Where do you rank Barkley at Middleweight?

I am not downplaying Duran's victory over Barkley at all. It was a great win for him considering his age and the weight the fight was at. Still, I never thought that much about Barkley as a fighter as he always seemed kind of crude to me. I still can't figure out why Hearns couldn't beat him.

 

No I never said anything about Hearns other than Barkley beat him, but yes a guy capable of beating Hearns would beat those three. Again don't take my word for it. Watch the damn fight.

 

If the 37 year old Duran that fought Barkley stepped into the ring today, I think he could beat Cotto. In fact I'm fairly certain of it because that Duran wasn't going down no matter how hard he was hit. Barkley pounded him to the body the entire fight and both Gil Clancey and Bernstein were saying that this would pay dividends in the later rounds, which I too thought would be the case, but it never happened. Duran took all that punishment and just kept on coming.

 

Barkley had a tremendous amount of power was about the same size as Hearns, had a better chin and was a true warrior who fought harder hurt than not hurt.

 

To me, the Barkley/Hearns matchup epitomizes the saying that "Styles make fights." Even looking at their careers with the benefit of hindsight, I can't understand why Hearns didn't get Barkley out of there. Lesser punchers did.

 

Come on stop trolling!

The talent pool was 20x wider back then that it is today. That Duran would win a World title at middleweight standing on his head today, so would Iran Barkley :deal

 

I think at the end of the day it came down to who had the better chin. Hearn's did knock Barkley down, but Barkley got up, when Barkley knocked Hearn's down he didn't get up. But honestly they're damn near a mirror imagine of each other if you look at their height, weight and reach. Hearn's one shortfall was he never had an ATG chin, but at welter weight and light middle in rarely mattered because he was so much taller than everyone else that most couldn't land cleanly on it. SRL being 5'10 was able to, and Barkley being 6'1" was also able to, but the Floyd's and and Duran's and the Pac's just aren't big enough to dent that chin, especially given the power Hearn's had.

 

Good post.

 

This is comedy at it's best. Duran was what 49 when he lost to Joppy..and north of 45 when he lost twice against Camacho, one of which was a robbery. And yes his loss to Hagler was a ****ing disgrace.

 

Can you remind me of what Floyd's record is against Middleweights, It seemed to have slipped my mind?