Benny Leonard #1?

You saw Leonard beat a lightweight better than any lightweight Duran ever fought. Tendler was also a southpaw. Some what common now days, but almost unheard of in those days. If you wtch Leonard is moving as if Tendler is right handed, and he's still beating him to the punch.
Duran wouldn't even be Leonard's toughest fanasty fight.

 

I have a hard time seeing anyone KO Leonard @ his best...I can understand a Duran victory prediction, even though I disagree strongly. I certainly don't see how a Duran KO victory could be seen as the most likely outcome.

Overall I rank
Leonard 1 and go back and forth between Gans/Duran 2 & 3....currently giving the edge to Gans

 

I`ll say one thing on Duran`s behalf. If Roberto hurt Leonard whether to the body or not like I believe Tendler did he won`t be conned out of it by Benny`s wit. That ain`t happening. Duran was a remorseless finisher.

 

Even no less an authority than Jack Johnson indicated that Benny may have been the best mover of the era. Lil' Artha' was not one to heap praise freely and lavishly on his contemporaries, but Leonard made the grade for him.

He worked harder on developing his craft than the more naturally gifted Gans and Duran. Would have been interesting to see how long he could have gone on as LW Champion. There seemed nobody on the horizon when he walked away.

 

No one is KO'ing Leonard at his peak. Not even Duran.

After Greb, he has the craziest, most ridiculous record of that era.

 

Now that is something if Jack endorsed Benny as he was hard pressed to give praise to anyone other then himself.

 

Duran would probably be the greatest lightweight Leonard had ever faced, but that's not the best pro-Roberto argument considering the era Benny competed in.

In whipping the likes of Freddie Welsh, Rocky Kansas, Ritchie Mitchell and Lew Tendler, Leonard demonstrated a kind of mastery that not even the astute gaze of Floyd Mayweather could fully appreciate.

The styles clash would be a thing of beauty with plenty of cat n' mouse, but less of that Montreal mauling. Competitive and thrilling, the gut instinct points at Leonard's escapism and piston jab.

The Ghetto Wizard would skate around the ring, devise counters and force clinches; a master of broken rhythm, neither here nor there. Over fifteen rounds the Panamanian's usual inferno would be cooled into manageable embers. If Benny's parting was disturbed there'd be a rematch six weeks later.

 

It would be interesting to see just how fast Leonard`s hands were and if Duran`s own slippery defense throws Benny off.

One of the great mythical matchups of alltime IMV