Sugar Ray Leonard Weigh In with Fernand Marcotte (February 10, 1979)

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Sugar Ray Leonard, in his first test against a middleweight opponent, befuddled Canadian titleholder Fernand Marcotte with speed, then laid on the power to deliver a fight-ending right hook Sunday in the eighth round of their scheduled 10-round fight. Leonard took charge from the first and said it was just a matter of waiting out the tough Canadian middleweight champion. "I picked my shots and watched for the right opportunity," said Leonard, a former Olympic gold medal winner, who was unmarked and unruffled. "I hit him when he brought his chin close to me." It was Leonard's 19th professional victory without a defeat. Fighting at 149½ pounds, he gave away six pounds and said he wanted to stay clear of the heavier Marcotte, at 155½. "My strategy was to move from side to side and not to let him lean on me," Leonard said. The proximity of the chin and glove occurred at 2:33 of the eighth round when Marcotte, blood streaming from his eye and nose, left himself open and Leonard delivered a surging right hook that dropped the Canadian. Marcotte has never been knocked out and made it up this time at the count of eight, but referee Jay Edson stopped it. "It was a perfect shot," admitted the 29-year-old Marcotte's father and trainer, Fernard, Sr., doing the talking, as he often does, for his French-Canadian son, who speaks limited English. "I think he (Leonard) should be the champion of the world."