Duran and Monzon

How on God's Green earth can somebody say Duran skillset isn't a level above Monzon's... Surely they jest. Duran was clearly a level above and I'm not sure how that is even debatable.

 

Monzon stayed at the same weight his entire career ... Duran jumped many weight classes and fought much, much better opposition ... Duran defeating a prime Leonard would have been like Monzon jumping up and defeating a prime Foster ...

Monzon was a terrific champion but I rate Duran ahead of him , p4p, based on skill and accomplishments ..

 

Thats a description of DURAN/DeJesus III:smoke

 

Duran has quickly dismissed Monzon here.

 

the avatar makes it obvious I'm a Duran fan, however I rate both of them in the top ten p4p of all time.
I suspect that if such a fight had been possible, it would have been one of if not the greatest fight of all time.
Monzon isn't a level below Duran. I make Duran slightly ahead, but that's not a guarantee of a win.

 

Let's skip all the bull****... who wins H2H at MW?

Duran gave a prime Hagler fits (L15) and he beat Iran Barkley at Barkley's best (WSD12). Duran had 8 fights above WW prior to taking on Hagler in 1983. The Barkley fight was his 19th fight above WW (some JMW, some MW). After Barkley he fought as high as LHW and had some decent fights with the likes of Vinny Pazienza L12 x2 (close fights, he even dropped Paz), Hector Camacho L12 (close fight), and Jorge Castro x2 (W10 at home, L10 in Castro's backyard).

He was easily outboxed by Leonard in their 3rd fight, which was 10 months after the win over Barkley... BUT, let's face it... Monzon is more like Barkley than Leonard AND... we're talking about a better Duran than the guy who fought Leonard in late 1989.

 

I'll take Duran in a close battle.

 

Monzon would beat him by a mile at middleweight, as long as it wasn't the turgid Griffith\Bouttier rematch version.

 

I think Carlos wins at middlewieght. After all, you're talking about maybe the greatest middleweight of all time after Robinson vs a lightweight.
Have Carlos come down to lightweight though, and he loses by KO in the late rounds.

 

Yeah, here.

 

:yep

 

imo, duran at his best at middle is an awkward tough night for monzon. much like hagler, monzon would win but "only" by scores of 10-5. duran was better p4p, but monzon was a ****ing beast at 160 and he'd use the massive size advantage to it's fullest

 

Monzon achieved more in the 70s than Duran did. SO i would say Monzon achieved more.

I think Monzon achieved more at middleweight than Duran did at lightweight.

His huge P4P boost for me is his win over SRL which was 1980 so dosent count for the decade in question.

 

I'd take Monzon's middleweight run over Duran's run at lightweight.

Head to head in an actual fight, Monzon beats Duran like a stepchild.


Reading this, you would perhaps not think Duran is by far my favorite fighter of all-time.

He was perhaps the best lightweight that's ever been. His opposition/era at lightweight was not the best. Not the worst, not the best. We know how formidable he is head to head since when he traded in all his physical advantages, he still managed to win against monstrous fighters of amazing capability.

Still, a match with a consensus top 3# middleweight of all-time is a bridge too far and should not be taken seriously. Duran is not ATG at midleweight.