Who Would Beat A Prime Leonard At Welterweight?

Ray was great, the one thing about Ray is his defense was good but not great.. Everyone will say that is not true. Well if he wanted to be defensive he could, yet he had this need to get the knockout and he was hit sometimes. I remember big shots landing from Kalule, even though Kalule was southpaw, Ray was going for the knockout.

 

Nobody

 

Sure but we overwhelmingly just have the slower, post first retirement SRR on film.

 

But we can gleen a ton of information from that version of Ray Robinson. Common sense should tell us ( And it does) what Robinson must have been like at welterweight his best weight .
If the Middleweight version, the vast majority of what we have on film Robinson looked that good, it's absolutely scary what the man could do in his prime at welterweight.
Plus his domination of fighters like Armstrong ( Past prime, and Robinson didn't press the issue because they were friends) and Gavilan two ATG'S in their own right, suggest Robinson was truly frightening at that weight class.
We can reasonably infer Robinson at welterweight was truly the greatest fighter in history.
What Leonard lacked in quantity, he made up in quality. Hearns , Benitez, and Duran at welterweight matches up with and best most welterweights in history head to head.

 

the same dave Green that was knocked stiff by Palomino 3 years earlier?

Why would another knockout of Green impress? He was stiff, lacked mobility, had no punch and no physical assets whatsoever

A lamb being led to the slaughter in a mercy title shot

Andy Price?

His record is speckled with losses leading up to his meeting with Ray

Again, why would anyone be impressed with Price as an opponent?

 

The Barbados Joe Walcott that destroyed Choynski has a good chance of icing Leonard.

 

Hi Mark.
So, what I think you have failed to grasp is, it was the manner in which Leonard dispatched Green ( in particular ) not so much the overall defeat of the fighter, sure Palomino did KO him, but I think it's fair to say Carlos isn't the fighter that Leonard was in their respective primes, the punch landed on Green was in some ways not unlike the shot that SRR hit Fullmer with, or Foster/Tiger in that it was truly concussive, and prob not many ( if any at all ) WWs down the ages could have withstood such a blow, and as to who could have beaten Leonard at WW in his prime, I would say very few, SRR/Armstrong perhaps, Napoles maybe, for me he will remain a top 2/3 in the division, do you not think so ? . stay safe buddy.

 

I agree, except there is always a lot of unsurety re: almost any alleged GOAT.
But he is absolutely likely the best candidate for that at WW.
And may well be overall.
122-1-2 while fighting really frequently & facing all the best people-& the only loss being to a 16 lbs. heavier Raging Bull who he beat the other 5 times he fought-before he won & lost the MW title several times-is unbelievable.

 

Ray Robinson
Henry Armstrong


At his absolute best Leonard beats everyone else.

 

And another everyone seems to forget: Mayweather relied a great deal on always being FASTER then everyone else: Ray is faster then Mayweather.

 

Andy Price beat Palomino AND Cuevas.

 

1. If rounds were 12, we already know Hearns, because he actually did do it over 12 (falling apart late, late).

2. Duran did.

3. Ray Robinson

4. Hammerin Hank

 

Davey Boy Green knocked by also a Dane boxer I cannot remember the name. just months before challenge of Sugar Leonard.

 

Robinson was better than Leonard and would beat him imo. Robinson was a freak of nature. Even SRL would admit that I think.

After that not too many aside from the one time Duran (another freak) who caught lightening in a bottle that night in Montreal.

Whitaker would be interesting though. The man was a genius at negating attacking fighters. I’d still favour Leonard.

 

Jorgen Hansen.