I think Duran is a fantastic boxer but it does annoy me sometimes when people have 1000 excuses for every loss. I think he's underrated/overrated by some people, but for the most part he's good where he's at in the ATG rank. +He's a Latino so I gotta ****s with him. hat
I don't excuss any of his losses. The way I look at it, when any professional fighter gets in the ring the results count. It could be Duran, it could be past prime Holyfield, it could be any fighter, doesn't matter. Cause to not count them does a major disservice to the winner of the fight. That said, losses in a fighters prime means more than say Ali's loss to Spinks. In Duran's case, he basically partied too much in between bouts and didn't always come in the best of shape. Does that count against him? Sure it does, but if it never happened we may very well be discussing him in the category of a top 3 ATG instead of a top5-10 ATG. So I think he losses are given their due justice, but he was just so damn good most fans just wished they never occurred.
Yes, With the expection of the first fight with Ray Leonard. Every time he stepped up he got beat. He's also overrated at lightweight. Benny Leonard, Pernell Whitaker and Joe Gans were better. I would also pick Ike Williams, Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather to beat Duran.
I think he's overrated as a LW 2 , but i don't think any1 of d guys u mentioned would have beaten him (about Gans IDK , but I think he's overrated 2 , while Benny Leonard was stopped .. how many times ? ) , Whaitaker was in fact beaten by Ramirez at least once and 4 sure didn't deserve 2 win in d second time either . If anything Ramirez himself is underrated and stands a better chance than Whitaker . Mayweather and Mosley would have priced themselves out :yep . So u pick Duran over Armstrong @ 135 ?
It's funny with Duran...I think his resume in each division isn't all that stellar, but when you pull the highlights from each division and add it all up, it's a pretty amazing career. What I mean is that he had solid success in several divisions, though not necessarily impeccable success in any of them. Obviously lightweight was his prime division...I think Ken Buchanan got severely screwed over in his loss to Duran...should've been a DQ or NC in my opinion, and though I think Esteban DeJesus is underated, he's not exactly an ATG. As a welter, huge success and dismal disgrace. At jr middle, horrific losses and moments of redemption. At middle, hung tough with men much bigger and younger than him, often losing, sometimes winning. same at super-middle. A strange, episodic career, with many low points, but numerous comebacks of the incredible kind.
He was great lightweight, is overrated in higher divisions. He had Barkley and Moore wins, overrated wins, because Moore was in no shape to fight that night, and was forced into ring with tooth infection and fever, plus got thumbed by Duran in first round. Barely was good fighter, but stupid, he stood there letting Duran hit him repeatedly for knock down. He beat good welters, great ones, although Leonard win was exception. I rate Robinson, Basillio,and a few others over Leonard. Him and Hagler both dogged it in their bout, and fans defending them called it boxing match, when it was two guys afraid of each other. Hearns blew him out. Pound for pound Hearns was the better fighter.
His Lightweight reign & win over a prime Leonard assures him a place amongst the very best. Bad training habits & losses while he was fighting way above his best weight sullies the reputation somewhat, but at LW & WW he was a great fighter.
I don't like how the classic forum is referred to as a whole, I post here and never make excuses for Roberto Duran