Sugar Ray Leonard VS Mayweather,pick one plz

[RayLeonard82]

I don't recall SRL ever fighting a fighter with great speed, defense and was very intelligent. Yea Hearns was a great offensive fighter, but what about defense, what about thinking in the ring?

I look at the fights with Larry Bonds and especially Ayub Kalule.

Ray got hit a lot by counterpunches in that Kalule fight and i had the fight 5-3 before Ray stopped him in round 9. Ray can be hit.

Floyd is just as good a defensive fighter as Benitez, but much better offensively.

[RayLeonard82]

If you watch that Benitez fight again, SRL kept throwing that same jab and overhand right hand which kept missing over and over (Shane Mosley). The thing with Benitez was he punched so wide and just had average offensive speed, so he couldnt take advantage of Ray's mistakes. Ray ended up beating him with volume.

Not sure if volume alone beats Floyd. Mayweather is gonna make Ray pay more when he misses than Benitez did. Straight right hands...Lead upercuts

Had Ray ever seen a quick lead upercut before? Different era

[BrotherDudeJack]

If you watch that Benitez fight again, SRL kept throwing that same jab and overhand right hand which kept missing over and over (Shane Mosley). The thing with Benitez was he punched so wide and just had average offensive speed, so he couldnt take advantage of Ray's mistakes. Ray ended up beating him with volume.

Not sure if volume alone beats Floyd. Mayweather is gonna make Ray pay more when he misses than Benitez did. Straight right hands...Lead upercuts

Had Ray ever seen a quick lead upercut before? Different era

Some good points in this post.

[Champ Is Here]

Somebody just compared Benitez to Mayweather. Would that be fair to call them a hater?

SRL didnt start whaling on Hearns till what the 11th round. If it wasnt for that 15 rd b.s he woulda lost period. And Hearns wasnt even moving around. He stood in the middle and just did his thing. Jabbed and moved. Jab dodge. In the middle rounds he stopped throwing cause early on he seen his punches was missing and wasn't doing any damage. SRL didnt go in till it became clear his legs was dying. We talking about a fighter who causes others fighters to throw less cause of his counter puncher ability. Dont compare him to his father. His father wasn't as fast, as good as a counter puncher, nor as good as defense. His father was just all shoulder roll

I also like to say I dont think neither would win by a UD. Too much talent, too much determination, too much smarts to let someone just beat the **** outta them. Come on now

[fabie]

Wow, this is really interesting...

I would say that SRL haven't fought a defensive fighter like Mayweather while Mayweather haven't fought as skilled and as offensive fighter with SRL.

It can go either way and the thing that we can never tell is the uncanny timing of both's punches. In Mayweather's extreme favor would be his elusiveness in not getting hit, while SRL's extreme favor would be his timing and combinations.

I think that Mayweather would have a very slight edge due to his evasion skills. He is simply unhittable but SRL's footworks and combinations could probably find its target and when it does, he can follow it up.

So I think it will be a toss up but a SD to Mayweather. But I will give SRL's punchers' chance in even flooring Mayweather if he can zero in on him and follow it up (which is one of his forté and one of the best at that in the annals of boxing).

In reality this could be a very technical fight, a chess match.

[RayLeonard82]

One last thing on the Benitez fight. Watch how Ray keeps that left hand low, and when he jabs to the body, he bends his head down a lot.

The straight right hand is actually wide open if Benitez had that in his arsenal, and so is the upercut.

Ray would have to keep that left hand up if he fought Floyd, because he would catch straight right hands all night. He was able to defend Hearns right hand because it was predictable. Tommy would jab, then right. Ray figured that out.

Floyd is different. He might fent, fent, fent, move then BOOW straight right hand...or, fent, fent, block, block, BOW lead upercut. He doesn't give you a chance to predict when it's coming which makes it harder to defend.

Harder to figure out where Floyd's punches are coming from.

Hearns and Hagler were big names, but i think Floyd would be a tougher matchup for Ray because he was intelligent in the ring as well.

[Check_hooks]

SRL would beat Mayweather 12 rounds to 0. It would be the most one sided fight ever.

[Clint650]

This.

Nothing worse than reading ''LOL SRL eazy peezy'' over and over.

The fact that we're comparing one of the best welterweights of all time in his first weightclass, to one of the best SFW's of all time in his fourth weightclass is a massive and deserving compliment to Floyd.

good point. we have yet to see Floyd in a close fight after moving up to SLW and WW and he's proven that so far no matter who he's in the ring with the stats will prove that they werent capable of fighting their fight. that is boxing, its a chess match its not checkers. its amazing that the public has catapulted such a fighter to the heights that he has reached. thats why he gets thrown in so many scenerios.

[fabie]

anyone else also? It is very intruiging since I grew up in the late 70s and 80s....and now I can retrospectively compare...

[serv]

The only real defense is active defense", meaning defense for the purpose of counter-attacking and taking the offensive.

Some martial arts emphasise attack over defence. Wing Chun, for example, is a style of Kung Fu which uses the maxim: "The hand which strikes, also blocks."

Therefore, the best defense is offense. This is the time honored principle in any kind of conflict. If you have a good offence, the enemy will have less to attack you with in the end. Bring the fight to enemy, meaning don't go on the defensive, attack them as soon as possible, don't give them time to organise against you.

This theory is used for all things, not just battles. The best defense is a good offense. Always make the enemy fight on your terms.

Between a good defensive fighter and good offensive one, the offensive oriented fighters will win most of the time.

I will go for offensive Sugar Ray Leonard beating defensive floyd.