By Norm Frauenheim, 15Rounds.com
LAS VEGAS – Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns were two of the defining faces of the 1980s. Floyd Mayweather Jr. calls himself the face of boxing, better than Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali and presumably better than either Leonard or Hearns.
To Leonard and Hearns, however, that Mayweather face looks like a beaten one if it had come along during their era.
“I really think Floyd would have been too small for us,’’ Hearns said Friday at a news conference that included Leonard, his current friend and old rival. “We were big welterweights.’’
Leonard agreed and added a twist of humor when asked to say how Mayweather would have fared against Hearns.
“I don’t think anybody could have beat Tommy Hearns but me,’’ said Leonard, who scored a 14th round stoppage of Hearns in a 1981 classic and fought him to draw in a 1989 rematch.
There’s some talk that boxing would be better off if Shane Mosley upsets Mayweather Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. It would create other big bouts, including Mosley versus Manny Pacquiao. If Mayweather beats Mosley, there is doubt that he and Pacquiao will ever agree on a deal. Talks for a Pacquiao-Mayweatherfight in March fell apart over Mayweather’s demands for Olympic-style drug testing.
No matter what happens in Mosley-Mayweather, neither Hearns nor Leonard foresee a time that would approach their era, which included Roberto Duran and Marvin Hagler.
“It just happened,’’ Hearns said. “It was nothing we planned. In our day, we couldn’t pick and choose. We couldn’t duck fights. We had to fight the next guy out there. And we always did. That why, that time is remembered, even now.’’
Source: 15rounds.com
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