Ray Leonard v.s. Floyd Mayweather ...

His style involves more defensive elusiveness and counter punching than SRL. He also had an ATG jab with his defense combined with the way he would have moved around Duran he would be a harder match up for Duran than SRL would be. His style is far more frustrating to deal with than SRL's for Duran. I think Pea Whitaker had better boxing ability than SRL did. In fact if both were the same size I would pick Pea to beat him rather easily.

 

The folks arguing likely aren't going to change their minds but other readers might. Several of these threads (but not this one) have made me go back and rewatch certain fights.

 

I'm not going to argue with that too much I kinda agree. Pea would be very frustrating for the overly emotional lightweight version of Duran. In saying that Duran brutalised an outstanding boxer with short arms, Fleet of foot and weirdly elusive hip movements in Ken Buchanan. Ken was a beautiful boxer with an iron chin and heart to match. Great jab, great counter puncher etc. He tied Duran in knots a few times but Duran being Duran he just imposed his will on him and basically ****ed him up.
Pea would be in all kinds of trouble versus that version of Duran. He just does not have the power, strength or elusivenes to keep Duran off for 15 rounds. He's just not tough enough to deal with that ****. This isn't Chavez or Oscar's we're talking about. Duran is levels above those guy's in terms of skill. And on top of that how can Pea land on the ultra slick defence of Duran. It ain't just Pea that's slick in this one. brrraaaattt!

 

Pea's jab would dictate this fight he would control Duran with it. Pea's jab would be arguably the best he has faced. I just don't see how Duran would deal with him and like I said earlier when you combine that with his movement and defense he could do that all night long. You're not going to be able to cut the ring off on Pea. JCC was much better at cutting off the ring than Duran was and he couldn't do it effectively.

Who would you see wining if Pea and SRL were the same size?

 

If Pea and Leonard were the same size I would pick Leonard. Ray just has more to his game than Pea. I'm a much bigger fan of Pea but stylistically I have to side with SRL as he's far superior than ODLH in offence and defence and never had too much problems with pure defensive fighters. Very close fight though. Pea would tie Leonard in knots at times I'm sure of that. Leonard had more dimensions to his game so I pick him over PW.

As for Duran vs Pea. I disagree that JCC could cut the ring off better than Duran. Duran was far slicker and cleverer at cutting the ring off than Chavez plus he mixed it up at range and had a phenomenal ****nal of faints and tricks. He was far more dynamic than JCC at cutting off the ring.

 

Who the hell wouldn't Whitaker by frustrating for at times? Duran does beat him though (and Mayweather)

 

Damn right

 

I would worry that Sweet Pea would be too passive against Duran and give away too many rounds though. Duran wasn't quite as good at cutting off the ring (or he would have gotten rid of Vilomar much sooner and wouldn't have lost to Laing, etc.) but he had better reflexes, defense, and all-around skills than Chavez. I see that as a fight that could go either way but if both were at their absolute best, I'd probably pick Whitaker by decision.

 

If you watch that Buchannan fight again, it was a damn good fight, and lets face it, he "brutalized" Buchannan with a low blow. Not saying Ken would have won, but it was competitive...and no, I'm not Scottish.

 

Ray Leonard was bigger, faster, stronger and tougher than Pea, or Money. That usually wins you a fight. I think they were both more "skilled" but so was Benitez.

 

Actually the fight wasn't all that competitive at all, even Buchanan's trainer Gil Clancy said as much. What happened is Duran was throwing a punch just as the bell rang and when the ref attempted to stop the punch he accidently deflected it downward. It was completely unintentional. Afterward the ref not realizing what he did felt that Buchanan faked getting hit low because he was do far behind and awarded the fight to Duran. You can find all this on YouTube. That said l think he deserved a rematch.

 

I'm not accepting that Pernell or Mayweather could beat SRL. Just, no. You're throwing away so much logic to come to that conclusion.

 

I'm Scottish and a huge Buchanan fan. Ken was competitive in spells, He made Duran look clumsy a few times and had one fantastic round where he boxed marvellously. Other than that Duran bullied Ken. He was just too much for Ken to handle. The only reason Ken survived for so long was because of his Iron chin and fighting spirit. Lesser fighters would have been carted out in a stretcher if faced with that version of Duran.

 

My thoughts as well.

 

..With regards to Rigo, that was from the amateur days when rules are very different, especially in Rigo's era.