He just wasn't smooth, his reactions to feints, hard and "uncoordinated" counters (only until he gets his rythm), sometimes rushed too hard forward, leaving himself out of balance if opponent pivots. Apart from that I admired his defense (his slipping was wide sometimes, but pulling away and rolling with punches was nice and subtle) and his finishing ability.
These are Cox's comments regarding Duran's defense, following that is Gil Clancy's comments during the Barkley fight, which I personally regard as the best fight in his entire career given the size, age, speed and height disadvantages. "Duran has been very under-rated defensively by some analysts. He had good head movement, slipped punches, and got angles on his opponent’s inside. When he slipped those punches he would always be in punching position to land power shots with full balance and leverage. When he was hit he would usually roll with the punch to reduce its effectiveness. He would usually parry an opponent’s jab when he was going to rush inside. Duran was also a master at feinting. He would feint with the lead right and if his opponent’s would lean back, which is a popular tactic amongst modern boxers, they would expose their body and Duran would cleverly switch his attack with a left hook counter to the liver." Gil Clancy commenting at ringside said, “Duran just slipped 6 punches in a row” to which Al Bernstein, replied, “Duran has always been the master of defense that is one of his trademarks Regarding his reaction to feints can you reference me a fight which illustrates this? Cause I've seen most, but not all of his fights and I don't recall this ever being an issue. And I'm not suggesting he had the best defense of all time, but for the most part, his defense is largely unappreciated.
He loved to parry jabs as you said above and sometimes he would paw 2-3 times in a row like a cat if opponent faked a jab and at the same time move his head from the center line while taking a step back. I've only seen his fights with Hearns, Leonard and Hagler recently. You can see it occur in the No Mas fight and against Hagler (in this fight I can understand since Hagler was a southpaw and he didn't want to risk getting smacked with a left hand or right hook had he stayed in front of Marvelous). There's nothing wrong with that, it's just that I like smooth and patient fighters like Pep, Napoles, Louis and Walcott more :good
no one talked about rematches with Benitez,Leonard 2 and Hearns and Hagler after those fights. There was a reason!!!!!!
The word legend is overused in many sports, but not in the case of Roberto Duran, an absolute legend of the fight game, a pulsating career of highs and a few lows, yet an inspiration to many.
the guy was a career lightweight. Youre criticizing him for not rematching other atg fighters who were in higher weight classes.
Duran was a beast at 135... He beat SRL at 147,when that was no easy feat. Moore and Barkley way over his beats weight and prime. Prime Duran was heavy-handed, underrated defensively,and had great stamina. Overrated ??
yes. overrated. If you have to mention Moore and Barkley in defense of Duran then you know he is overrated!!!!!