Who Would Beat A Prime Leonard At Welterweight?

The effect can be seen in Chavez, Gatti, and Jacobs, as alluded to earlier. And I've already said in posts on other threads that the mean is very probably trending upwards. It's not that there aren't more extreme cases today. There likely are. But we have to re-evaluate how we interpret on-the-night numbers. We then have to decide for ourselves what weight differences we are willing to tolerate between fighters.

I don't have Chavez Jr. and Hagler being the same size, obviously. But I think Hopkins and Hagler were, even though people often get hung up on Hopkins coming in at 177 in his debut. For added context, Greb also weighed around that number at a similar age.

Margarito was 157 and 160 for Williams and Cintron, respectively. Vernon Forrest was 147 and 150 in his rematches against Frank and Mosley. These were their primes. Now, I wouldn't mind at all if you called both of them welterweights; or Margarito a light middleweight and Forrest a welterweight; or even Margarito a big welterweight and Forrest a big light welterweight. The likes of Gavilan, Mosley, De La Hoya, Basilio, and Leonard all fall within that ten pound range. I think those are all fair fights even though there are only seven pounds on either side of "welterweight".

 

The notion that Spence and Hagler are somehow the same size is bandied about in these parts. Let's see how 160 pounds look on each of them:

https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detai...-garcia-in-an-ibf-world-news-photo/1136397572

https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detai...-garcia-in-an-ibf-world-news-photo/1136305555

https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detai...exchange-punches-during-news-photo/1178455587

https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detai...d-wbc-world-middleweight-news-photo/858224758

https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detai...er-lands-a-right-blow-to-news-photo/514969644

https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detai...u-s-and-norbert-cabrera-news-photo/1200193106

 

Robinson, Mayweather, DLH

 

I didn’t say he would beat Hearns I said he would beat Leonard.

 

Ok. So they are probably bigger on average today, but the difference doesn't matter that much in terms of performance because we've always had men relatively close to those sizes at welter, and their influence hasn't been oppressive?

I suppose I could find that plausible. It's also even more reason to abolish the in-between weights at 140 and 154.

 

Tommy on another night (or over 12)

 

No he hurt Tommy mid way through the fight then failed to finish him and continued to struggle until hurting him again a few rounds later, the fight was stopped very quicly also.

 

No one . Fighting his fight at his best nobody ....

 

Yeah, so he hurt him at least twice in the first fight and twice more in the rematch. It's not as though the fight was stopped on one lucky punch. The fact that Tommy recovered actually supports what I said. Leonard's success in those fights was a product of his ability and Tommy's defensive flaws, not some "degree of fortune" like you don't know what you're looking at.

 

Others have mentioned him, and I agree. From what I have seen on Films and vids, noticed in their records, and read about them, I would say Sugar Ray Robinson beats Sugar Ray Leonard at Welterweight most times.

 

I know Hearns was out-boxing Leonard till his chin let him down and what`s the point in mentioning the rematch, Leonard looked awful in that fight.

 

Spence is a weight bully who might not even be able to win a title at 154 so you have a point, Hagler would have destroyed Spence, however Spence is 5`10 and Hagler was 5`9, Hagler`s reach wa longer than Spence`s though at 75 inches, Spence has a reach of 72 inches and would be out-jabbed.

 

Leonard's style wasn't brilliantly suited to fighting tall guys as he had to lunge and reach a bit. Of course there simply weren't that many at his peak weight and he beat the best around even if he did have loads of problems.