Ray Leonard vs. Marlon Starling

I may be biased because I went to the same high school with Starling, but I believe this fight would have been closer than most think. I say this because I know that Moochie badly wanted to fight Leornard and would have been super motivated for this fight, and he fought at a higher level in such cases. When being interviewed after his impressive win over Lloyd Honeyghan he was asked who would he like to fight next and he said Leonard. Leonard was fighting mostly at jr. middleweight and middleweight by then and was asked would he move back down to welter to fight Starling and he said no.

When Starling then moved up to middleweight to challenge Michael Nunn for the championship, most erroneously belived he did it for the money because it was by far his biggest purse. The real reason he did it was because he believed if he beat Nunn for the middleweight title he could then challenge Leonard to a fight for the belt. As it turned out Nunn was too big and fast for Starling to beat, losing a majority decision.

Leonard whose knowledge of analyzing the sport was highly underrated expessed a lot of respect for Starling's skills when commentating at his fights. I remember him saying a couple of times when working Starling fights what he would do if he were in there against him in certain situations, as if seemingly imagaining him as a tough opponent and I don't recall him doing that when working most other fights of fighters in or near his weight class, while he was still an active fighter.

 

Leonard convincingly. Higher level. However I seriously doubt by ko.

 

It would be competitive kind of like the Curry/Starling fights. But Leonard would win a close but clear decision in the same vein Curry did in their 2nd meeting.

 

Leonard needs to be a heavy favorite. But I think starlings defense and durability sees him to last the distance