Yeah, Ray hit harder than Floyd, but only when he wanted to, most of the time Ray was a runner not a fighter. That said, as much as it irks me to have to admit it, Ray was superior to Floyd, and just about any one else you can compare him too. The little **** was one of the greats, he has wins over Hagler, Hearns and Duran an accomplishment that almost defies reality. Leonard was such a gifted boxer, most people underestimated his power, but it was considerable.
Leonard indeed hit harder than Floyd Mayweather Jr. and other top welterweights of any era. His jab was powerful and his punch was even more so He was the first to kayo stop Floyd Mayweather, Sr., Javier Muniz, Pete Ranzany, Wilfred Benitez, Tommy Hearns, Ayub Kalule, Kevin Howard, Donnie Lalonde. I remember vividly a mighyly swing from Leonard turned Hearns into spaghetti legs in their first fight though it barely hit Tommy. Tommy was also almost out of his feet in their second fight declared a draw despite him shaking Leonard many times and even scoring a few knockdowns in that contest.
SRL wasn't a 1 punch KO artist like Hearns but he definitely had more power than Floyd as he was naturally bigger and threw more punches.
Sugar Ray Leonard was a natural welterweight who moved up to 175. Mayweather is small welterweight who began his career at 130 pounds. Floyd Jr was a destroyer at 130. Leonard too was effective at the weight he began in. Simply put, Leonard is stronger than Mayweather due to the fact he is bigger in all dimensions including weight.
Leonard knocked out the lightheavyweight champion Lalonde.
Duran had an iron chin, Hearns was 6'1''.
These were big men and ATG.
Mayweather has never knocked out a natural welterweight and he has never scored a ko against anyone at 154lbs [much less middleweight or lightheavyweight].
Miguel Cotto began as a lightwelterweight and is infamous for having a glass chin [Ricardo fight].
Floyd couldn't keep Cotto off of him.
Floyd has power at 135lbs-140lbs but above he has only kayod smaller men coming up.
Yup he did. His power was quite underrated and overshadowed by his boxing skills, but he did knock a lot of guys, bigger guys, out. Case in point was Donny Lalonde, a light-heavyweight.
SRL was also way more busy as a fighter.
Yes he did, as mentioned before, Ray was more explosive, and check out his fight with Davey"Boy"Green, where he coldcocked Green in the fourth round.
dude what are you smoking... cotto is always easly cut, but was he bleeding? when he was sacrificing his face just to push floyd to the ropes??? mosleys face aint even red after and so does the rest... give me one fighter floyd bled after he camebak from retirement??? floyd throws pillow punches... all he have is speed. a great chin, speed, stamina, and punching power will beat him
I'm a huge fan of SRL, but when guys like Skip Bayless talk about how SRL's power was so much greater than Floyd, well, SRL's power certainly did not discourage guys from getting inside and mixing it up with him. Duran had no trouble hitting him, and neither did Larry Bonds, Kalule, Hearns, Norris, etc. My point is that although Floyd does not appear to hit that hard, he hits hard enough to lump up faces, close eyes, and stun guys. If he were such a light hitter, why do guys's faces seem to jacked up after they lose to Floyd?
