Send in your 70s and 80s welterweights to beat Floyd Mayweather

Ray Leonard, Hearns, Benitez and Duran.

 

I definitely go along with these four but "Money" puts up good battles.

 

Napoles, Hearns, Leonard, Duran, Curry. That would be my top five.

Problem I have with Floyd post-2007 is that he was basically semi-retired, taking full advantage of cashing in the credit that his previous work had built up and what a modern schedule allows fighters to get away with in terms of inactivity. That whole era of smaller already established greats (Mayweather, Manny, to a lesser extent Marquez) playing around in a pretty weak natural welter era against faded names (ODLH, Mosley) and some solid contenders didn't do it for me at all when taken from the perspective of their all-time value at 147. Mayweather was easily the best of them there, but I still see him in terms of matchups against excellent/great fighters as being at his best as a 130-140lber. Beating a lot of very good Welters, especially if he actually had to fight a 40s-60s/70s schedule there is going to be a struggle.

Do I see Floyd coming out of retirement after almost two years to seek big money fights with the likes of Napoles, Hearns, Leonard and Duran around instead of a puffed up,roided and bloated, flat-footed, slow reflexes Marquez or a completely cooked Shane Mosley? I'm really not sure, as the guy had an impeccable sense of risk and reward, and if he leaps straight into fighting prime versions of those beasts, he's a lot more likely to get beaten comfortably than do a Leonard vs Hagler.

 

In addition to the names already mentioned, I quite like Starling and Curry to best Mayweather.

 

He wouldn't take fights with Hearns , Duran , or Leonard
He loses to napoles, starling, curry

 

Moochie? I go with most of these, but Moochie the same Moochie that was punked by Don Curry nope.

 

He didn't get punked by Curry. The first fight could have gone either way and the second was an all-time welterweight technical classic that was also very competitive, with Curry just pulling away slightly over the last 2-3 rounds.

That said, his counterpunching style and weaknesses (inconsistent workrate and love of his own great defensive skill if not pressed into letting his hands go) are quite well suited to being exploited by Mayweather. It would be a horribly boring fight with both struggling to land a solid punch on each other.

 

Yes the first fight was close but the second was all Curry he punked him IMOH.

 

It was was a 9-6 sort of fight. I don't think I've ever read or heard anyone call it one sided before. tbh, I just don't see how a phrase like punked does any justice to a such a competitive, very high quality fight where both fighters were working very hard and showed a ton of heart and toughness. That's more for something shameful like Leonard vs Duran II, imo.

 

Leonard for sure. The only way I could see Floyd beating him is if he caught an inexperienced Leonard. People give Duran a lot of credit for beating Leonard and deservedly so but part of the reason why Duran beat him was because Leonard had never seen anything like Duran before. We can say Duran never saw someone like Leonard. From a talent perspective that would be true but Duran by that time had seen every style multiple times over. So while he may not have fought someone like Leonard, he was better prepared to deal with him than vise versa. That's Floyd's only chance. If he catches Leonard post Duran then it's a for sure L.

Hearns is another guy that I would favor but I'm not completely convinced Floyd would have no shot. Mainly for the same reasons I said about Leonard. Hearns was 22 years old at WW. Hearns hadn't seen a lot of things yet. IMO experience is why he lost to Leonard. He didn't get out skilled against Leonard. It was pretty much experience. He had never been in a hard fight as a pro. Never been hurt. Never had his stamina tested the way it was tested. He ended up losing because of that. A prime Floyd at WW would have been what 29-30 years old? It's interesting to me. Like I said, I would favor Hearns because I think he brings things to the table that would give Floyd problems but experience is a real thing. Outside of those two, I would favor Floyd and feel pretty confidently about it.

 

Can't stress this enough, I think if Floyd and Manny fought in the 80s they would have definitely stayed at lightweight or super lightweight, until those welters would have roamed around at least

 

Would have loved to see Hearns at junior middleweight fight Leonard

 

Probably not a popular option but I also believe Harold Weston Hedgemon Lewis and possibly Randy Schields would give FM all he could handle.
Leonard Napoles Duran Hearns Benitez and Curry I would pick to beat him.

 

Leonard, Hearns, Napoles, Duran, Benitez, Curry. I'd take all 6 over Floyd.