why when mentioning the true greats of boxing does duran get talked about so highly

:bbb Good post,but who crowned him the best LW of all time?? He was fighting mostly Panamanian taxi drivers as a LW..You put any other good fighter vs Panamanian bums and they too will look like the greatest LW ever..

Your one of the few post I see citing specific fights etc,instead of generalizations of how Godly Duran was or was not.. Even to this day Duran has excuses for possibly sports biggest humiliation of No Mas...

 

Duran was an animal at LW. It's not his fault that the LW division in the 70's wasn't filled with a bunch of HOF'ers; he could only fight who was available at the time.

Ken Buchannan and Esteban Dejesus were both very good fighters and good scalps on Duran's resume. I've seen the ROberto-Buchannan fight a few times and while the way the fight ended was highly controversial, it was pretty clear that Duran was winning that fight handily.

The guy had 1 loss in an entire decade while having 70+ wins. He's arguably the greatest LW in the history of the sport (can make a claim for Benny leonard and Armstrong as well.) By the time he actually fought Leonard in MOntreal, Duran was probably a little bit out of his absolute prime. It was a tough fight for both men but Duran clearly beat him in their first go around. Granted, I thought SRL was a little too green at that time to take on someone with the pro experience of ROberto, but it was a great win nonetheless.

HIs win over Moore was surprising as many people didn't think Duran had much left in the tank at that point. Him going 15 rounds with Hagler was probably even more of a surprise considering Hagler at the time looked invincible.

And his win against a prime Barkley at MW when Duran was around 15-16 years into his pro career sealed his fate as an ATG.

I don't know where I would rank him. Definitely inside the top 15-20. Cracking the top 10 is very hard though because the guys I have above him all fought 150 + times and have a lot more HOF scalps on their resume, partly because they fought 15+ times a year.

It's hard for me to put Duran over Robinson, Armstrong, Greb, Louis, Pep, Ali, Langford, Benny Leonard and a few others, but I think he's in that 2nd tier just below those guys. He was a great, great fighter.

 

There was nothing SRL could of done to beat Montreal Duran. Cmon folks you wanna make me believe Leonard, a fighter that always found a way to win, wasn't going to try to adjust if the fight wasn't going his way? In the first fight Duran cut the ring off beautifully he never gave Leonard much time to adjust. Duran at times, even to mock SRL, was outboxing SRL from a distance, making SRL miss alot and Duran jabbing the ****out of SRL. And BOTH fights were close, even before NO MAS happened SRL wasnt exactly outclassing Duran. Duran looked fatter and noticeably slower. Nothing like the machine from the first fight.

 

There first fight was a lot closer than people make it out to be. Personally, I thought that Duran won by 3 rounds. I thought he was more of the aggressor, and as you put it, he did outbox Ray Leonard that night.

These were the judges scorecards for the 1st fight:

Judge: Harry Gibbs 145-144 Duran
Judge: Angelo Poletti 148-147 Duran
Judge: Raymond Baldeyrou 146-144

I do agree with you that the No Mas fight wasn't a one-sided domination that some people make it out to be, but SRL did fight in a much different manner compared to Montreal and utilized his footwork a lot more in the rematch. Neither of there first 2 fights were one sided beatings by either guy.

 

Very accurate comments, but most people seem to think Leonard was pitching a shut out when Duran quite and that simply wasn't the case. The fact is Duran had to have the second fight based on Leonard's not his time table because Leonard still held all the marketing clout. If it were up to Duran he would have waited another 6 months to a year before the rematch.

But at the end of the day I pretty much consider these two fights a saw off. Duran did the near impossible in the first fight and the unthinkable in the second.

 

It was an opportunistic move on SRL's part to force DUran into the rematch so early. Everyone knew about Duran's lifestyle between fights- he needed a good 6 months to get prepared for the rematch.

I agree with you that in their 2nd fight that SRL took on a different version of Duran just because of all the weight Roberto had to shed off in a short amount of time. Duran couldn't say no to that kind of payday though (I think both guys received 8 figure paychecks.)

Even SRL admits his opportunistic ways when it comes to wanting to have a clear advantage going into the rematch. I just wish SRL showed his warrior side and gave Duran ample opportunity to train properly and get the weight off the right way.

 

As a lightweight he was unequaled. Definitely would have succeeded in any era at that weight. When he went up in weight his speed lessened but his power increased. You cannot dispute the fact that he did succeed in the heavier categories - it's just that he did not have the same ''unequaled'' status in them.

 

i guess you must have never seen duran fight

 

What's your point? Most people with any knowledge of the sport realize that a big skilled fighter is usually going to beat a small skilled fighter. If you're going to compare the two on that level why not rate Holyfield ahead of Hearns, it amounts to the same thing. On a P4p basis, Duran rates higher. If they fought 10 times Hearns would likely win 7-8 times, but that's due to the massive size difference. Hearns was 6'1 with an 80" reach. Duran was 5'7" with a 68" reach.

When Hearns went up in weight to fight Hagler look what happened, then compare that to when Duran went up in weight and fought Leonard.

That aside, Duran had a much better run at his own weight, (ie lightweight), than Hagler did at welterweight.

 

Good Point. That obviously should have said Hearns, but very few people rate Hearns ahead of Duran on a P4p basis. That said, Hearns was a damn good fighter, his only shortcoming was his chin. He could throw as hard as anyone, he just couldn't catch as well as SRL.

 

oh the ignorance....smh. please learn your history before making foolish posts like this.

 

let's see this list of fighters who would beat him.