P4P Floyd Mayweather Jr Vs Sugar Ray Leonard

Foreman wasn`t that good at 40, Leonard was far better than Bowe ever was P4P and acheived much more, Hearns was awesome vs Ray, getting past that long jab was bordering on impossible, Ray fought great in the pocket in that fight, and still no mention of the defensive genius that was Benitez.

 

This content is protected

 

This content is protected

 

If leanard gets credit for beating the smaller duran who moved up from light weight (which was AFTER duran beat his ass the first time), then mayweather gets credit for beating marquez who was another great fighter who moved up to floyds territory.

If leanard gets full credit for a dubious decision win over the larger hagler, mayweather gets full credit for moving up and beating oscar.

Criticize floyd for taking 5 years to fight pacquiao, then criticize leanard for taking 5 years to fight hagler and 7 years to rematch hearns.

Prime judah and castillo were great technical fighters and are comparable wins to benitez, if not individually then combined.

Corrales, maidana, and cotto are good wins and its not like guys like lalond are sooo much better.

Im also surprised people are overlooking how leanard blatantly avoided guys like donald curry and aaron pryor but then they want to talk about how floyd "ducked" margarito or paul williams.

Other than a prime tommy hearns, there isnt much separating their best wins.


In terms of skill:

Power: leanard, but prime floyd at lightweight had good snap and finishing ability.

Handspeed: leanard

Footwork: leanard moved faster and could zip in and out but floyd moved more efficiently and effectively, even

Accuracy: mayweather

Timing: mayweather

Chin: leanard

Recovery: mayweather

Stamina: mayweather

Defense: mayweather

Punch selection: mayweather could throw everything in the book with perfection. Leanard did some individual punches like the overhand right better and was a more aggressive body puncher for example but floyd was more well rounded while leanard relied on his natural talent, handspeed, and trolling.

Now in terms of longevity and weight classes mayweather is leagues ahead and thats probably why no one wants to discuss it.

In terms of h2h its also closer than people think. Mayweather had better defense than anyone leanard fought. Leanard had more power but floyd took bombs from guys like maidana and mosley so outside of a late round stoppage i dont see leanards power being a huge issue. Both guys are gonna be circling, sticking and moving and trying to time each other anyway, its not gonna be a brawl and floyd wont just be standing there.

 

Ray will over be better. those 4 guys he beat Benitez,Duran,Hearns and Hagler were guys who I rate over Floyd. At least Hearns, Hagler and Duran I do.

 

Good post, though I disagree strongly on a few points but you do make good points in other areas where a double standard occurs. One I'm likely guilty of, which is srl was simply more talented and more exciting to watch. So I give him a pass in some ways I don't give floyd, though oddly enough I'm also hard on SRL for thrm , just not as hard.

For instance, an area I disagree with....I believe you underestimate how big beating Benitez and Hearns truly was. Those wins are grossly better than anything Floyd has, anything. So the guys you named don't compare, and I think he lost to Castillo, but that's an argument for another day.

While I disagree on stuff it was still a good post

 

In my post i acknowledge that hearns is an incredible A++ win for leanard and he has that over any individual name floyd beat.

The thing is tho pacquiao is also A++ and was just as big of a houshold name today as hearns was in the 80's. Yes pacman was past his prime but so was floyd. Its not like pacquiao was completely shot eiher as he went on to have decent wins against bradley and mathyse. At the very least, floyd putting on a clinic and outboxing canelo who is currently the biggest name in boxing AFTER losing to floyd and beat p4p monster ggg, could be regarded as an A++ win as well if canelo continues to beat big names at 168 as well as other 160 guys like andrade or charlo it will make floyds win look even more impressive considering the age and size difference. Either way, if the pacquiao win doesnt compare to hearns, pacquiao+canelo does in my opinion.

I also said benitez was a "great" A- win for leanard but that floyd has several "good" B+ wins like castillo, corrales, marquez, etc that on their own arent as great as benitez but he has so many of them that combined on floyds resume theyre comparable wins.

Also if u argue floyd lost the first castillo fight, you have to talk about leanards questionable draw with hearns 2 and his multiple, actual career losses when floyd never lost (on paper) and he rematched castillo and won decisively.

What im getting at is leanard had quality, floyd had quantity. Leanard looked sensationaly good for brief periods of time, floyd looked moderately good for long periods of time. Its apples and oranges. Is leanard better than floyd? You can certainly make a reasonable case, but Leanard doesnt have anything in his resume that puts him in a league of his own and "WAY" better compared to floyd.

 

This is COMPLETELY different. As that fight means next to nothing. It was for 2010, Pac went through a huge change in lifestyle, lost his focus in boxing, as it moved WAY down on the priority list for him .. I couldn't think of a more drastically different importance in fights with 4 big names than Ray Tommy in '81 vs Pac May in 2015

 

Pacquiao was a top 10 p4p fighter when floyd beat him. And he was a year older than pacquiao.

 

Benitez`s defensive display vs Hearns was amazing, even Floyd would have struggled to match it against Tommy, specifically because he`s only 5'8.

 

Manny was awful against Floyd and had been knocked out by Marquez by then.

 

Leonard, Hearns and Mayweather were all better than Don Curry, I feel. Duran would have beaten Curry at welter. Both Ray and Floyd were better than Pryor at welter, no way would Pryor have punched as hard as Hearns at welter.