You have said that Leonard punches harder than De La Hoya. Well the next level up from De La Hoya on the Welterweight punching scale is Felix Trinidad.
And I stick by that. Oscar was a devastating puncher at 135-140. Once he moved up to 147, the myth of a devastating puncher followed him, but he was never a big puncher at 147. A level up from Oscar at 147 is NOT Tito. Donald Curry was a bigger puncher at 147 than Oscar. I know you'll laugh that off cause you hate Curry, but it's true. Resumes and performances don't lie. Leonard was a bigger puncher than Oscar. Oscar TEED OFF on Gatti and hit him with literally EVERYTHING he had and Gatti was stopped on his feet. Leonard teeing off on Gatti, and you woulda seen Arturo go out JUST LIKE Davey Green.
I have to say X, your reasoning is rather irritating. You make assertions based on assumptions and act as though it's based on evidence. I could argue that if Oscar hit Hearns with the punches Leonard hit him with in the 13th and 14th rounds that hearns wouldn't have been stopped on his feet but rather would have been Hagler'ed! However I can't prove that anymore than you can prove your statement.
Oscar is reasonably competitive. Wins 3 or 4 out of 12, 4 or 5 out of 15. As far as Oscar lasting the distance, I don't know. DLH had a very good chin and stellar defense. Leonard had good power, not huge power, but his left hook was outstanding and he was one of the great finishers in history. Obviously it depends on how tired Oscar is and how hard Leonard presses for the stoppage. Oscar's stamina wasn't the greatest. I think Oscar was somewhat lucky that they shifted to 12 rounds. In some instances, where people do hypotheticals regarding 12/15 rounds, people forget that fighters will react differently to the situation at hand and fight accordingly since they know the fight is 12/15 rounds. They may pace themselves differently, turn on the attack at different points in the fight since they know how much time is left. Some instances with Oscar though, I can't see this being the case. It was simply a matter of DLH fatiguing, perhaps due to him not being a relaxed fighter in the ring. Oscar admitted on more than one occasion that he was tired against Trinidad in the late rounds and that his legs were shaking. He started running in round 9, although he did come back to land a nice right hand late in round 9. Rounds 10-12 were more of him playing stay-away from Tito. If this were scheduled for 15, I don't see it being a case where much is different and he paces himself for 15 rounds. The fight was not fought at a fast pace. He didn't take too many shots. Not much bodywork to slow Oscar down. He was tired from using his legs, perhaps being tense, and simply not being gifted with the best stamina. He faded in the latter rounds of both Mosley fights (although I credit Mosley for bodywork) and Mayweather. He finished very strong against Quartey, but he also spent rounds 7 through 11 doing largely NOTHING. A fighter should have a lot of energy left in the 12th if they are as inactive as Oscar was in previous 5 rounds. Same with against MAGO. He finished strong, but the precious 2-3 rounds, he wasn't doing much, he was actually being very cautious and staying away from Gonzalez. So a stoppage win for Ray wouldn't surprise me. I could see Ray wanting to "close the show" against the fatigued Crossdresser.
Good post. I don't see Oscar being all that competitive though. Oscar's number one attribute was always his speed. Leonard was much faster, but only faster of hand/foot, but of MIND as well. Leonard's brain just saw openings and exploited them much quicker than Oscar's brain did. As Erratic said, Oscar was often tense, even stiff in there at times. Leonard was always loose, fluid, and cool as ice. Which likely played a factor in Ray having great stamina and Oscar lacking it.
