{"id":864123,"date":"2026-08-22T07:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864123\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T07:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:38:13","slug":"usyk-says-one-welterweight-champion-wouldve-beaten-mayweather-leonard-and-robinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864123\/","title":{"rendered":"Usyk says one welterweight champion would’ve beaten Mayweather, Leonard and Robinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> doubts that Floyd Mayweather, Sugar Ray Leonard<\/a> or even Sugar Ray Robinson<\/a> would have been able to defeat a fellow all-time great.<\/p>\n

Of the three, many would say that Robinson was the most accomplished, given his victories over 10 eventual Hall of Famers including Jake LaMotta and Randolph Turpin.<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s remarkable 199-fight career also underlines his longevity, with periods of dominance at welterweight and middleweight inspiring many to regard him as the sport\u2019s greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time.<\/p>\n

Others, meanwhile, will argue that Leonard was the most complete fighter when it came to offensive and defensive prowess.<\/p>\n

That he also defeated all three of his fellow Four Kings \u2013 Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler<\/a> \u2013 makes it difficult to back any fighter to defeat a prime version of the American.<\/p>\n

And the same, of course, could be said for Mayweather, who became a five-division world champion and retired after crafting an iconic record of 50-0.<\/p>\n

But despite the extraordinary achievements of these three legends, Usyk has predicted that a prime Terence Crawford<\/a> would have the beating of them all.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Daily Mail Sport<\/a>, the Ukrainian backed his fellow modern great who, like Mayweather, retired as an unbeaten five-weight world champion.<\/p>\n

The announcement of his exit arrived last December, just a few months after he became a three-division undisputed king by dethroning Canelo Alvarez at 168lbs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prior to that, Crawford had consolidated his welterweight supremacy by scoring a surprisingly one-sided ninth-round stoppage over Errol Spence Jr<\/a> in 2023, though many will continually argue that this was a compromised version of \u2018The Truth\u2019.<\/p>\n