15th Round: Forgotten Nights takes a look back at fights that tend to get overlooked by the boxing community.
In August of 1988, Sugar Ray Leonard and his fans were still basking in the glow of defeating Marvelous Marvin Hagler. The controversial victory was followed by, yet another Leonard, retirement. The sport had gotten used to Leonard’s constant ‘retire-unretired’ act.
So, on August 8th, 1988, it wasn’t shocking that Leonard was coming out of retirement… again. His bout would be on November 7th. What shocked the boxing community was who he was fighting.
If you weren’t a hardcore boxing fan, you probably hadn’t heard of Donny Lalonde. The Canadian had won the vacant WBC Light Heavyweight title from Eddie Davis. He followed up that win with a TKO win over Leslie Stewart setting up this unlikely match.
But, if you knew Sugar Ray Leonard, you knew he had a trick up his sleeve. Leonard stalled Hagler out for years until he felt like he had an advantage. Leonard used the same stall tactic for his rematches against Duran and Hearns. And let’s not forget that Leonard never gave Aaron Pryor the fight he coveted so bad.
So what was the card in Leonard’s back pocket? Being the A-Side wields a lot of power and Leonard knew how to use it. He gave Lalonde $5 million, fought in a ring that looked like it was big as Montana, and drained Lalonde by agreeing to a catch-weight of 168 pounds.
But the first shot of this unexpectedly good fight was landed at the weigh in. After Sugar Ray got off the scale, Lalonde quipped:
“I’m not only fighting an old welterweight, I’m fighting an old, fat welterweight.”
Early on, Lalonde looked like he had accurately portrayed Leonard. Lalonde had a hockey injury to his left shoulder but came up popping a left jab. Not only did Leonard looked shocked that Lalonde was using the left jab but he also stayed patient behind it. As he established the jab early on, he would unleash the right hand on Leonard. A hesitant Leonard looked like he was suffering from uncertainty and ring rust. Lalonde hurt him early in the fight and then got to the payoff as he knocked Leonard down in the fourth round. Leonard had been knocked down only once prior to that.
There was a certain sense of tension in the crowd. This was supposed to be a warm up fight for Leonard at Caesers Palace where he scored his victory over Hagler. Would the unknown Lalonde be Leonard’s Waterloo?
The knockdown seemed to wake Leonard up. He became more aggressive stalking Lalonde around the oversized ring. Who saw this coming? The thought was Leonard would stay away from the bigger Lalonde. Instead, he chose to close the distance and smother Lalonde’s punches.
Leonard no longer looked hesitant or confused. He started snapping the jab, which found a comfortable home on Lalonde’s face and then followed it up with punishing shots inside. He hurt Lalonde multiple times over the next four rounds.
Lalonde was no longer pumping the jab nor was he moving his head. He looked gassed. Had Leonard’s movement wore him down? Was he weak from having to drop 7 lbs below the Light Heavyweight limit?
As the two combatants came out for the 9th round who knew it would be as classic as it was. Sensing that the fight was getting away from him, Lalonde came out with a sense of desperation. Midway through the round, he saw the payoff. After hearing his corner beg him to throw combinations all fight, Lalonde landed a three punch combination that hurt Leonard. He followed it with a left hook and an uppercut that stunned Leonard again.
But the legend turned the fight around with a shot to the body and the head of Lalonde. Perhaps, having punched himself out, Lalonde was standing straight up and down looking exhausted. Leonard went to work. He hit Lalonde with a straight right and hurt the champion. Lalonde fell up against the ropes where Leonard pounded him with shot after shot finishing the flurry off with a devastating left putting Lalonde on the canvas.
As Lalonde stumbled to his feet, he was in deep trouble. Lalonde got up and caught a hard right and then a combination, which floored him for the final time. As Leonard rose his arms in victory the crowd was treated to a contest that was better than they ever imagined.
Donny Lalonde had been a game fighter for an aging champion. After that night, Lalonde never made a big splash in the boxing world again. He finished his career a respectable 10-2-1 but the two losses came against the only two fighters he fought of note: Bobby Czyz and Virgil Hill.
As for Leonard, he only fought 4 more times going 1-2-1 in those fights. He received a gift draw in his rematch with Tommy Hearns, beat an overweight Roberto Duran and lost to Terry Norris and was knocked out by the late, Hector “Macho” Camacho.
Marcus “Mook” Washington is the host of Making The Cut. Follow Mook on Twitter: @mtcwithmook and IG: MTCWithMook
