Leonard: It’s about being the best

Sugar Ray Leonard, one of the great fighters of all time, has different ways to look at the much-anticipated clash between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Now 58, the five-division world champion said Pacquiao vs Mayweather taking place after being talked about for years will provide the big answer.

Who’s the best fighter of this generation?

“Now we’re talking legacy, authenticity. Being the best one,” Leonard told The Wall

Street Journal’s sports arm, The Daily Fix. A ton of money is on the table for the May 2 showdown at the MGM Grand, and some more to come after the fight.

Mayweather, the 47-0 favorite, can earn as much as $180 million while Pacquiao, the storm from across the Pacific, stands to get over $100 million.

If it’s about the money for Mayweather, it’s not for a certain few, including Pacquiao, who said this fight is for the fans who have waited long. Not for Leonard as well. “It’s more than the money, and there’s a lot money,” said Leonard, the first boxer in history to earn $100 million inside the ring.

The American who held titles in the welterweight up the light-heavyweight divisions also likened Pacquiao vs Mayweather to one of his own.

Pretty much like Leonard vs Hagler of 1987 and dubbed “Super Fight.”

“There are similarities to the (Marvin) Hagler fight and this one. It’s the significance of the fight,” said Leonard of the great battle that took place on April 6, 1987 at Caesars Palace in Vegas.

The fight just had to happen, like Pacquiao vs Mayweather.

“If I hadn’t fought Hagler, I would have been asked and he would have been asked, ‘How come y’all didn’t fight?’” Leonard told The Daily Fix.

Leonard, a 3-1 underdog, won the middleweight contest via split decision. No rematch ever took place. Hagler never asked.