I think he's a better boxer than any of them ever was and that had he came along in their era, he would've beaten each and every one of them. It seems to me that Leonard is viewed as being the best because he beat Hearns and Duran decisively, and Hagler controversially, and I think Floyd is better than Sugar Ray in many ways. For example his inside game is better, his defence is much better and he is smarter also. Floyd never would've made the ****** mistake of standing toe-to-toe with Duran. I thought Hagler beat Leonard and I see him as being the biggest threat to Floyd, but I think Mayweather would've broken him down in the middle and late rounds and won a competitive/close decision.
I'm not saying it would've been easy work for him to beat these guys, but none of them would've been able to cope with his defence, versatility, ring intelligence and laser-accurate punches. People like to point to resume and use it to define greatness but it's not Floyd's fault that he came along in this era, and his resume is much closer to those guy's resume's than most people are willing to admit. He's faced over 25 world class boxers, 17 world champions and has only had 2 close fights which were almost 10 years ago. That speaks for itself and tells me that he would be great in any era, because very very few boxers in history have dominated the competition like he has. Whatever you think of him outside the ring, you can't deny that he is one of the best boxers ever. Does he have the greatest resume of all time? No. Absolutley not. But in terms of skills and overall boxing attributes, he could very well be the GOAT.
I'm not saying it would've been easy work for him to beat these guys, but none of them would've been able to cope with his defence, versatility, ring intelligence and laser-accurate punches. People like to point to resume and use it to define greatness but it's not Floyd's fault that he came along in this era, and his resume is much closer to those guy's resume's than most people are willing to admit. He's faced over 25 world class boxers, 17 world champions and has only had 2 close fights which were almost 10 years ago. That speaks for itself and tells me that he would be great in any era, because very very few boxers in history have dominated the competition like he has. Whatever you think of him outside the ring, you can't deny that he is one of the best boxers ever. Does he have the greatest resume of all time? No. Absolutley not. But in terms of skills and overall boxing attributes, he could very well be the GOAT.
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