Who was/is the best welterweight since Leonard/Hearns?

[Sugar Adam Ali]

This has been a great thread... A lot of good debate..

My 2 cents, is that you can't really say any welter of the last 10-12 years... The division was been pretty weak and dominated by lightweights and jr welters ie floyd, marquez, Bradley, manny, etc... Those guys are great fighters but not true welters..

The division did get hot around 07-08 with floyd, cotto, williams, margarito, shane, zab, clottey but for the most part I think it's been a weak division in terms of true welters since the 2000ish when it had tito, Oscar, Ike, shane, vernon, mayorga... Those guys were straight killers

Same thing with the post leonard/hearns era with curry, starling, McCrory, etc.. A lot of talent true welters...

The division when weak, always gets dominated by blown up lightweights,, much like early 90s when pernell ran it, and the division over the past few years...

The welter division is starting to comeback to life with natural welters like Brook, thurman. Porter, etc

In terms of the thread,, I think you gotta go with h2h and not so much resume, as resumes can be deceiving, as wlad's heavyweight reign is clearly more dominant that evander, lennox, foreman and bowe combined in the 90s...
When a division is stacked it's hard to dominat for any length of time and when it's shallow, jr welters can dominant over average welters for a longtime... Think floyd over Ortiz, ghost, Maidana, baldomir, Judah..
I doubt floyd or manny would have the same success in a deep welter division with true welters..

So in terms of h2h, who was the king welter,, I think the only logical answers are curry, Oscar, tito, Shane amd vernon...

Those 5 are clearly the best true welters since leonard/hearns

Using those five guys, I think if you had a round robin tournament, I think curry would come out on top..at his peak 84-86 he was about as well rounded fighter you could be.. He could box, he have power, and cleared out the division...


No one else ever cleared out a division
Floyd hasn't beaten margarito, manny, Bradley
Manny never beat floyd
Oscar didn't beat tito or shane
Tito never fought Ike or shane
Shane never beat forrest, tito, Ike
Forrest never beat tito, Oscar, mayorga


Curry is the only one that beat all the other champs in his era, and he was just as talented as anyone mentioned,, I believe he is the correct answer

[DosRounds]

Felix Trinidad

[soul_survivor]

What makes Pacquiao a better WW than Floyd? He's never been the man at WW or ever beaten the legitimate #1 guy? I find that an odd statement.

Also, those guys aren't better than Whitaker imo.

That's a good question and one that is pretty easy to answer, Pacquiao has beaten Cotto..in fact he annihilated him, he battered Clottey too and gave Bradley a schooling on two separate occasions, all of these guys were regarded as top 2-3-5 welters at the time.

It's not just who he beat, but also how he beat them. Floyd fans can try and twist it all they want with the Mosley win but we all know lineal doesn't mean best.

Curry ruined his career through drug abuse, but H2H at his very best I would pick him over anyone thats come since.

LOL no he couldn't, Floyd owuld be too savvy for him, Pacquiao too strong, too quick and too good, Oscar would jab and left hook him into oblivion and Tito would give him a war...and we all know Curry couldn't handle wars.

Please don't turn Curry into one of those boxingscene fantasy greats. He was a good fighter with some potential but he lacked grit, may have had some personal issues and was skilled enough to beat a decent group of fighters in a mediocre division post Leonard/Benitez/Duran/Hearns.

Oscar-Tito fought in one of the best welterweight division ever. Guys like Whitaker were present, Sr not at his best still had a stop over in the division, Quartey, Carr to name just a few. Mosley later on.

[The Viper]

This has been a great thread... A lot of good debate..

My 2 cents, is that you can't really say any welter of the last 10-12 years... The division was been pretty weak and dominated by lightweights and jr welters ie floyd, marquez, Bradley, manny, etc... Those guys are great fighters but not true welters..

The division did get hot around 07-08 with floyd, cotto, williams, margarito, shane, zab, clottey but for the most part I think it's been a weak division in terms of true welters since the 2000ish when it had tito, Oscar, Ike, shane, vernon, mayorga... Those guys were straight killers

Same thing with the post leonard/hearns era with curry, starling, McCrory, etc.. A lot of talent true welters...

The division when weak, always gets dominated by blown up lightweights,, much like early 90s when pernell ran it, and the division over the past few years...

The welter division is starting to comeback to life with natural welters like Brook, thurman. Porter, etc

In terms of the thread,, I think you gotta go with h2h and not so much resume, as resumes can be deceiving, as wlad's heavyweight reign is clearly more dominant that evander, lennox, foreman and bowe combined in the 90s...
When a division is stacked it's hard to dominat for any length of time and when it's shallow, jr welters can dominant over average welters for a longtime... Think floyd over Ortiz, ghost, Maidana, baldomir, Judah..
I doubt floyd or manny would have the same success in a deep welter division with true welters..

So in terms of h2h, who was the king welter,, I think the only logical answers are curry, Oscar, tito, Shane amd vernon...

Those 5 are clearly the best true welters since leonard/hearns

Using those five guys, I think if you had a round robin tournament, I think curry would come out on top..at his peak 84-86 he was about as well rounded fighter you could be.. He could box, he have power, and cleared out the division...


No one else ever cleared out a division
Floyd hasn't beaten margarito, manny, Bradley
Manny never beat floyd
Oscar didn't beat tito or shane
Tito never fought Ike or shane
Shane never beat forrest, tito, Ike
Forrest never beat tito, Oscar, mayorga


Curry is the only one that beat all the other champs in his era, and he was just as talented as anyone mentioned,, I believe he is the correct answer

Thank you sir and I agree with you 100%