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

You right, Hearns can box. He was out boxing Leonard in that first fight. No knock on his all around skills. I just have more faith in Mayweathers defensive skills and ring IQ. Mayweather would never let himself get setup like Duran. Too smart.

 

Manfred,

I was asking you with regards to their best opponents.

I don’t see how anyone could argue against saying that Ray both fought and beat the better fighters.


I never said that Ray was a more well rounded fighter.

I just said that he had a more dynamic offense.

That’s not how you objectively rate wins my good man.

We’re not comparing their WHOLE resumes and the win/loss ratios.

We’re not debating on statistics.

No.

I’m sorry, but that’s absolute nonsense.


Wins are rated, based upon:

The quality of the opponent

The level of risk

The degree of difficulty

The importance of it

The impact of it

The manner of victory

Any relevant circumstances


They aren’t based upon overall resumes and their overall accomplishments etc.

We can’t just spin the stats can we?


Roy Jones is one of the greatest fighters of all time.

Look at his career.

Look at his achievements.

Yet how much credit does Joe Calzaghe get for beating him?

Joe didn’t beat the undefeated P4P King.

He beat a version who was nearly 40, who hadn’t had a top level win in 5 years.


You can look up the career of Wilfred Benitez, and you can look up the career of Canelo Alvarez.

You can look up their overall resumes, their best wins, and their overall achievements.

Now if you were to do that, then I’ve no doubt that you could rank Canelo higher.

However, you cannot rate someone on that basis.


Again, you rate them on where they were at the time etc.

Floyd gets huge credit for his win over Canelo, as it was a masterclass at 36 years of age.

However, it was against a green Canelo who could barely beat Trout, and at an enforced and unnecessary C-W.

Whereas Leonard beat the great Benitez, who was just simply a better fighter than the specific version of Canelo who Floyd had fought.


You can look at Manny Pacquiaos’ incredible career, where you can make a case for him being better than Benitez, Hagler, Hearns and Duran.

You could easily make a case for where he could rank higher.

However, when Floyd beat him, he was both faded and injured.

Which means that even if you rank him higher than a guy like Hearns, it wasn’t a better win than Ray’s win over Hearns, simply because Hearns was far more dangerous, he was almost in his absolute prime, and it was a much more difficult challenge for Leonard.


Now you can do this for any of the wins.

Ray’s win over Marvin, was better than Floyd’s over Oscar.


Again, Floyd never fought or beat a prime ATG in his life.

The best guys that Floyd ever beat, were Oscar, Canelo and Manny.

Yet, they were pre-prime or faded versions of those guys.

This is why I keep telling you that Floyd can’t match Ray’s best wins.


Ray fought a prime Benitez, almost prime versions of Hearns and Duran, and Marvin after a THREE year lay off.

Those guys were all better than the SPECIFIC versions of the guys who Floyd beat.

Better and more dangerous.

Bigger risks.


Again, Floyd never saw a Montreal Duran, a Hearns or a Hagler.

Floyd did not have a better offensive arsenal.

He did not possess Ray’s variety.

He did not possess Ray’s power.

He didn’t throw the power punches that Ray threw.

He didn’t throw the blistering combinations that Ray threw.

Ray had the more dynamic offense.


Yes, Floyd had the better defence.


Now if you want to say that Floyd had the most overall skill, then yes, I can agree with that.