Its simply a different name for the same species. We only have one species of big cat in North America (aside from a few Jaguars that have actually been spotted entering southern Arizona).
Real Leopards only exist in Africa.
And India. Look up Jim Corbett.
Read the article. Nowhere does it say the cat was a native American species. The man who advertised the “close encounter” had a license to possess the animal which the FWC states is a Black Leopard. Whether the animal was bred here or imported I don’t know. But it was not a Florida Panther.