Leonard Dominated by Norris : Boxing: Younger fighter retains WBC title by scoring a unanimous decision. The 34-year-old former champion says it’s his last bout.

Sugar Ray Leonard absorbed a lopsided defeat at the hands of Terry Norris Saturday night in Madison Square Garden, then announced his 15-year pro career was over.

Norris, 23, knocked Leonard down twice, hurt him in virtually all of the 12 rounds, and emerged with a unanimous decision. After the scores were read--one judge had Norris winning every round--Leonard, 34, took the microphone and told the crowd of 7,495: “It was indeed a pleasure to fight in the Garden for the first time--unfortunately I was not successful. I have to turn the baton over to Terry Norris. This is my last fight . . . Thank you for coming out.”

And so the graceful, hard-hitting kid from Palmer Park, Md., who won a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics and who would become pro boxing’s all-time career earnings leader--with about $110 million--was finished.

The boxer whose memorable battles with Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler made him one of the sport’s dominant figures, had said for the past two months that he wanted to fight at least once in Madison Square Garden. Now, he probably wishes he had never heard of the place.

Perhaps he should have quit in 1987, after the upset victory over Marvin Hagler. Later performances against Donny LaLonde, Hearns and a washed-up Duran did nothing to enhance his standing among the great champions.

Against a determined Norris, who was defending his World Boxing Council junior-middleweight championship for the second time, Leonard was badly beaten, his once-great skills deeply eroded.

Norris raised lumps across Leonard’s face, cut his mouth and seemed one punch away from a clean knockout several times. The Garden crowd, which had cheered Norris during the early rounds, sensing an upset, was quieter during the final rounds, watching Leonard absorb more and more pain, tottering to the last bell . . . taking the worst beating of his career. It was Leonard’s first loss since Duran beat him in 1980 in Montreal. It was only his sixth fight since 1982.

Norris was talking to several hundred reporters in the interview room afterward, when Leonard walked in wearing sunglasses. Norris, who lives in Alpine in San Diego County and trains at nearby Campo, led the applause. The two fighters hugged, and Norris paid him a tribute.

“It’s sad, in a way,” Norris said. “Ray took kind of a bad beating in there. But he’s still my idol. He was strong. Once or twice he hurt me, when he caught me with a couple of left hooks to the body.

“It turned out to be an easier fight than I expected. I thought he’d be faster than he was.”

Leonard said he had been warned by his son, Ray Jr., 17.

“My son told me I was an old man--maybe he was right,” Leonard said.

“It took this fight to show me that it’s no longer my time. I’m not of the ‘90s. People will say, ‘I told you so,’ but I had to find out for myself. I’m very happy I was not hurt. He was too fast, too strong.”

The margin of victory for Norris, one of boxing’s lesser-known champions until Saturday, was stunning. The judges scored it 120-104, 119-103 and 116-110. The Times card had it 118-106, including four 10-8 rounds.

Norris fought with confidence, poise and patience. His manager, San Diego contractor Joe Sayatovich, had predicted victory.

“Terry’s calm, cool, relaxed,” Sayatovich said three hours before the bout. “He’s going to knock the hell out of Ray and then we’ll go home.”

In the first round, Norris caught Leonard backing up and nailed him with a left hook. Seconds later, he snapped Leonard’s head back with an inside uppercut.

The first knockdown, in the second round, was a left hook on the chin that caused Leonard to go down backward and put one gloved hand on the deck, with two seconds left in the round. Norris took a swing at Leonard while he was down, and was warned by referee Arthur Mercante Jr.

Norris once lost a Las Vegas fight on a disqualification, when he hit a man who was down.

Leonard was battered again in the third, in Norris’ first dominating round. He hurt Leonard repeatedly with short rights and left hooks. During the round, he had Leonard in trouble in every corner of the ring.

Leonard had his moments. He rocked Norris occasionally with solid right hands, but at no time in the fight did Norris appear to be hurt. Leonard, by contrast, was so badly beaten over the last two rounds that some wondered if Mercante might soon stop it, or if perhaps a Leonard cornerman might throw in the towel.

In the fifth, Leonard began bleeding from inside his mouth, but on many cards won the round when he turned up the heat on Norris. He got the crowd with him in the fifth, but it was the last round he would win in his career.

After the fifth, Leonard couldn’t put combinations together. A jab would land frequently, or a left hook to Norris’ ribs, but nothing would follow. The great Leonard combinations were a distant memory now. The skill that enabled him to turn the tide in the Benitez, Hearns and Hagler fights was gone.

The second knockdown came late in the seventh, when Norris seemed on the verge of a knockout. Leonard went down from a left-right combination with 20 seconds left.

Leonard finished his career with 36 victories, two losses, a 1989 draw with Hearns and 25 knockouts. Norris is now 27-3-1, with 14 knockouts.

Leonard earned about $4 million, Norris about $1 million. The live gate, $943,550, was the third-largest in Madison Square Garden history.