Who's GREATER: Floyd Mayweather Jr or Ray Leonard?

The fact he's unlikeable has nothing to do with where I rank him. Putting him above people such as Armstrong, Langford, Greb, Duran is just absurd.

 

Can't forget the win streak. And if SRR and Floyd ever fought, the only streak would be the **** streak left in lil Floyd's trunks after Robinson beat the **** out of him. LOL

 

Okay. But you initially said by a long way.

 

He didn't have the option. Nonetheless he's a multiple weight world champion, undisputed, who beat multiple greats, often in style and never did anything but win. Like it or not those are facts

There's nothing absurd about it. The fact that he's much more modern than the other greats mentioned isn't an automatic mark against him, something too many seemingly subconsciously jump to in this sport.

Depends how you look at it..may be marginally ahead in each or just most aspects, but that may aff up to him being well ahead. I don't wish to disrespect another great just to make my point.
From ranking of 2 to 15 there doesn't have to be a huge margin. But I do think it's clear cut that Floyd is greater

 

Leonard and it's not close

 

LD Boxer-Puncher,

Floyd was a genius.

Based upon his ability, you could say for sure that he’s one of the greatest fighters of all time.

However, under traditional ranking criteria, he hasn’t got the resume to rank as high as where you rank him.

He never fought a prime ATG.

He has a great, deep resume, but he simply never fought or beat the same calibre of fighters that Ray did.

The question is: Would your ranking of him be different, if he’d suffered the odd loss?

Because if he’d fought the calibre of guys who Ray did, his statistics could look very different, where he didn’t possess an undefeated record.

Obviously, we’ll never know what could have happened.

But we know that Ray fought the better fighters.

So all factors have to be considered, where the relevant context is applied.

IMHO, Floyd had more overall skills, as he was better defensively. But Ray had more offensive skills. And prime for prime, Floyd was never on another level. So I don’t see a gap between them. Ray just fought on for too long, taking fights that he should never have taken, just like guys like Roy Jones did. Whereas Floyd kept his unbeaten record by taking much safer fights in the second half of his career.

It really comes down to: quantity vs quality.

Floyd had the better longevity and the deeper resume.

Ray tested himself more and fought and beat higher calibre of fighters.

Ray has the better wins.

I think that they’re about even, but that Floyd could only rank higher if he’d got the prime ATG wins that Ray has.

 

in your opinion

I watched both very closely during their careers and have done a study on them since their retirement
Leonard was levels above as an attacking force, he could stand toe to toe with anyone as he did in Duran 1 and at times Hagler amongst others, he had genuine one punch KO power, could box at distance, throw lightning multiple punch combinations that carried power, judged distance and closed it better than anyone while getting back out without taking a shot. FMJ wasn’t anywhere near as good at any of that and often relied on illegal tactics to avoid being hit especially when under pressure.

Leonard was a much more offensively minded fighter but if called upon to do so could avoid shots from ultra high quality opponents showing super fast reflexes and amazing instinct while Floyd hid behind the Philly shell, ducked below the waistline and regularly popped his head and upper torso through the ropes to avoid an onslaught.

Sugar Ray fought everybody who was anybody while they were at the top or in their prime while Floyd is notorious for avoiding his contemporaries while they were at their best and even used manipulative negotiation tactics to put his challengers at a disadvantage.

Sugar Ray Leonard is arguably the most accomplished boxer/fighter the sport has ever seen while FMJ is tiers below that argument and would fall behind 20 other boxers in that regard.

This is my considered opinion, I’ve reached it without bias and with full objectivity, I have also used fact based and scientific study to reach as accurate a conclusion as is possible. Finally I am a boxing connoisseur with 6 decades of involvement at various levels and Leonard passes the eye test at a much higher standard than Mayweather.

Sugar Ray Leonard is top 3 GOAT maybe Number 1
Floyd Mayweather Junior is nowhere even close

 

Yeah he did, Aron Pryor.

 

Are people confusing Ray Leonard for Ray Robinson? Leonard was great, but he was 36-3-1 good, not 50-0 great

 

Floyd was the all around better fighter. He could adjust round by round. It took Leonard a whole fight and a loss to realize that he had fought the wrong fight against Duran.

 

Seriously? SRL was better in every way. And he wasn’t afraid to face top competitors. Not even close. SRL is an ATG, one of the best to ever lace them up. Floyd was a guy who managed his career well and protected that zero at all costs.

 

He was none. Mayweather whoops him.

 

I think Mayweather's career and resume is better and has more depth than most of the other posters on this site...

...But Leonard still has the greater career, and I don't think there's any compelling argument against that statement.

 

Go away.