147 lb tourney - LEONARD V NAPOLES

Anybody can be KO'd but I know what you mean. I think that he would be competative at 147 lbs with anyone at that weight ever, and beat all but a few. Ray Robinson is the only fighter that I would choose to beat Leonard most of the time.

 

I agree with that too.

Yeah, any fighter can be KO'ed.. but it's like saying Ali can't be KO'ed at HW. It's very likely he'll finish the fight on his legs against any fighter ever.

 

Yeah, .

So how do you see this one going?

 

If Hearns can knock Leonard down twice, Napoles can easily.

 

That was at 168.

 

I pick Napoles, the upset. His powerful combination-boxing would give SRL a lot of problems IMO...

 

Ray Leonard. Speed factor -hand and foot. And his power was nothing to scorn.

 

Exactly. Hearns wasn't as good a puncher at 168lbs yet he still managed to floor Leonard - twice! Napoles would rip his head off.

 

Leonard's punch resistance wasn't the same at 168lbs either. The first thing that goes when a fighter is past his prime, the ability to take a punch.

Leonard took Hearns' best shots at welterweight and never flinched.

147 lb tourney - LEONARD V NAPOLES. Leonard was knocked down at 168lbs at the age of 32 by Hearns, not as a welterweight performing at his peak in his early-mid 20's.

 

He went all jelly legged against Duran and, according to Rooster, did the Spaghetti Dance vs Geraldo. His chin was solid overall no doubts for there for me, not in the Napoles class though.

 

Since your judging Leonard's ability to absorb a punch at super-middleweight years past his prime in a fantasy match-up at welterweight, I'll do the same with Napoles.

But I'll go one better and stick to the weight class in question.

If Stracey can knock down Napoles and stop him, Leonard smokes him sooner and in a more convincing manner.

Leonard KO3.

 

Napoles slipped against Stracey- and had a better chin than Leonard any day.

 

Hearns never landed on Leonard clean like Napoles would. Hearns couldn't land even if he wanted to, he was weight drained and struggling for stamina, conserving himself. His legs were shaky and he couldn't set himself.

 

He was stopped, right or wrong?

 

Of course he was. You said he was knocked down though. But the 'knock down' (slip) wasn't connected to the stoppage. Leonard would perhaps have been stopped more often, but fighting once or twice every six years dramatically reduces the odds of that happening.