Sugar Ray Leonard and Floyd Mayweather, JR., are two of a kind in many ways, many negative ways. It is unfortunate that two superb athletes such as this dynamic duo of Olympic graduates will often be more remembered for who they didn?t fight and for their premature, and oft-announced, retirements than they will for their genuinely substantial achievements in the ring and their overall contributions to boxing history.
When asked to consider the possible outcome of a fight between these slicksters with both at the height of their powers, I was concerned that I would linger on the negatives too long and describe a tedious chess match in an article that would put a conference of merchant bankers to sleep after one paragraph. Only after about two months of mulling over the hypothetical clash in my mind did I start to focus on the potential of one of the two protagonists to force such a seemingly uninviting contest to become a ?fight for the ages.? Then I simply started to write and didn?t stop until the piece was nailed because I grew more excited by the clash of styles and the psychology involved with these two intriguing personalities as I wrote. This article is obviously, as we are dealing with a hypothetical match-up, purely the opinion of one fan and this is one boxing fan who has never been too impressed by either of these guy?s attitudes to the fans or their opponents.
The first issue to be considered is the weight division these two would meet at. The obvious choice is welterweight given that Ray never fought lower than 147 pounds as a professional and certainly wasn?t ever in a rush to take on the great Aaron Pryor. In the Olympics of 1976 Leonard fought at junior welterweight but he was just an underdeveloped kid then whilst Floyd fought at featherweight in Atlanta in 1996. Ray took gold but Floyd was basically cheated in his semi-final match and ended up with a Bronze Medal.
Whichever way you look at it, Ray would have the size advantage and, given that Floyd started off as a world title holder at super-featherweight, the discrepancy seems to mirror the outrageous one proposed for the possible Oscar-Manny bout which is being roundly condemned by experts throughout the trade.
Looking at the overall career achievements of these two charismatic, if problematic, characters one finds that they both won six world titles at five different weights though Leonard?s 9th round TKO victory over Donny Lalonde in 1988 for both the WBC Super Middleweight and Light Heavyweight Titles maybe puts Jose Sulaiman?s feigned outrage over the Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao bout into some perspective. Leonard?s overall career record was 36-3-1, 25 KO?s, and he was stopped in his final ill-advised outing by none other than Hector Camacho. Floyd, meanwhile, has managed to get out with no defeats and sports a perfect record of 39-0, 25 KO?s. As usual with statistics, however, they do not tell the full story.
As a side issue to this feature, I would advise Floyd to look at Sugar Ray?s habit of retiring and then returning and consider that, whilst Leonard got lucky with (the obviously declining) Marvin Hagler, ring rust is an unknown intangible that gym work does not reveal. The Terry Norris (he could have stopped Leonard whenever he wanted in the later rounds) and Hector Camacho results tell the real story. Bottom line: if this retirement is not for real Floyd, make the return sooner rather than later. I hate to see great fighters looking a shadow of their former selves.
So we are seeing this fight at welterweight so let?s look at Leonard?s and Mayweather?s credentials at the weight. Ray fought the brilliant all-time Puerto Rican great Wilfred Benitez and gritted out his way to a 15th round TKO to win the WBC Title. He then fought a dumb-assed fight with the legend that is Roberto Duran to lose the belt but regained the title with a dazzling boxing and psychological display over Duran by 8th round TKO. Finding time to win a light-middle title, Leonard stopped the excellent Ayub Kalule in the 9th round before returning to welter for his unification bout with the unbeaten Tommy Hearns which he won in spirited form in the 14th round. Yes I wish he had given Hearns a rematch as soon as Tommy wanted one and that showed a lack of class but let?s look in detail at the opposition he faced.
Wilfred Benitez had started out as a light welter and became the youngest ever world champion when he won a split decision over the excellent Antonio Cervantes but, when he won his WBC title from Carlos Palomino, he was clearly a genuine welterweight. His subsequent success at junior-middle proves that his move through the weight divisions was an entirely natural progression.
A still ?live? Marvin Hagler had his hands full at middleweight with Roberto Duran in 1983 and Leonard faced this force of nature three years earlier at welter. Before any Mayweather fans start emailing me, I will not accept any argument that relies upon Duran starting at lightweight as an attempt to make Floyd Mayweather, JR?s opponents at welterweight look more respectable. Duran is Duran, to call him a ?force of nature? is probably to do this brilliant fighter a great disservice, he is beyond nature. To take Duran on in a brawl and still end up losing only on points is simply heroic until one considers how Leonard neglected his natural abilities and then it just becomes stupid. He made no such mistake in the rematch. Then Leonard took on and mastered one of my favorite fighters of all time, Tommy Hearns, to capture the WBA Welterweight Title. Yes we had Dave Green, Bruce Finch and then the ?comeback? with Kevin Howard but had Leonard proved himself at welterweight? Oh yes, and then some?.
Floyd started out in a much lower weight division but, largely due to Leonard, Hearns and Duran, the idea of becoming multiple weight division champions had become fashionable and, more importantly, highly profitable. Oscar went off in search of ?bigger game? and each subsequent generation of fighter has prided itself more and more over the issue of how many divisions it has held titles in. With a few admirable exceptions, not many fighters have hung around long enough in a given weight division to actually make the claim that they have ?cleaned it out? and actually dominate it before moving onto the next weight division. Floyd, sadly given his sublime ring abilities, is in danger of falling into this category. When Floyd was at light-welter, The Man was Kostya Tszyu and the two never met for whatever reason. At welter what did Floyd do?
Floyd?s first fight above light-welter was against the fading force of former light-welter Sharmba Mitchell who Tszyu had stopped in 3 rounds. Floyd took 6 rounds. Next up was a title challenge against the irrepressible Zab Judah for the IBF and vacant IBO belts. Judah, another former light-welter, had lost to Kostya Tszyu in 2 rounds (that?s the result regardless of Judah?s mental state) and would go on to lose to welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto in 11 rounds in June last year. Floyd won his first world titles at welterweight via unanimous decision over Judah in 2006.
Floyd then took on Carlos Baldomir who should be regarded as a genuine bona fide welterweight for the WBC Title and won by UD again. Baldomir has gone on to lose to Vernon Forrest for the WBC Junior Middleweight Title. Floyd?s next ?test? in the higher weights was a rise to junior middle to challenge Oscar De La Hoya for the WBC Title. Floyd won in this ?super fight?, which probably contributed greatly to the decline in interest in boxing in the USA due to the huge promise that both fighters failed to deliver on of an explosive fight. Yes the money came through but will the same people pay out again when they are approached with yet another ?super fight?? What they got was a split decision victory by a young man at the top of his game against an old man who shouldn?t have still been fighting.
For his ?grand finale?, Floyd chose to pick up the challenge thrown down by the generally accepted light-welterweight champion of the world, England?s Ricky Hatton. I must admit that I had picked Ricky to beat Floyd but, when I saw them together in the ring, the size difference sent a shudder through me. It also made me wonder why Floyd?s results at the higher weight division hadn?t been more emphatic. Floyd won by 10th round TKO and then, whilst Oscar was still planning their pointless rematch, Floyd apparently retired from boxing.
Had Floyd proved himself the ?Guvnor? at welterweight before he announced his retirement? Well, there were guys like Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Kermit Cintron and Paul Williams who wanted to see him in the other corner whilst he was fighting a diet of former light-welters and old men. Hell no, Floyd certainly never ruled the welters. So how would Floyd have coped with Sugar Ray Leonard in his prime at welterweight?
This fight would have started out as the chess match I mentioned earlier but Leonard would, very quickly, have realized that he had more physical strength than Floyd as the naturally bigger fighter and begun to take more risks to get inside. Based purely on records, Leonard was the bigger hitter of the two at welterweight and he was a supremely adaptable fighter, capable of becoming a puncher or a brawler when required. Floyd?s natural (and marginal) advantage in terms of speed would become less of a factor as the fight wore on and Leonard would have cornered a worn-down Mayweather around the 8th round and be starting to unload at will and with destructive effect. Due to Mayweather?s heritage in terms of fighting spirit it will probably take a referee?s intervention to retrieve him and his senses from a lighting fast and endless barrage of punches from the naturally bigger man.
I have based the above on four criteria:
Speed: Leonard, 8, Mayweather 10
Power: Leonard, 10, Mayweather, 6
Grit: Leonard, 10, Mayweather, 10
Attitude: Leonard, 7, Mayweather, 5
?Grit? refers to how much a guy is willing to give in the ring to win the fight.
?Attitude? refers to how they feel about the sport and, whilst Floyd has repeatedly said he feels he is the greatest fighter of all time, Leonard has a more accurate understanding of his place in history and a genuine desire to protect that.
At the end of the day my judgment here is not just based on how I see these two squaring up, it is also an issue of how they would manage against the current crop of brilliant welterweights who were all calling Mayweather out at the time of his retirement and before. Leonard would have succeeded in this division. Mayweather would not and I suspect that is why he chose the fights he did and then got the hell out of the whole deal. Welterweight is a hot place to be right now and, as a fan, I am so happy that we do not have guys like Mayweather tying up titles and wasting our time with mega-bucks promotions that are pointless. The welterweights are the real deal and I welcome it. Goodbye Floyd, I ain?t missing ya?.
