Floyd Mayweather or Sugar Ray Leonard, who was more talented?

Arguably my two favourite boxers of all time. Definitely right up there.
Tough question as both have shown how they can face different styles and overcome them but if I really had to choose I would have to say Floyd.
Floyd, brilliantly defensive. We know Leonard is tough but Floyd is also underatedly tough as well.

It's easy to forget that when Floyd fought at ww it was 4 divisions higher than where he won his first world title.
I don't think Floyd would have lost at ww to Duran (as great as Duran was) like Leonard did when they first fought at the weight

Floyd

 

Hard to say. At the end, what matters most is against who did you display those skills. Ray Leonard did it against better opposition.

 

I'll take Leonard and I agree 100% with Pernellsweetpea. Floyd cherrypicked as much as he could. Leonard fought his Pacquiao when he was prime and took the L. He also bounced back to get the W. Can't say that about Floyd. Yes, he cherry picked Hagler and even so, arguably lost that fight. However, the flipside was he'd been out of boxing a while himself. Guys coming off a layoff usually aren't as good.

 

Floyd cherry picked yes but dont forget , like Canelo today, he had Bob Bennett, the NSAC & Vegas boxing in his corner making sure he would be allowed to lose that bogus 0
If he was standing at the final bell he couldnt lose. Regardless

 

Agreed. Razor thin margins in both cases, though.

 

Absolutely, wouldn't say PBF was short on talent nor Sugar on skill.

 

This is part of the reason I find SRL a tad overrated.
His wins over his fellow fab four all have an extra story.

Looking at Hagler first, Leonard, being the A-side was able to dictate nearly all aspects of the fight, most significantly, its duration..
Even with all that, the result was controversial and definitely merited a rematch, which Leonard never gave.

Against Hearns, Leonard was fairly comprehensively outboxed for most of the fight, catching Hearns late and stopping him in a round that wouldn't have happened had Hearns made the same insistence on 12 rounds that Ray did with Hagler. Hearns, by all accounts including Ray's, won the rematch. A split series.

Duran beat Leonard in the biggest bout of the fab four era. He forced an earlier than ideal rematch with Duran, who was having trouble getting back down to 147. A split series.

So two of the three series were split and , and Leonard did not permit a rematch in the third.

I'm not saying SRL wasn't an ATG. He was.

Just a tad overrated.

Top 20

At worst, top 25.

 

So very true, Good Post.

 

Duran beating Ray in June of 1980 was not the biggest win. Again Ray was not yet elite in my mind. The first fight brought out the elite in Ray. He had to think about every aspect of the fight inside the ring being just a small part, then the outside of the ring and he did. Tactics, rules. timing everything. Then he became a better fighter and made Duran quit with those adjustments/variables. If anything the rematch was the biggest win because Ray went up to another level.

Yeah Ray orchestrated the win over Marvin, but Marvin like he did with Duran thought he could coast and win against a smaller opponent. Hearns fought Duran like you have to. Hearns said I am going to go in there and land my punches and take him out. Hearns had more power and speed than Marvin, but Marvin was physically stronger. He should have done better with Duran than he did and forced the fight. And then with Ray same thing, yet Ray was landing so Marvin was in that mode of waiting.

And you forgot the Benitez fight. Benitez was a great fighter. Ray learned how to orchestrate, but the wins matter no matter how you get them. Floyd learned with lesser opponents how to use the Ray Leonard handbook.

Ray didn't want a rematch with Marvin. He would have probably lost, and that would have hurt the image of the first fight. Ray was not going to fight Marvin again after the first fight, unless it were years later when a loss would not hurt his legacy as much. The wins make Ray a great fighter. Benitez, Duran, Hearns, Hagler. You really don't. Those are 4 of the biggest names in each division in history. Lightweight for Duran, 140-154 for Benitez, 147-175 for Hearns and 160 for Marvin. He encompassed a lot with those 4 fights. You don't get much better than that and Floyd did not have that level of wins at that time and he never will. Floyd will always be less than Ray.

 

Nailed it Flo. Great post

 

Cherry picked?
At sfw Floyd fought Hernandez and his biggest rival corrales
He went to lw and fought the top lw and then rematched him
No he didn't face Hatton at lww, but I don't think he avoided him at that weight as he moved through it with not that many fights and fought him at ww.
At ww he fought the top ww in baldomir and then fought Judah who was arguably the next top ww
At LMW he fought de la Hoya who was arguably the top lmw

 

I don't think Leonard was overrated at all but you make some very good valid points

 

Debatable
Not taking anything away from either but fighters from yesterday often get rated higher and Floyd beat his share of great fighters
Pacquiao, Oscar, Marquez, Judah, corrales, cotto, Guerrero, Alvarez, Mosely, Hatton, Chavez, gatti, all won world titles in more than one weight division

 

Do you think Floyd would have lost to Duran at ww?