Floyd Mayweather Vs Sugar Ray Leonard who wins prime for prime

Although I obviously wouldn’t want to see any fighters get seriously hurt, I personally would love to see the return of 15 round bouts.

It’s unfair for you to say that Ray wasn’t the better man on the night, just because he was behind before he got the stoppage.

He proved that he was the better man on the night by ending up as being the victor.

It wasn’t a marathon where Hearns just ran out of gas.

Ray didn’t win just because he was fitter and had more stamina.

You need to give Ray more credit than that.

Ray changed his tactics and turned up the heat by fighting Hearns aggressively, which caused him to wilt.

The old 15 round fights were never just decided on which fighter had the highest levels of stamina.

 

This would apply to every fighter.

Every fighter would fight differently.

Over the years, I’ve heard quite a few people say that because Ray was behind on points before getting the late stoppage, it means that he’d definitely have lost to Hearns had it have been a 12 round fight instead of a 15 round fight. But we don’t know that for sure. There’s no way of knowing that. Because if it had’ve been a 12 round fight in 1981, both fighters could have approached the fight completely differently, using different game plans/tactics etc.

 

That is true, a lot of boxers would approach fights differently, but in our case, it's not like SRL was hoping for Hearns to tire and made that a strategy. He was forced to go all out in the latter rounds cause Hearns had bettered him throughout the fight.

 

Actually, they were when the boxers where pretty close skill wise and even though one was a bit more skilled, the gap wasn't that big to get the KO.

 

Floyd can win by countering and outpointing SRL, like he has always done.

 

Floyd is not gonna be able to just pick his shots like he used to do, not against Leonard. Floyd does not throw combinations and is a safety/defense first fighter. If you know anything about boxing, you would realize that his style does not match up well to Ray.

 

Floyd won't need combos. And there's nothing that suggests to me he won't be able to pick his shots.

 

They said that about many great/good opponents he faced, yet he beat them all.

 

Yet Ray has the better quality wins (Benitez, Duran, Hagler, Hearns).

 

Ray with his speed and combos would just overwhelm Mayw. Floyd lands the single quality shots here and there but he is not busy enough.

 

Many of Floyd's opponents had speed, yet none managed to land clean very often.

 

Some of those wins are debatable.
I already explained the Hearns one.
He also got beat by Duran.
He did not beat Hagler, he got a draw at best. Those shoe shinning punches at the end of certain rounds don't mean he deserved a win.
The Benitez win I'll give to him, even though I don't think Benitez prepared properly.

 

Floyd never fought the caliber of a fighter like Ray. Leonard beat better fighters than Floyd!

 

Prime Floyd lost against a lesser fighter in Castillo. Also, Floyd has close calls against lesser fighers

 

As would Lenoard, Hearns, etc.