Who Would Beat A Prime Leonard At Welterweight?

You`re seriously suggesting that Leonard was the greatest fighter of all-time are you?

 

Napoles and Emile have a great chance. I’d take them both as the favourite actually.

 

Tommy Bell.

 

Montreal Duran and SRR.

 

There was no degree of fortune - he had to go thru hell staying in it and it was courage, commitment, heart and skill that allowed him to win. Not luck.

Louis had better fundamentals but take away that power and he comes back to the pack significantly. Power allowed him to change fights in an instant and he was nigh well impossible to take liberties against because behind that sharpness was huge POWA. He was extremely dangerous when in trouble and often turned the tables on an aggressive opponent in the blink of an eye.

Leonard had a crapload of skill and it was hardly just athleticism. The art of boxing is to hit without being hit and SRL could sure as heck do that.

 

That's a tough sell. He was in his mid 20s, undefeated champion, coming off an impressive win over Benitez. Leonard was seasoned peaking as a fighter. You could make a much better case Thomas Hearns was a bit green for his first bout with Ray.

 

As much as I admired Jose Mantequilla Napoles, he might give Sugar Ray Leonard a decent fight, but remember he had very brittle scar tissue above his eyebrows thanks to Billy Backus in 1970. The speed factor plus his sharp punching could spell the difference in the outcome.

 

Hard to say.. but a lot of guys could give him a good run for his money ,,, Surely Armstrong and Walker are in the mix .. along with McFarland. Ross, etc .. some old tough fighters for sure ...
SRR .. etc

 

No. Just responding to the question as posted. Duhh.....

 

The question was who beats a prime Leonard, no? Are you saying there is a version of Hearns that beats a prime Leonard then?

Perhaps we should agree on a definition of prime then.. I would say that Leonard was a better fighter in the second Duran fight than the first Duran fight, by virtue of the fact that he learned a lot from the first Duran fight, and fought a smarter fight than in the first.

 

Duran was not consistent enough at those higher weights to win a best of ten, but I also don't see any vast improvement in Leonard's game in New Orleans. He was, what, a point ahead against an out-of-shape Duran?

 

He hurt Tommy multiple times in two fights. One of which was at a weight that very much favored Tommy.

 

I mean, fantasy fights are always a bonus, but Trinidad, to me, looked too drained and flatfooted at welterweight to compete with someone like Leonard.

 

Could be the case.

 

Easy. Muhammad A--

--ahem. Never mind




...On a more serious note, if we're allowed to do next day weigh-ins and modern rehydration sorcery, you could probably find some natural junior middles and middles who'd have a chance.

EDIT: If you want to get technical, the current welters basically are exactly that. So maybe look in the best welters of the rehydration era.