an undersized Juan Manuel Marquez. Anything beyond that requires you to go back four years—to his flattening of another undersized warrior, Ricky Hatton. Going into the Norris fight, Leonard had logged 288 rounds of professional action. Floyd has 299 rounds under his belt. Leonard and Mayweather both have the image of being fairly well-preserved—a conclusion that is difficult to reconcile at their ages and their inactivity, but such is the tendency to not entertain that a fighter might be post-peak until he loses.
Both Leonard and Mayweather were at aimless points in their career where they needed to either crap or get off the pot, taking on dangerous youngsters unknown to the mainstream in low-reward/high-risk encounters. Ray and Floyd chose rising young titleholders, but ones who were still a bit under the radar, whose true powers might not have been shown yet. It’s as if Leonard had nowhere else to turn and fought Norris out of not having anything else to do. In the process, he bit off more than he could chew. Sugar was at a point in his career where people had soured a bit on him. As a result, he tried to pick an opponent that people couldn’t really criticize—just like Mayweather did by choosing this fight.
Leonard illustrated this pitfall for aging greats; not having a plan and meandering through your golden years in the fight game can lead to disaster. Mayweather, like Leonard, seems to have no real planned course of action beyond an aimless desire to keep fighting.
It’s safe to say that both Leonard and Mayweather have spent the bulks of their late-careers fighting aging or otherwise-compromised opponents whose star value exceeded their actual merit as fighters. It gave Leonard a false sense of confidence and now we’ll see if Mayweather has the same lapse in judgment. A decade of waking up on silk sheets tends to chip away at a fighter’s hunger. It often takes a fighter who has not yet enjoyed the spoils to bring that to light.
Norris and Ortiz
The similarities in the numbers continue. Norris was 23 when he fought Leonard, while Ortiz is now 24. Both are 5’9” with almost the same reach. Leonard was Norris’ 4th title fight and Mayweather will be Ortiz’ 3rd. Each man is 5 wins removed from an embarrassing loss—with Norris falling to Julian Jackson and Ortiz quitting against Marcos Maidana. Both also had one disqualification loss going into these fights.
In addition, Norris and Ortiz are noted for their strengths as much as their weaknesses. Both fighters were known for their offensive prowess—able to dish it out better than they can take it. Both are big talents, whose chin and propensity to foul (Norris) and having once run up the white flag in the midst of a war (Ortiz) have dented their reputations. Nevertheless, both Norris and Ortiz had upside, unlike all the fighters Leonard and Mayweather faced preceding these encounters.
Differences
In the interest of full disclosure, there are some problems with this comparison. Not every analogy is going to be perfect across the board. One difference is that Leonard’s boxing future in 1991 was less promising than Mayweather’s is now. In struggling mightily with a presumably-shot Tommy Hearns, Leonard did show some deterioration—more than Mayweather has ever shown.
That could have something to do with the opponents. Leonard always fought the best, so the struggles seem more acceptable. Perhaps if Leonard fought a smaller opponent, he would have looked better. If instead of fighting a giant-sized Hearns, he fought a Juan Manuel Marquez-type, he wouldn’t have had those issues. And while Floyd’s inactivity is reminiscent of Leonard’s, Mayweather never had one fight in five years like Ray did from 1982-1987. In addition, Floyd will not be fighting at a less-than-ideal weight, as Leonard did against Norris.
And frankly, Ortiz might not be as good as Norris, who despite all his faults was a prodigious offensive talent. Even in 1991, people were aware of the prowess of Terrible Terry. It would eventually be enough to get him inducted into the International Hall of Fame. Ortiz showed tremendous promise in beating Andre Berto, but that alone will not get him recognized as being “great.” Norris was definitely faster than Ortiz is and speed can be like Kryptonite to aging fighters. At least Mayweather doesn’t figure to be flummoxed by Ortiz’ speed, like Leonard was in 1991.
What Does it All Mean?
Upsets are difficult to see coming, but it’s interesting to watch how seamlessly fans and scribes move over to the new perception after the fact. Before Norris-Leonard, the belief was Norris was way too inexperienced and chinny to handle Leonard. Within minutes of the conclusion, everyone was saying that Leonard was old and dried up at 154 and therefore no match for a young talent like Norris. It was as simple as that. We think something until proven wrong, then just replace the old way of looking at things with a brand-new headspace.
The “book” on fighters can change on the basis of one fight. But maybe the “book” on Norris-Leonard was all-wrong in the first place. Leonard was the same fighter the day before the fight that he was the day of the fight. Norris showed him to be an aging, inactive fighter with a recent resume that showed cause for alarm. The information was there—it just wasn’t acknowledged before the fight.
We could be making that same mistake with Mayweather-Ortiz. Everyone just assumes we will see a prime Floyd Mayweather. They might be right. But would it really be that big of a surprise to see a 34-year old fighter in his 15th year as a pro, with long spells of inactivity interrupted by sporadic appearances in undemanding fights not be at his best anymore? Is it beyond the realm of reason that Floyd just hasn’t fought the type of fighters who can illustrate his erosion?
Leonard held it together against Donnie LaLonde, Hearns, and Duran, but facing a rising young fighter like Norris provided us the lens that enabled us to see where he truly stood in the sport at that given time. Mayweather has performed well, but that was in outings against an old Mosley and an undersized Marquez. Those were good wins, but looking good against older and smaller competition doesn’t always bode well when the man in the opposite corner is now a young, talented, peaking, and hungry fighter looking to make his mark.
Floyd should win. But if during the fight, we see something we didn’t count on, it shouldn’t be that big of a shock. Leonard had indisputably earned his stripes by 1991, but it had been a decade since he fought a youthful and rising championship-level fighter. The same scenario now applies to Mayweather. Let’s see if he can succeed where Leonard failed.
