If Duran had beaten Hagler...

Umm, no. That one fight isnt gonna change him to GOAT.

 

exactly. it would have much more impact on hagler's stock than duran's. as it stands, that fight, that performance from hands of stone is used as an example of his greatness. a clear decision win MIGHT bump him top 5 all time but i doubt it. i think he'd still be where he is but hagler would take a massive fall

 

No, the only shot anybody really has had at overtaking SRR since Robby left the game in popular opinion might have been immediately after RJJ decisioned Ruiz, but Roy blew it by failing to walk away after Tarver I. Following Jones-Ruiz though, he did seem to have a window of opportunity for claiming a HW achievement not on Ray's resume, and younger fans may have favored him sharply.

I think Duran did get almost as good a bounce from Hagler as he did if he'd actually been awarded the decision, while Marv took a hit necessitating his redeeming himself against Hearns.

 

If he did beat Hagler, then i think that makes him a top 5 lock without question.

But Hagler beat him clearly. Though many posters on here had Duran winning, saying that, many posters on here lurrrve the Panamain ****

 

bingo

 

my thinking is that hagler would have been looked at (unfairly) as limited if roberto had won and the victory would not have meant as much as it should. given that hagler won and went on to be consider a top 3-4 middleweight of all time gives what duran DID accomplish a lot of weight.

it's a double edged sword:
duran looked good in defeat and hagler went on to greatness, so that loss only adds to durans resume.

if duran looked good in winning, hagler would not be viewed as great, and that win wouldn't have added as much as deserved to his resume

 

#8 on my last list

 

I still think the Hearns blow out would hurt Duran for the top spot vs Robinson. Win over Hagler or not.

 

ray leonard boxed his head of in the 2nd fight and got the tko
ray leonard beat hagler.
leonard koed hearns but imo lost the second fight.

so ray leonard is the best. if your think duran is up there.

 

Had he beaten Hagler then he's the champ at 135-147-160 that is amazing but he's kind of hit a ceiling anyway with his poor showing at lmw (in an atg sense)

he'd still be top 10- top 5 but to have gotten higher, imo, he'd have had to have beaten oir looked competitve v benitez and hearns.

comsidering the modern era though, duran had the right names to make it to the top. leonard without getting injured would almost certainly have hit the goat position. whittaker, couldn't have done much more than he did, any gameplan wouldn't have seen him beat tito because he was too degraded imo, but had he got the decision v oscar (he deserved it) and unified with tito befotre retiring, I'd say he'd atleast equalled robinson. jones could have done it had he not degraded so much after tarver, victories over johnson and calzaghe would have helped seal his legacy, as would a stay at hw with moderate success, walking away would have done NOTHING to improve his legacy.

Brings us to today, pac and floyd both have the fights, beating martinez at MW as well as their peers (pac/floyd) would put them right in contention. victories over the future stars like khan, ortiz, alvarez and bradley would help matters a lot.


btw i have

fitz
robinson
langford
armstrong
greb

 

If it went 12 like Hagler-Leonard, Duran would have "earned" a majority draw with Hagler... and it would have been about as right by my estimations as the idea that Leonard "beat" Hagler.

And then we'd have two very controversial decisions against Hagler.

(At the same time, John Thomas would be even more right than he is about Hagler's limitations in the adaptability department.)

 

--By the way, if Duran beat Hagler handily and then fired up Godzilla at age 40, he still could never overtake Greb, Robinson, Armstrong, or Charles. New Orleans does a number on his placement calculations.