1978 Roberto Duran vs 2003 Floyd Mayweather jr. 15 rds @ 135

Lean towards Duran, but at 135 Mayweather was very good. Won't be a cakewalk for Duran, imo.

 

True bit this is Duran we're talking about. I could see Floyd maybe knocking Duran off balance with counters like Buchanan did, he could maybe even score a flash knock down. At the end of the day this will just rile Duran up. Floyd just has not got the power to hurt Duran.

 

I havent watched enough of Duran (admittedly), so i cant comment.

But i think Floyd has respectable power, otherwise guys like Cotto, Canelo and Hatton would be walking right through him

 

Of course Floyd has/had respectable power. Duran's just levels above guy's like Cotto, Canelo and Hatton. Durans great chin, freak strength, ring smarts and all round skill level carried him up from competing as a skinny bantom to a fat, shot super middle. 5 decades of fighting elite's/future HOF fighters and future ATG's (some of them monster punchers). Despite all this only once was Duran unable to continue due to being hurt and that was vs the great punching machine Tommy Hearns, who was much bigger, younger and just all wrong stylistically for Duran.

Yes, watch more of Duran. He was the **** my friend [emoji106]

 

Duran would play Mayweather like a puppet with his feints. It's near impossible to wait and counter punch this man when he was on his game. And he has the power to punish you for every feint he forces you to react to.

 

Agreed.

Mayweather's underrated toughness (stayed in the trenches with Castillo with one bad arm, and has always recovered well when hurt) and nastiness on the inside might allow him to hold his own in the trenches for longer than some might think. Plus, at lightweight, Mayweather's legs were good enough to allow him to move fluidly around the ring for most of the fight.

That said, Duran in '78, circa the DeJesus rubber match, was a different animal than Mayweather (and most everyone else) has ever faced and probably finds a way to carve out a close, tough decision.

But Mayweather's almost certain to have moments and win his share of rounds...even if it isn't the lion's share.

 

Mayweather beats any Duran as long as both hands are functioning.

 

The only thing he'll need both hands for is picking up his broken ribs.

 

Can't see it myself. For a guy who doesn't like getting hit, Mayweather would be in for a long night once he feels the power of the hands of stone.

SRL once told a story about him and Jackie Gleason watching a Duran fight and it went like this.

I recall once I had turned professional, I was in Las Vegas at a Duran fight against Esteban De Jesus. And I was sitting at ringside, I spoke to Jackie Gleason because he was a big Roberto Duran fan. I said, "Jackie, I'm going to fight him one day". And he looked at me, he said, "Son, don't ever think about doing that. This man will kill you."

SRL goes on to say that when they fought:

Duran introduced me to psychological warfare. He introduced me to the fact that you need to have mental stability to be effective. And he challenged me, he pushed me, he punched me, he kicked me. I mean he cursed me, cursed my wife. He did things that challenged my manhood.

 

I just feel like these threads cast a bunch of false characteristics on floyd. His chin becomes weaker, his activity level drops (he was very active when younger) he becomes mentally weak, etc. Castillo I is taken as the reference point for his entire career. Duran's inconsistency, loses, demonstrated trouble w boxers who move, etc. get ignored.

 

He had trouble against movers while slowing down, notriously training poorly, and moving up 15-20+ lbs in a stocky frame. And this is based off a limited sampling of him going 1-2 against two of the greatest in Leonard and Benitez.

But when motivated at his peak as this thread is asking, he proved very effective against Jesus, Viruet, and Buchanan who were excellent boxer/movers. Its kind of funny how this gets distorted, because Duran might be the best pressure fighter on film when it comes to solving great movers.

 

True. As Duran aged and went up in weight he became inconsistent, but even then, when he was fully trained and motivated he was hell on wheels. Following the 2nd Leonard fight, Duran went from being a near god in Panama to persona non grata. Not only did the people of Panama abandon him but so too did his long time trainers. So he was in a slump for prolonged period of time and his career came very close to ending when he lost first to Benitez and much worse, lost to Kirkland Laing.

The version of Duran that lost to Laing would have lost to almost any decent fighter around today. It's a painful fight to watch and even Bernstein is saying this is probably his last fight and this isn't the fighter we wish to remember.

So what does he do next?

He changes promoters and then fights a career defining fight against Pipino Cuevas who was a former WW champ with 11 defenses under his belt and one of the best punchers in the history of the sport with the ring listing him at 31 on their list of 100 best punchers of all time.

Duran gets he out of there in 4, with the announcers saying that it was sad to watch Cuevas twitch as Duran was throwing feints at him and exploding with combinations.

From there Duran went on to beat Moore and the rest is history.

But the bottom line is the version of Duran who fought Benitez was not the best version of Duran.

But while a loss is a loss is a loss in my books, you can't really use this version of Duran to assess how he'd fight a mover in his prime at 135.

 

Excellent post that really breaks it down and pays attention to the details.

Benitez certainly isn't a guage for Mayweather anyway. Benitez might be the better pure technican, was several inches taller, and wore Duran down with a busy inside/out approach. Mayweather is much smaller and at light middle is a pocket fighter, using timing and upper body movement to counter punch.

 

Floyd's health come first

But if he did have the guts to face Duran

It's ugly

MAidana could find Floyd easy

Duran is ten thousand times as relentless
Has serious skills
Leonard found out how good Durans defense was- it's elite
And hands of stone ko power

 

Duran faced Hagler during hagglers prime and was ahead after 12 rounds

Floyd cries if anyone mentions GGG who isn't anywhere near the level of Hagler