The super-duper ultimate Lightweight round robin

When I first started reading these boards, I had in my mind that the title of king of the lightweights was a two horse race, with the Great Benny Leonard in one corner squaring off against the stone-handed Panamanian Duran in the other. However, over time there have been several excellent articles and discussions on the subject that have forced both the Old Master Joe Gans, and the Lavishly gifted Pernell Whitaker into my consideration. So with this in mind, how do you think a prime for prime round robin tournament would end up? For me this would be a helpful exercise in ranking the fighters, as I do place some importance on hypothetical head-to-heads (it just seems weird to rank one fighter above another who you think would batter them). So how do you see the individual matches going and does this kind of hypothetical exercise have any influence over your ranking of the 4?

Duran owns all Duran See all Duran KILL ALLL AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

Chris will be on here soon to try and tell you Whitaker will win this, his loyalty is charming but it is also misplaced. The Ghetto Wizard wins this one, the key for me is adaptability, there is a nice old mix of styles in there with the intensity of Duran, the pure technique of Leonard and the power and speed of Gans but for me adaptability is the key and Leonard is the guy who has the edge in that, he is the only guy who can stay in close with Duran in close, can unlock the puzzles Whitaker causes everyone and match Gans for speed, add into that his power which whilst not nuclear is certainly enough to get anyones respect and in a round robin Leonard prevails in my opinion, but that said I do consider him top of the pile at lightweight, but I should say there is perhaps not another division where the margins between the top few are so close.

Fair analysis, do you think he'd drop any losses out of his three fights?

I'm not sure about including Gans. He was probably as close to fighting in the style we recognise now as anyone of his generation but it really was a different sport when he fouight and it makes head to head comparisons difficult. Gans certainly a top 5 (arguably top 3) at the weight but I'd find it impossible to assess his chances against the others.

To mix it up a little I'd be tempted to put in someone post Whitaker like Mayweather or Mosley.

couldn't bring myself to include Mayweather since his two most famous fights at lightweight are two fairly average performances against Jose Luis Castillo. Mosley is an interesting idea, but I think the bulk of his legacy also lies at Welterweight.

Well Rowley (loving the new screen name, old bean), Whitaker was the only one of this particular quartet who never lost at 135 lb, if we discount the disgusting heist which was the first Ramirez 'verdict'......



I think it's a three-way shooutout between Duran, Benny and Whitaker in any case, both in a hypothetical round robin such as this and also in terms of who has the greatest record at Lightweight. Gans wouldn't be too far off, but Benny and Whitaker were both similar specimens to him but with the added advantage of being a touch bigger and competing in eras where there were a better mix of styles and opponents on offer.

Duran, Leonard and Whitaker all have great credentials for winning this, but I'd just tend to edge towards Whitaker as he was the quickest of the three, and speed may play a major part in trying to sort the great 'little men' of history. Whitaker a 51-49 favourite against Duran for me, 55-45 against Leonard, with Duran edging out Benny by a similarly small margin. Ask me on another day, and I might come up with a totally different order but, crucially, always similar margins. Hardly anything between any of them.