Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 10, 1991 TAG: 9102100220
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Terry Norris, 23, knocked down Leonard twice and beat him up over 12 rounds Saturday night in Leonard's Madison Square Garden debut. It was a rout.
"It definitely is my last fight," Leonard said.
The three judges favored Norris by six to 16 points. The fight for the World Boxing Council super welterweight title held by Norris turned out to be a case of son knows best.
"My son [17-year-old Ray Jr.] told me I was an old man," said Leonard, who will be 35 on May 17. "Maybe he was right."
Leonard isn't an old man, but on this night before 7,495 fans, he surely was an old fighter.
The famed Leonard footwork and hand speed were not there. Neither were the dazzling combinations, unless you were looking at Norris.
Leonard wore black, but to some ringsiders, it seemed the great Sugar Ray certainly must have been the speedy, talented young man in the white trunks. He was the one performing like the Sugar Ray who beat Duran and Hagler and Hearns.
Leonard acknowledged as much.
"He was a young Sugar Ray Leonard," said the old one. "He's going to get better. If he maintains the same concentration and focus he had against me, he's going to get better.
"It's time for the young guys to take control."
Control was taken in the second round when Norris knocked down Leonard just before the bell. Leonard was knocked down again in the seventh round. He has been knocked down five times in his last four fights.
"It's a sad victory," Norris said. "He's my idol; he's still my idol."
Before the fight, Leonard had said, "I won't allow it to be driven into my head that I've lost something." But Norris drove it in, early and often, with jabs, left hooks and counter punches of amazing speed and accuracy.
Leonard went down from a left hook late in the second round. The punch sent him tottering backward, and he fell in a heap. Norris chased after him and threw a left hand that grazed Leonard's head while he was down.
Leonard got up at 3 and the bell rang.
The second knockdown came with 25 seconds left in the seventh round, when Norris countered from off the ropes with a left hook and a right that dropped Leonard. He bounced up immediately but took a mandatory 8-count.
Leonard never really could get his rhythm. He was flat-footed and slow, and by the end his face was a mask of pain and exhaustion.
Leonard, whose record is 36 victories, two losses and a draw and includes 25 knockouts, had won the undisputed welterweight title, a piece of the 154-pound title and pieces of the middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight championships.
Norris, of Campo, Calif., is 27-3 with 15 knockouts. He might have made $500,000 Saturday night, but he assured himself of some big paydays in the future.
by CNB