'Sugar' Ray Leonard: I Favor Keith Thurman to Beat Danny Garcia

By Keith Idec

One of the best welterweights in boxing history favors Keith Thurman to beat Danny Garcia.

“Sugar” Ray Leonard, who’ll be part of CBS’ broadcast team Saturday night at Barclays Center, broke down why he thinks Thurman will win during a conference call Wednesday. Though the legendary Leonard picked Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs), of Clearwater, Florida, to defeat Philadelphia’s Garcia (33-0, 19 KOs), he admitted that he “wouldn’t bet my house” on his choice to win their welterweight title unification fight.

“I look at Keith and I’m going towards him right now,” Leonard said. “I’ve been watching over and over tapes of their fights, previous fights, and what have you. Again, they each bring something to the table. Keith Thurman, to me, seems to be a little bit more fundamentally sound than Danny Garcia. Danny Garcia, by the way, has a neutralizer. He has a powerful left hook. But one thing that I think is a big factor for the fight itself is both guys have great chins. They both can take punches. So put it this way, I wouldn’t bet my house on this fight.”

The 60-year-old Leonard will join blow-by-blow announcer Mauro Ranallo and analyst Al Bernstein at ringside for Saturday’s telecast from Brooklyn (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT). Leonard will fill in for Paulie Malinaggi (36-7, 7 KOs), who is scheduled to box England’s Sam Eggington (19-3, 11 KOs) in a 12-round welterweight fight on the David Haye-Tony Bellew undercard Saturday at O2 Arena in London.

Leonard, who won world titles in five weight classes, twice owned the same WBC world welterweight title Garcia possesses.

The International Boxing Hall of Famer first won it when he stopped Wilfred Benitez in the 15th round in November 1979. Leonard lost that title to Roberto Duran, who won a unanimous decision in their 15-rounder in June 1980, but beat Duran in their immediate rematch five months later to regain it.

The 1976 Olympic gold medalist would be surprised if Thurman doesn’t take that WBC welterweight title from Garcia on Saturday night.

“I do favor Thurman because he just seems to be a little bit more poised and collected,” Leonard said. “He just seems to be that kind of guy. First of all, he would never give up, nor Danny. But I just lean – it’s just my gut that tells me that Keith is a little bit more solid than Danny.”

Leonard does, however, think highly of Garcia, who is about a 2-1 underdog against Thurman.

“He’s just a guy that has that intestinal fortitude,” Leonard said. “He has heart – a big heart. And he doesn’t give in. I think he’s the kind of fighter that people shortchange him, but I look at him and he’s one of those fighters – and I’m not a trainer at all – but he’s the kind of fighter that I would enjoy training because he deserves to be up there.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.