P4P Floyd Mayweather Jr Vs Sugar Ray Leonard

I look at activity, level of comp. on when they fight, eye test and how they performed in the ring, etc. Not so much longevity as I give a lot more credit to a fighter having 70 fights in 15 years over a fighter having 40 fights in 20 for example. Activity is huge for me .. Anyway here they are pretty much even in this department for me. I think Leonard p4p is superior to May and is the better all around boxer with the better resume. I will say this about May in addition to his rightful ATG boxing status, he is a marketing genius and has surrounding himself around VERY smart business people. He can come out of retirement at anytime and make another 300 million as we will see again if the Pac fight happens

 

Ray has Benitez, Duran, Hearns, Hagler, undefeated Kalule and Lalonde, that's six wins greater than any one of Floyd's imo. From thereon in you can start to drop old man Oscar, Alvarez, Corrales, the faded Pac, Castillo etc into the equation, but on the strength of that, Leonard is already out of sight of Mayweather regardless of the latter 's longevity and managed unbeaten record. And he looks better to me in film, more complete and formidable at his best and battle-tested against numerous other great fighters in a way Mayweather hasn't come close to touching regardless of looking dominant and formidable himself. It's not even an argument.

 

I can see your point .. But I think saying Hearns was green is taking it too far.. they turned pro same year, had basically the same number of fights, Hearns KO'd Cueves, etc … Sure Hearns learned from this fight, use holding clinching, etc. But I think it is taking away from what Leonard did, imo.. Closing the distance, going to the body with powerful shots, opening him up for clean shots upstairs , back to the body .. Holding clinching for Hearns doesn't change the outcome for me, imo .. He hurt Hearns bad and Ray still had the 15th in his back pocket to put him away

 

This

 

2 extreme examples out of how many ?? Come on man.

 

I think Mayweather may have been better than Ray, but Sugar was shot by 34 like most boxers during that era, Ray at 23 would have givenFloyd a tougher fight when he was the same age compared to when they were both 34, fighters age better now and Ray took some serious shots from Duran and Hearns which must have effected his punch resistance because he wass really fragile against Norris and Camacho, Mayweather took some good shots from Cotto and a peach vs Mosely but that wouldn`t dented his chin the same way a 15 round toe to toe tear up with the hands of stone would, at least Ray proved he was tough as nails we still don`t know that about Mayweather.

 

What?! You missed out the first fight between Ray and Duran! One of the greatest and toughest, roughest bouts of all time! Ever hear of Tommy Hearns or Wilfredo Benitez? Tommy Hearns was rated 25th in a list of the greatest fighters of the last 50 years by the ring magazine in `96. Benitez was rated 30th in the same list, not a bad pair of names to have on your resume! Two wins hardly any boxeer in history can match.

 

You don`t think Ray was completely shot when getting stopped by Camacho?!

 

I could’ve sworn we were discussing Mayweather and Leonard.

 

You think Mayweather could take right hands from a prime welter Hearns?! Duran punched the hell out of Ray for 15 rounds, Floyd never took anything near that kind of beating.

 

Lol @ Lolonde. I’ve now heard it all.

 

Why should it?

 

Floyd had better defense than Leonard. I don’t think either would knock him out and I think he’d beat Duran. But this thread specifies pfp, and Mayweather was a totally complete fighter at 130.

 

Because reaching a level of greatness and sustaining it through multiple years and defenses is something very few can do.

That is why Douglas is not viewed as great even though he delivered one of the greatest performances ever in Tokyo. And Louis and Wlad and Monzon and Hagler etc. are.

It is difficult to achieve greatness in the sport of boxing, and few can reach the pinnacle of it...even more difficult is sustaining it over years, and even fewer still accomplished that.