Is it Possible we Overrate Duran?

No, he was not overrated. At his peak, at his best condition, he was an all time great. Tremendous raw energy channeled into a desire to destroy, similar to Dempsey and Tyson later on. You can't train that level of killer instinct into a man either its there or its not. I am going to be laughed at for writing this, but if Gerry Conney had Duran's ferocity, anger, and killer instinct, he would have been a champion.

 

No, I was disagreeing with the implausible excuse you made. Duran's low blow came WAY after the bell (did you even watch it??) It was a short south-north uppercut directly to Buchanan's groin. The ref already had his arm around Duran before he decided to throw the punch, so I don't buy that it changed the trajectory.

 

It wasn't an excuse I made in the sense that I invented it, rather it was a what is written in Wikipedia, and in Duran's bio and conforms with what I saw when I watched the fight.

I don't doubt that both fighters were throwing punches after the bell rang, because neither could actually hear the bell ring, but the punch wouldn't have landed low but for the ref's misguided attempt to stop Duran after he was already in the process of throwing a punch.
It wasn't like it was a competitive fight prior to that so no way would Duran risk losing a championship he was close to holding in his hand by throwing a low blow against a fighter who up until that point he had completely dominated.

Like I said, you want to watch blatant cheating, look no further than Mayweather against Ortiz.

 

When Ortiz jumped into Mayweather with his head?? What does that have to do with anything?

 

This batch of excuses is even worse. Duran didn't hear the bell?? That's a new one. Rewatch it (instead of reading about it) and you'll see that Duran finished throwing another punch and then threw the low blow after the ref was already d****d around his arm. A far, far cry from your earlier description of it as a legal punch that Duran was trying to throw at the bell before it was deflected.

Duran fouled him out of frustration and disdain. It was completely in character with his dirty and unsportsmanlike performance throughout the night (constantly ramming with his head, shoving Buchanan after the bell multiple times, at least one or two other low blows, etc.). Wasn't trying to jeopardize his victory (I'm sure he didn't think it would have such impact), but he certainly wasn't being respectful of the rules either.

 

Why pray tell would Duran be frustrated after barely losing a round and having the fight completely in his control. All you're demonstrating is your complete lack of ****ytical skills.

Like I said you want to see a frustrated fighter look no further than Mayweather vs Ortiz.

 

Duran was one of the five best pound for pound fighters of the second half of the 20th Century ..

The best lightweight
The best jr welterweight
One of the best welterweights

An exceptional fighter.

 

Ha! I should have typed "angry" instead of "frustrated." My bad. He was angry that Buchanan finally had the audacity to return his roughhouse tactics after the bell that round. Good catch. The rest of the reasoning and excuses in your post were still ridiculous though.

 

What excuses? That he won the fight? I'm not making any excuses. I just telling you what happened from the perspective of most. Others, like the ref have a different perspective. But either way we're taking about something that happened in a split second in a match that wasn't even close to being competitive.

 

That sums it up perfectly.

 

Only problem with Duran was his hot-and-cold commitment to training and keeping weight between fights. If he'd been as fanatical as say, Marciano, I think that there would be much less debate about his greatness today.

 

As the saying goes you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Similarly some people simply don't WANT to believe what their eyes can see, they would rather convince themselves their preconceived opinion of what occurred actually did happen.

Look no further than 8.12 of this clip to see that you are totally correct in your observations. What can't write or speak can't lie.

[url]https://youtu.be/QOXk22iGlx8?t=502[/url]

 

Go to 1:27 here for a much clearer view. Duran throws his (very late) uppercut unobstructed, inside of the ref's grasp. In any case, since the foul was well after the bell, he's lucky that he wasn't properly dq'ed. Would have been up there on the list of all-time boneheaded blunders.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOKl62mAGzM[/url]

 

I watched every bout Duran had from his fist bout with Buchannan to his final bout. Duran as a LT weight was the most dominant fighter I have ever seen live. Incredible conditioning he could punch non stop for 15 rounds, one punch KO power in each fist, incredibly quick handed. All this and he had great technical skills constantly feinting and going to body and head. I just can't see anyone beating him at that weight.

 

That you are obsessed by your own revisionist opinions is obvious, but to claim that a clip from a camera situated from behind Buchanan's back is more valid than one that clearly shows the ref coming in from an angle over Durans left shoulder and grabbing him as he throws the punch is completely moronic even by your standards.

As for your garbage about 2 fighters in the heat of an exchange stopping dead in their tracks because the bell rings, it is simply that, garbage. Their first priority is to protect themselves at ALL times. This is why refs jump in and pull fighters apart if they instinctively carry on punching after the bell has rung.

Why would you want to DQ Duran only? Because you don't like the guy? Because he was having a bigger impact with his shots? Was he the ONLY one of the 2 fighting after the bell?

Your revisionist bias toward Duran is embarrassing, and just makes you look extremely foolish.