Sugar Ray Leonard won a title at Light HW, Can You Imagine A WW Doing That Now?

Todays top welters are all 5'7" and void of any power. Thurman the "power puncher" just stop KOing opponents now that he's fighting warm bodies. Leonard was 5'10" and had a frame that could hold 165-70 if needed. Robinson fought at Middleweight for 11 years and held 160 nicely and had the lightheavy champ beat until heat exhaustion stopped him. Without power moving past 147 is hard to do! Ray

You are. You don't actually think Mike Tyson is 5ft 9, do you? 1 inch taller than Mayweather? What does it matter? He started at WW just like Leonard except instead of going to 168 he went to Crusierweight. I'm not disputing Hearns' achievements but I'm about your ability to comprehend text. I said "Dwarfs", which means: verb 3rd person present: dwarfs 1. cause to seem small or insignificant in comparison. "the buildings surround and dwarf All Saints church" synonyms: dominate, tower above, tower over, loom over, overlook, overshadow, overtop More I didn't mention height at all. Go back to school bud. He is much wider and stocky in comparison to RL. P.S Mike Tyson was 5"11 with shoes at most. There are still featherweights 5"11 and just because they're tall doesn't mean they can go up to a higher weight class. John Molina is 5"10 and a half and he weighs 153 on fight night. I doubt he'll ever make super middle.

No disrespect to SRL but no one remembers who was the first person to run the first sub-5-minute, they remeber the first sub-four-minute mile (roger bannister) Roy Jones jr went all the way from 154lb champion to heavyweight champion, SRL went to SMW. Like I said i dont mean any disrespect to SRL but if youre gonna hand out awards for someone going up in weight to win a title, Roy Jones Jr is the ONLY one to do what he did in the history of boxing. You could sorta say only Roy because there weren't light and super divisions back in the day. Bob Fitzsimmons won the Middleweight, Heavyweight, then dropped down to Light Heavyweight to win a title there. If Roy fought in Fitzsimmons era he would of never started at 154, would of always been a Middleweight. Fitzsimmons is THE ONLY guy to go from Heavyweight champion to dropping down to win the Light Heavyweight belt.

Paul Williams could have done it (168lbs), eventually. It's all about size and height. SRL was 5' 10", his debut weight was 141lbs, which is technically WW, so he started his career as a WW, which means he had a lot of room to go up because he was only going to grow bigger, he was a 21 year old, 5' 10" WW. Same with Tommy Hearns, he debuted at 147 with a 6'1" height, so he had a LOT of room to go up a bunch of weight classes. Now you can mention Roberto Duran all you want, and how short he was and how he started at the lower weights, but then that's why he is a top 15 ATG, if everyone could do what he did then he wouldn't be considered an ATG, would he? If what he did was common then he wouldn't have that badass/tough guy image. Which WW right now started above 140lbs and is 5' 10" or more? There is your answer on who could do that right now.

Considering SRL made Lalonde dry down to 167 kinda takes the the accomplishment a notch down.

:haha: Who's talking about height? Mike Tyson was 5" 9 according to many sources and there are featherweights like Amagasa who are 5" 10. Hearns dwarfs him in terms of stature. http://cozzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/cozzone_hearnsVSleonard_presser0105.jpg You are. You don't actually think Mike Tyson is 5ft 9, do you? 1 inch taller than Mayweather? What does it matter? He started at WW just like Leonard except instead of going to 168 he went to Crusierweight.

I love this thread! It tells me exactly who knows boxing and who doesn't!

Rewatched Leonard's fight with Lalonde for the WBC light heavyweight title, crazy stuff. The guy was huge and Ray admitted that every punch hurt, Donny looked like he was gonna get Leonard out of there multiple times but SRL made a comeback and even stopped the LHW. That is some serious power. Can you imagine a welterweight attempting that today? Fight is well worth the watch. Credit to John Molina Jr for recommending it. http://youtu.be/J8ucSrfueFc Can I imagine a Welterweight today going up to 165? Sure, if their frame was big enough. In case you missed it, Ray Leonard was a 5'10.5" welterweight (Tommy Hearns was 6'1 and went all the way up to cruiserweight). If you're tall enough and young enough, why not? Erickson Lubin is all of 19 years old and has fought at 147 (though will likely have his initial run at 154); by the time Lubin is 30 years old, I don't see why he wouldn't be able to fight 168/175, especially if he fills out well. He's already 5'11 and will likely still grow a bit more

Dumb F'N Post!!!!!!!!!1 Thats admirable, and I liked Sweet Pea, but floyd went from 130 to 154 and fought more champions than anyone in boxing and went Undefeated doing it, he took sweet pea's defensive style and took it to another level and made boxing fans appreciate that style, became the King of PPV #1-4 top PPV's maybe even top 5 and what he got paid in his last fight will probably never be broken in sales or his payday. Oh and a little nugget, floyd used to spar with sweet pea and get the best of him. But congrats to any boxer that laces them up Are you serious!? Floyd took Whitaker's style to another level?? Really? You don't know boxing, man. Between this post and the previous one about Roy out-doing SRL is down right "ignore list" worthy. You sound real stupid. He used to get the best of Whitaker in sparring, ey? He made the fans appreciate his style? Floyd did all of this??? How old are you? Are you foreign? Matter of fact, you are going to the blocked list. I cannot deal with such ignorance on here any longer.

How about Whitaker winning titles from 135 to 154?

No disrespect to SRL but no one remembers who was the first person to run the first sub-5-minute, they remeber the first sub-four-minute mile (roger bannister) Roy Jones jr went all the way from 154lb champion to heavyweight champion, SRL went to SMW. Like I said i dont mean any disrespect to SRL but if youre gonna hand out awards for someone going up in weight to win a title, Roy Jones Jr is the ONLY one to do what he did in the history of boxing. What Jones did was impressive, but it was John Ruiz not Lennox Lewis, who was the lineal champion at the time.

Hearns is 3 inches taller. And it doesn't matter anyway Hearns started at Welterweight like Leonard and went up to Crusierweight whereas Leonard went to Super Middleweight. :haha: Who's talking about height? Mike Tyson was 5" 9 according to many sources and there are featherweights like Amagasa who are 5" 10. Hearns dwarfs him in terms of stature. http://cozzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/cozzone_hearnsVSleonard_presser0105.jpg

Hmmmm........ No disrespect to SRL but no one remembers who was the first person to run the first sub-5-minute, they remeber the first sub-four-minute mile (roger bannister) Roy Jones jr went all the way from 154lb champion to heavyweight champion, SRL went to SMW. Like I said i dont mean any disrespect to SRL but if youre gonna hand out awards for someone going up in weight to win a title, Roy Jones Jr is the ONLY one to do what he did in the history of boxing. Roy Jones started his career at MIDDLEWEIGHT! Not Welterweight. So you are being disrespectful to SRL. Not only that, but Toney did the same thing Roy did. The only other fighter to do what SRL did from Welterweight, was Thomas Hearns I believe. He went up to Light Heavy against Virgil Hill. Remember him? He was a very good fighter.

No disrespect to SRL but no one remembers who was the first person to run the first sub-5-minute, they remeber the first sub-four-minute mile (roger bannister) Roy Jones jr went all the way from 154lb champion to heavyweight champion, SRL went to SMW. Like I said i dont mean any disrespect to SRL but if youre gonna hand out awards for someone going up in weight to win a title, Roy Jones Jr is the ONLY one to do what he did in the history of boxing. Roy Jones never won a title at 154.

Well he did get caught taking steroids so all the bulking up was illegal and should not count as he was exposed.....I like jones but he cheated and you cannot count that if he was juicing No he did not, he took ripped fuel which is an over the counter supplement. Its a banned substance but its not a steroid and its not used for building muscle.

SRR started at lightweight, and fought for the LHW title.

Paul Williams is the only recent WW to have the frame to move up that many weight classes and still have success. Obviously we'll never know, which is a crying shame. SRR fought for the LHW title coming in at 157lbs. A mans balls matter more than their frame.

Welterweights are Midgets today compared to Ray Leonard and Hearns ERA Ray Leonard was a legit 5'10 or 5'11, Hearns was 6'1 Welterweights Today? Mayweather 5'8, Pacquiao 5'6, Bradley, 5'5 Yep, and if THOSE guys were fighters among today's generation, guys such as Floyd, Pacquiao and Bradley wouldn't dare enter the WW division. They'd stay safely below at 140.

Welterweights are Midgets today compared to Ray Leonard and Hearns ERA Ray Leonard was a legit 5'10 or 5'11, Hearns was 6'1 Welterweights Today? Mayweather 5'8, Pacquiao 5'6, Bradley, 5'5

Hearns beating guys like Dennis Andries, Virgil Hill & Nate Miller is more boss to me