While we’ll never see a prime Sugar Ray Leonard face Floyd Mayweather, Jr., we did see Ray take on Floyd’s father in 1978.

Duan and I are embarking on a podcast project that will start later this year. Our inspiration is the fantastic George Kimball book, “Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing.

What we’re going to do is record podcasts around all the fights between the four men. We’ll discuss what was going on at the time of the fight, the fight in general, and the aftermath. We’re going to start with the first Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran fight.

While doing research, I came across the video of the fight above between Ray and Floyd Sr. It was Ray’s 14th fight and he was still undefeated. Mayweather, four years the elder, had only lost once previously, but wasn’t much more active than Leonard was.

The fight is an amazing display of speed and athleticism for Leonard. If you don’t want to watch the entire thing, fast forward to the 8th round where Leonard starts to pour it on. Knowing that it wasn’t likely that Mayweather was going to hurt him, he starts to dig in. By the 10th round, you see classic Sugar Ray hand and foot speed. It’s a classic performance.

If you haven’t read Kimball’s book, it’s a must-read for boxing fans. It’s a must-read for older boxing fans who no longer follow the sport. It’s a must-read for sports fans. Did I miss anyone?