Sugar Ray Leonard is arguably one of boxing’s all-time greats.
The five-weight world champion is synonymous with his rivalries against Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, and Thomas Hearns, collectively known as the ‘Four Kings’.
Floyd Mayweather is regarded as one of the best boxers of the modern era, and he believes he is one of the greatest of all time.
Interestingly, Mayweather once left out two GOATs alongside Ray Leonard in his top five best of all time list, in favour of Duran.
Sugar Ray Leonard could not see Floyd Mayweather beating any of the ‘Four Kings’ in 2015
Even with his wins against Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao, and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, the 1976 Olympic gold medallist was more than confident ‘Money May’ wouldn’t get a victory over any of the fighters from his heyday.
In an interview with BoxHub.TV, in 2015, ‘Sugar’ assessed the chances of the 50-0 star.
He said: “I think Mayweather can compete with the four of us in my era, but a little more fire will come his way.
“Could he beat me? No, could he beat Tommy? I don’t think so, could he beat Marvin? No, could he beat Duran? No.”
The four incredible fighters had competed against each other in different combinations nine times across the 1980s, delivering some of the best action seen in boxing history.
Floyd competed in a very different era of the sport, where money and politics got in the way of making the right fights at the right time, with the 2015 Pacquiao fight a great example of a bout coming along too late in both boxers’ careers.
Leonard, though, did admit to the prowess of the Michigan man and explained why any fighter would believe they could beat greats from across history.
“But that being said, all due respect to Mayweather, who is an incredible technician, you ask him, he would say the same thing that he can beat our guys in my era,” he said.
“Fighters say that, fighters believe that, fighters believe they can beat anyone, and if you don’t say you can beat anyone, you are not a fighter.”
Who are the modern-day ‘Four Kings’ and why do they not stack up to the original?
Boxing has been crying out for a similar four fighters to step up to the plate and become the new kings of this generation.
Fans might argue that Teofimo Lopez, Gervonta Davis, Devin Haney, and Ryan Garcia are the equivalents of this era.
However, only three of those men, Garcia, Davis, and Haney, have competed against one another.
They cannot be compared to their predecessors because they have not all faced off in the ring to test their greatness, and likely they never will.
‘Tank’, with his win over Ryan, has had huge troubles outside the ring and has not moved past the lightweight division in his career.
While Lopez has achieved incredible success against Vasily Lomachenko, his struggles outside the ring and a few lacklustre performances have let him down.
‘King Ry’ had his win over Devin overturned due to an adverse finding in a drug test and lost to Rolly Romero; it seems only the ‘Dream’ is carving out his legacy in the right way.