Ring Magazine put him at No. 8 on its list of the "80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years." ESPN had him seventh in its "50 Greatest Boxers of All-Time." Boxing historian Bert Sugar ranked him No. 6 in his all-time top 100. Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer had him No. 2 on his personal list.
In my system, he's not in the top 75.
Leonard had a top flight record of 89-6-1 with 70 of those wins coming by KO. He recorded wins over five different Hall of Famers (Freddie Welsh, Johnny Kilbane, Willie Ritchie, Rocky Kansas and Lew Tendler).
The reason he doesn't rank higher is that he had relatively few "significant" fights. Leonard fought in an era where fighters fought a lot, but rarely fought in title fights. Leonard had just seven of those fights in his career. He won the first six but lost the last, a knockout to Jimmy McLarnin.
And of his major victories, only his win over Lew Tendler ended up being worth more than 250 points.
Leonard still can climb a bit in the rankings. Rocky Kansas was never added to the World Boxing Hall of Fame. If he's ever added to the Boxing Hall of Fame of Las Vegas that would bump Leonard up 15 to 20 places on this list. Freddie Welsh and Johnny Kilbane are two others that eventually could be added to the Las Vegas Hall as well, moving Leonard up even further.
| Benny Leonard | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Significant Fights | |||||||
| Opponent | Result | Fight Points |
Title Points |
HOF Points |
Total | x Win % | Final Total |
| Freddie Wesh | KO | 100 | 100 | 50 | 250 | 81.82% | 204.5 |
| Johnny Kilbane | KO | 100 | 50 | 150 | 90.57% | 135.8 | |
| Leo Johnson | KO | 100 | 100 | 200 | 82.56% | 165.1 | |
| Willie Ritchie | KO | 100 | 100 | 200 | 77.36% | 154.7 | |
| Lockport Jimmy Duffy | KO | 100 | 100 | 200 | 88.79% | 177.6 | |
| Richie Mitchell | KO | 100 | 100 | 200 | 92.59% | 185.2 | |
| Rocky Kansas | UD-W | 90 | 100 | 50 | 240 | 84.17% | 202.0 |
| Jack Britton | UD-L | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Rocky Kansas | KO | 100 | 50 | 150 | 83.74% | 125.6 | |
| Lew Tendler | UD-W | 90 | 100 | 100 | 290 | 93.39% | 270.8 |
| Jimmy McLarnin | KO-L | -25 | -25 | -25 | |||
| (10-2-0, 8 KOs, 1 KOd) | 1,729.8 | ||||||
| Record in non-significant fights | |||||||
| 79-4-1, 62 KOs, 5 KOd | 7,280 | ||||||
| % of fights toward 50 (45.2%) | 3,291.6 | 3,291.6 | 63.48% | 2,089.5 | |||
| Totals | 3,819.2 | ||||||
| Peak 5 Fights | |||||||
| Lew Tendler | 270.8 | ||||||
| Freddie Welsh | 204.5 | ||||||
| Rocky Kansas | 202.0 | ||||||
| Ritchie Mitchell | 185.2 | ||||||
| Lockport Jimmy Duffy | 177.6 | ||||||
| Peak 5 Totals | 1,040.1 | ||||||
| Final Totals (significant, non-significant, Peak 5) | 4,859.4 | ||||||
| Boxing's 100 Countdown | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Fighter | Significant Fights |
Non-Significant Fights |
Peak 5 | Final Total |
| 79. | Benny Leonard | 1,729.8 | 2,089.5 | 1,040.1 | 4,859.4 |
| 80. | Sugar Shane Mosley | 2,479.9 | 1,512.3 | 858.7 | 4,850.9 |
| 81. | Lou Ambers | 1,589.2 | 2,098.7 | 1,158.2 | 4,846.1 |
| 82. | Harry Wills | 2,564.4 | 1,355.7 | 923.7 | 4,843.8 |
| 83. | Mickey Walker | 1,987.8 | 1,775.7 | 1,075.4 | 4,838.8 |
| 84. | Joe Gans | 2,314.9 | 1,639.8 | 883.0 | 4,837.6 |
| 85. | Sven Ottke | 2,824.5 | 1,317.7 | 687.5 | 4,829.7 |
| 86. | Ronald "Winky" Wright | 2,243.3 | 1,658.3 | 922.5 | 4,824.1 |
| 87. | Fighting Harada | 1,259.6 | 2,409.2 | 1,105.9 | 4,774.7 |
| 88. | Humberto Gonzalez | 1,866.7 | 1,952.3 | 907.3 | 4,726.4 |
| 89. | Ricardo Lopez | 2,830.5 | 1,188.1 | 702.7 | 4,721.3 |
| 90. | Carmen Basilio | 1,723.3 | 1,804.7 | 1,184.1 | 4,712.2 |
| 91. | Orlando Canizales | 2,529.3 | 1,510.3 | 669.3 | 4,708.9 |
| 92. | Jeff Fenech | 2,103.9 | 1,728.7 | 844.8 | 4,677.4 |
| 93. | Michael Carbajal | 2,333.7 | 1,519.2 | 817.0 | 4,669.9 |
| 94. | Marcel Thil | 2,579.8 | 1,170.9 | 900.9 | 4,651.6 |
| 95. | Nicolino Locche | 1,858.0 | 1,946.8 | 820.3 | 4,625.1 |
| 96. | Ricky Hatton | 3,458.8 | 449.1 | 708.9 | 4,616.8 |
| 97. | Ismael Laguna | 1,059.5 | 2,659.4 | 889.9 | 4,608.7 |
| 98. | Ramon "Chocalatito" Gonzalez | 2,187.1 | 1,771.9 | 638.6 | 4,597.5 |
| 99. | Wilfredo Benitez | 1,439.4 | 2,223.0 | 914.4 | 4,586.8 |
| 100. | Carlos Zarate | 1,124.2 | 2,707.1 | 751.5 | 4,582.8 |
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