Winky Wright beating Sugar Ray Leonard on a video game has some people very upset

Recently, the World Boxing Super Series has been running simulated tournaments through the old video game Fight Night Champion. They started with the heavyweights, which ran into controversy when a computerized version of Joe Frazier was pulled before his semifinal fight, and then Mike Tyson beat Muhammad Ali in the final. The tournament also featured such all-time heavyweight luminaries as Butterbean and David Haye.

A middleweight tournament has followed, and a first round result may have broken some brains.

Sugay Ray Robinson beating Fernando Vargas? Of course. Marvin Hagler beating Kelly Pavlik? Absolutely. Winky Wright stopping Sugar Ray Leonard in the ninth round?

Not just an upset, but a bridge too far for some people.

Wright, who went 51-6-1 (25 KO) in his career, was never known for his power. Leonard went 36-3-1 (25 KO) and was only ever stopped once, when he tried a 1997 comeback against Hector Camacho at the age of 40, six years after his last fight, which was a one-sided loss to Terry Norris.

The Leonard that fought Camacho was not representative of the “real” Ray Leonard, and being clear, the Leonard used in this tournament is a 24-year-old version, while Wright’s avatar is 39.

Wright stopping Leonard is incredibly unlikely, yes. I doubt many people would predict that as the finish if you asked about the fantasy matchup. But everything in video game fights is incredibly unlikely because they look nothing like real boxing.

Now, listen, most people are just going to chuckle and move on. But as I scrolled through the Instagram comments, I remembered this is the internet, where somebody can take anything seriously, and given the fact we are openly starved for content right now, here are some of my favorite reactions to a pretend fight on a video game:

• “It was at this very moment that we all realized that this post and game was bullshit.”
• “How old was Leonard 74?”
• “yall are fucking trash.”
• “Gtfoh. A 39 year old is not beating a prime 24 year old Leonard. Fuck you !!”
• “you lost all credibility with this outcome. Winky stopping Leonard??? He couldn’t crack an egg. SMH”
• “This has become so fraudulent guys. I have to unfollow you because I’m a real boxing fan. This is trash. A great idea with poor results.”

In the end, maybe it’s best our March Mania tournament didn’t provide much by way of real upsets.