I think Leonard's win over Hearns at 147 is the best win in the history of the divison but others may feel the same way about Duran's victory over Leonard. Curious to see how other people feel about this.
Duran over Leonard. A career LW who'd been in more than 70 wars coming up in weight to decisively beating an ATG WW on his own terms.
Just curious, because im no historian. Wouldnt Durans be better due to him being older, smaller, and beating a greater fighter? To me it seems even if they are close and both obviously ATG wins that its a no brainer that duran should edge it? Thoughts? Think about it though. Duran was at a bigger disadvantage, against a better opponent (if only slighlty) and won.
Duran over Leonard. DUran took a younger stronger, quicker, up and comer, one division above where he was best, and used every inch and mistake against Leonard. One of the biggest asswhoopings of all time. And to make it more exciting, Leonard was throwing back with some crazy shots himself, hurting Duran. Duran came in from ring size to weigh in with Leonard setting the conditions. Leonard dictated the terms of the fight against Hearns from the ring size, to dehydrating Hearns with the bulbs on top of the ring (taken from his biography). Thomas looks so weight drained. It was amazing he even made that ****ing wait. 6'1 and 147lbs? Unreal
In my opinion, the Leonard that fought Hearns was a better fighter than the one that Duran beat. Leonard didn't fight his fight in their first fight and consequently lost. We saw what happened in the second fight between the two.
Everyone will have their excuses though you know what I mean? There's many people who say duran wasnt as prepared in their second fight as he was the first... and SRL himself said he saw how bad Duran let himself go so quickly after the win so tried to take advantage of that, so theres credibility to that notion. Both sides will say they didn't beat the best version of that fighter or have an excuse as to why they lost. But if people think SRL was much better against Hearns thats a fair point imo. I dont know that time period very well.