Category profile
- Dominance
- 88
- Peak
- 93
- Longevity
- 84
- Honours
- 88
- Statistics
- 88
Career timeline · Form index per season
| Season | Form index per season | Share of career |
|---|---|---|
| 1977 | 5 | |
| 1978 | 9 | |
| 1979 | 8 | |
| 1980 | 4 | |
| 1981 | 3 | |
| 1982 | 1 | |
| 1983 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1985 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 2 | |
| 1987 | 1 | |
| 1988 | 1 |
Data sources
- BoxRec
- The Ring
- Olympedia
Figures come from public records and are normalised per sport. See the methodology for category weights. Method
Why Sugar Ray Leonard ranks #18 in Boxing
Sugar Ray Leonard ranks 18th among Boxing athletes on GOAT Rank and 186th of 1063 across every sport in the index. The published GOAT Score of 88.2 is the weighted result of five verified category scores: Dominance 88, Peak 93, Longevity 84, Honours 88, Statistics 88. Those categories are normalised against the full Boxing reference universe of 267 records, not a shortlist, so the position reflects the whole sport rather than a handful of famous names.
The record covers 1977–1997 with 12 documented competitive seasons. The strongest single season in that series is 1978, which sets the Peak component at 93. Peak is the defining strength of the profile at 93 out of 100, and it carries 20% of the final score. The underlying career record includes world titles 5, olympic golds 1, career wins 36, knockouts 25.
Immediately ahead sits Henry Armstrong on 88.8, a gap of 0.6 points. Directly behind is George Foreman on 85.8. The position moves whenever the verified record moves: new titles, new seasons or a corrected source all feed straight back into the same formula, and every change is dated on this profile.
Sugar Ray Leonard GOAT Score explained
- Dominance88/100 · weight 25%
- Measures how far Leonard stood above the field while competing. Scored 88/100 against the full Boxing cohort.
- Peak93/100 · weight 20%
- Rates the best sustained stretch of the career, centred on 1978. Scored 93/100.
- Longevity84/100 · weight 20%
- Rewards staying at that level over time: 20 years of competition and 12 recorded seasons. Scored 84/100.
- Honours88/100 · weight 20%
- Counts documented titles, majors and awards in the verified record. Scored 88/100.
- Statistics88/100 · weight 15%
- Normalises the raw career numbers against everyone in the sport reporting the same metric. Scored 88/100.
Top Leonard comparisons
Sugar Ray Leonard — frequently asked
- Is Sugar Ray Leonard the GOAT?
- Not on the current data. Sugar Ray Leonard ranks 18th in Boxing with a GOAT Score of 88.2, behind Sugar Ray Robinson on 94.3.
- What is Sugar Ray Leonard's GOAT Score?
- 88.2 out of 100. It is the weighted sum of Dominance 88 (25%), Peak 93 (20%), Longevity 84 (20%), Honours 88 (20%), Statistics 88 (15%), computed from the verified career record.
- Where does Sugar Ray Leonard rank all time?
- 186th of 1063 eligible athletes in the cross-sport index, and 18th within Boxing.
- Sugar Ray Leonard vs Henry Armstrong: who ranks higher?
- Henry Armstrong, on 88.8 against Sugar Ray Leonard's 88.2 — a margin of 0.6 points.