BEAT MANNY AND FLOYD’S A GREAT LIKE ME AND ALI
Leonard: Mayweather set for legend status JEFF POWELL
Sugar ray Leonard, widely regarded as one of the three best boxers ever, believes Floyd Mayweather is about to join Muhammad ali, Sugar ray robinson and himself in the pantheon of all-time greats.
This is t he destiny which Leonard himself predicted for Mayweather when he saw Floyd Jnr starting out on his professional career.
The opportunity to fulfil that promise comes for Mayweather against Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas on Saturday night in the richest fight in ring history.
Leonard is not assuming victory for Mayweather. He warns: ‘ The winner will be the fighter who brings his a-game and his mental and spiritual calm into the ring. But this is Floyd’s chance to cement all that he has been saying about himself as ‘The Best Ever’. This can be his fulfilment.’
That prospect, the enormity of the occasion and the probability that this will live up to expectation as the greatest fight of recent years has Leonard highly excited.
‘My palms will be sweating as I walk into the stadium on Saturday night,’ he says. ‘ Just like all the fans. When it’s this big, it’s scary for everyone.’
The parallel with Leonard’s own epic battle with Marvin Hagler is striking and he knows how Mayweather and Pacquiao will be feeling as they enter the MgM grand garden arena.
‘The fighters aren’t scared in the usual sense of the word,’ he says. ‘But when you know you are going up against one of the great boxers in the world, you are concerned. You can’t be certain of what you are facing until you get hit.
‘It’s like when I fought Tommy Hearns the first time. I knew he was a hard puncher but I didn’t realise how hard until his first punch landed. These guys can’t be sure what they are up against until they get in there. They will both be concerned but not afraid.
‘Manny has been round the block a few times, has a great trainer in Freddie roach and he’ll be ready.
‘Floyd has fought here often and he feeds off the big stage, like myself and ali used to do. The bigger the stage, the better for him.’
Mayweather has been under fire here for his record of domestic abuse but Leonard has nothing but praise for him as a boxer.
He says: ‘When I first watched him and met him I knew he would be great. I looked into his eyes and saw something that told me. So I told him: “Son, you’re going to be something special”.
‘He has that mean streak that all us champions have, that will and determination not to be beaten, the spirit of the real fighter. Floyd marches to his own drummer but that’s OK. He’s a narcissist. He says whatever is on his mind. There’s no filter. He’s a trashtalker but he backs it up so I respect that.
‘In fact, I’m deeply impressed by him. His ring generalship, the way he works out his opponents and then breaks them d o wn. Outstanding.
‘Defensively boring? Not for me. I regarded myself as an artist and I appreciate Floyd’s artistry. I love watching him fight.’
Not that Leonard is anything but admiring of Pacquiao: ‘If he can bring back the speed and the power he had against Oscar de la Hoya and Miguel Cotto, we are in for a very interesting fight. There could also be a few surprises for the fans, like maybe a couple of knock-downs late on.
‘He reminds me a lot of myself. HeH wants to help everybody. unfortunately we can’t help the whole world.
‘But he gives so much to so many people. Like me, he finds the toughest thing is to say no.
‘ I’ ve given away millions of dollars and now I’m focused on my foundation for juvenile diabetes. PacquiaoP and me — we give back.’
He also expects the PacMan to give his all, unhampered by the brutal knockout he suffered against Juan Manuel Marquez.
‘Most fighters would never be the same again after a KO like that,’ says Leonard. ‘But Manny is an anomaly. There will be no self doubt. If it’s true that Floyd’s legs are slowing down then Pacquiao is the one who could take advantage.
‘We all slow down at some point as we get older, but each of us is the last to know. We don’t admit it until we suddenly get hit by a punch we wouldn’t have been hit by earlier.’
But he does not subscribe to the popular view that this fight has come five years too late with Mayweather 38 and Pacquaio 36.
‘They said that about me and Hagler,’ says Leonard. ‘I’d been out of the ring for pretty much five years. Now I expect this one to be a great fight, too.
‘all great fighters have one last big fight in them. This is more than a fight. More than a world championship event. This is for bragging rights, legacy, history.’
and who wins? The greatest star of the golden age of middling-weights boxing chuckles and says: ‘The one who is perfect on the night.’