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Another unpopular opinion here no doubt but I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up with a similiar tally to robinson maybe not quite as good. I don't need to talk about his speed and movement but leonard had underrated power too (obviously not enough to stop lamotta lol but enough to bother him at least)and the guy just knew how to pull out the win. Another question worth asking would be who else would have achieved such a record against Duran,Hearns and Hagler.
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honestly, the weight is the only issue i see. lamotta was naturally the larger man, being the career MW come LHW.
lamotta's style isnt going to give a boxer like ray leonard problems
a boxer with a style like leonard's gives the boxer like lamotta the issues. i'm confident that it would be leonard landing the cleaner punches.
the issue becomes the size. can/could leonard hurt him without depleting himself? could he keep up a point scoring pace over 15 rounds?
he's a moving target going against a fighter that wants to stand still
the boxer usually dictates the pace in those confrontations.
jake lamotta is a great great boxer
he was one of my favorites growing up. when i used to box thats how i used to have to fight.
but he's overrated.
i think they split the fights
considering that leonard's best weight was certainly WW, i think that takes away from lamotta some, and it should.
though i thought he lost the fight, a faded leonard did well against an also faded hagler, who, when you think about it, does everything as well or better than lamotta
he had the chin
he was a harder puncher by a country mile
much quicker of hand and foot and upper body
southpaw
he could brawl
he was a terrific boxer
and he had more length and height and as much physical strength
over 12 rounds i think leonard picks his spots to land the eye catching stuff (flurries, flashy single shots, he might make lamotta miss by a country mile a few times, or use his legs and end up behind him, etc) while not really taking it to lamotta
maybe lamotta wins one out of three if he could catch up to ray in a 15 round fight and let some work to the body accumulate and win a close decision.
he wasnt a huge puncher, either.
if he proved me wrong, though, and caught up to leonard and got the ring to shrink it would be a classic.Comment
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