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

[Scipio2009]

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

[Sosay]

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

[MRCHOKEaMF]

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.

Awesome!
I never talk to you anyway...and yes going from 154 to the heavyweight championg is better than going to SMW, people have moved to various weight classes, only one has gone from 154 to heavyweight champion. Its on one of those documentaries they were showing (that he used to spar with sweet pea and get the better of him)before he outclassed your guy (yeah I know youre still mad, and its the true reason for your outburst) Sweet Pea was very defensive and Floyd has taken it to another level, and PPPUUUULEEAASEE BLOCK ME, I DONT TALK TO YOU IDIOTS ANYWAY.....BYE DUMBASS AND STAY BUTT-HURT SALTINE.

[IronDanHamza]

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/upload...resser0105.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.

[deanrw]

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

[-Kev-]

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.

[SlySlickSmooth]

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.

[SalimShady1212]

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.

[Ray Corso]

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