Prime Leonard vs todays Mayweather

I think we're talking about one of the greatest welterweights vs one of the greatest junior lightweights (albeit a great welterweight also). Leonard's physical advantages would come in to play big time. Tough fight? Yeah. Leonard's toughest fight? Nah. I'd suggest it would be somewhere between Kalule and Benitez in terms of difficulty. Leonard could possibly stop him over 15, and gets a clear decision over 12 (unless Mayweather tags him good and pisses Leonard off).

 

I'd have to favour Leonard, him being a natural welter. But I can't help thinking of how Duran countered his jab and how good Floyd is at this move as well. All in all, though, Leonard's physical superiorty should see him through.

 

Truly a mythical matchup... as Floyd would NEVER have fought Leonard. But for the sake of arguement... Leonard beats his ass.

 

Mayweather as much speed as Leonard?

 

Anyone even thinking this fight would be close is living in fantasyland.

Mayweather is a good welterweight, but he was at his best as a superfeather... and even at superfeather he still wasn't close to being as effective as Leonard was at welter.

Can you even imagine what a prime Ray Leonard would have done to this lot:

Sharmba Mitchell
Zab Judah
Carlos Baldomir
Ricky Hatton
Juan Manuel Marquez
Shane Mosley

I very much doubt those six fights would make up 15 rounds between them, SRL would bulldoze them all early doors in horrendous fashion.


Ultimately, Mayweather Jr would find himself in with a faster, stronger, more powerful, more varied, more driven opponent, he would realize this early, he would run for cover, but he would be caught easily and tattooed with barrages of punches until either his corner or the referee stopped the slaughter.

And to be honest, that's not even a slight on Mayweather, because he was a natural sfw. It's like asking who would win at 130 between PBF and Jeff Fenech, a natural sfw vs a guy who got to that weight later in his career.

Floyd looked like a big welter vs midgets like Judah and Hatton, and he looked like a strong welter against a tired old well past his sell-by date Shane Mosley and miles past his best weight Marquez, but against Ray Leonard he would be a little fish out of his depth in a big, deep pond.

 

That's a very one dimensional way of looking at it, to be honest. Hand speed is only a single part of the game. And even in that regard, i think a prime Mayweather and Benitez are on a similar level, let alone today's.

It makes little sense that Mayweather didn't "need" to use his legs, or still doesn't need to. How can a boxer type like mayweather abandon one of his greatest strengths? Why would he? Odds are, he's older, more flatfooted, and his legs are starting to go. It's only natural, especially when you consider that Floyd became inactive.

Today's Mayweather would get outclassed by a prime Leonard. I don't see how this is even an argument.

 

So Leonard got taken 10 or more rounds or went the distance with 14 of his 32 Welterweight opponents, yet he's knocking out unstoppables like Baldomir and Mosley out in the 3 rounds

 

I favour Leonard largely because of strength. He's a lot bigger naturally.

 

No way is Benitez as fast as Mayweather, wasn't Mosley supposed to be as fast as Mayweather too? Overall Mayweather is just better than Benitez, who'd often be lazy

As for Mayweather's legs, I'm not sure if they are what they used to be, he's never been the most mobile though, he's more than happy to stay in punching range and slip and counter

I'm not even picking Mayweather in this match up, but to pretend its an easy fight when Leonard struggled with lesser fighters and Leonard is some sort of WW Tyson is BS

 

Agree with this

 

I don't even think his legs have dropped off myself, just because he walked Mosley down doesn't mean he didn't have the ability to use his legs, he won the fight handily the way he wanted to i thought. In his previous fight his legs were fantastic, he wasn't being excessively mobile like vs Baldomir, but he was constantly stepping around, one foot here, one step there, so that Marquez couldn't get set (with his own poor footwork). Mayweather is not as fast as he once was though, definitely not imo. But we should wait for his next fight to assess the ability of his legs, personally i highly doubt they have diminished significantly.

 

Mosley moves in slow motion compared to even 147 PBF even when he was on EPO or whatever, that's just dumb. But Benitez was a natural welter and he was undeniably fast as ****. Very hard to find and his reputation as a counterpuncher rivals Mayweathers. Benitez's issue was that he peaked too early. Got lazy. Stopped training. Underestimated Leonard and got spanked.

He might be more than happy sitting in the pocket and countering, but Mayweather was definitely a more mobile fighter earlier on. He wasn't on his bike as much as a lot of boxer types are, but definitely used his legs alot.

I'm not saying Mayweather would be easy. In fact, I don't think anyone is. But the facts are is that the TS specified Mayweather today.

-He's not a natural welter.
-He's not in his physical prime.
-He's been very inactive
-He has never faced any boxer anywhere nearly as difficult as some of the fights SRL took in his prime, so there is an experience gap.
-SRL in his prime is an incredible, top ten fighter in my opinion. In almost all categories to rate a boxer, prime SRL is better.

So yeah, I think SRL would take a UD or maybe even get a stoppage.

 

I think Mayweather handled the lot of fighters mentioned fairly handily. I don't know that Leonard would do it that much better and I don't think it matters a whole lot when analyzing this matchup. So I think I'm in general agreement with PP on this issue, but seriously, Baldomir is not the type of guy Leonard would play with. Leonard would **** Baldomir up.

 

I certainly think Mayweather slowed when he moved up to 147. Its hard to know if his legs are going as Roach stated, or he's simply being efficient and not wasting energy, for the most part he . He did fight a similar fight against Gatti as he did against Mosley and he used much more movement, make of that what you will. The Pacquaio fight should answer some questions, although I don't really see him being that mobile against Pac either

 

I don't either PP, i think he can just beat Pac outright myself, but we'll see. Part of me hopes that he does use his legs though, just to show that i;m right on his legs not being shot haha