Who looked more impressive: Montreal Duran or FOTC Frazier

That's a tough one. Two outstanding defining performances that comprise the cornerstones of both of their careers. I don't know if there's a right or wrong answer to this, but I might go with Duran's win over Leonard on the basis that he was facing an opponent who had been much more active in recent years.

 

I believe Duran did. He also didn't suffer near as much punishment as Frazier did in that fight.

 

Joe Frazier...FOTC...March 8, 1971...without a doubt!!!

 

Doesn't change the fact that SRL was very near prime and active.. and Ali wasn't the same fighter as he was before. Nor does it change that, indeed, Duran was moving up to challenge the WW champion of the world, while Frazier was not.

 

Tough call; can't decide.

 

Duran without a doubt. In terms of skill Frazier's performance is overrated. Yes, he made Ali miss more in the first round than he usually did, but he took a hellacious beating while basically outlasting Ali - who was physically diminished after the lay-off.

Duran both outthought and outfought Leonard.

 

It's a tough call for me because Leonard fought such a dumb fight that he made things a lot easier for Duran than they could and should have been. Would be a no-brainer if Leonard had been on his A-game though.

 

He was on his A-Game though. That IS what made it impressive.

 

Leonard, Dundee, and a whole lot of other folks disagree. Was possibly understandable but ultimately quite foolhardy to fight Duran the way he did.

 

Not at all. This notion has been dispelled already in our prior discussions. You can argue that in hindsight it wasn't his best game plan to fight the way he did. However, a big part of that was Duran's left hook that shook up SRL and Duran tenacity that night. In the end, SRL tried to fight how he usually did... be the boxer puncher and control the center of the ring. It just didn't work with Duran, but that is how he trained to fight and what he tried to execute. Dundee, in print, said his guy was the Bigger guy, stronger guy, longer reach and he would impose himself on the small Duran and KO him. Dundee literally says this. Then when you see SRL try and fight that way, it's disingenuous to take Dundee's later comments with anything more than a grain of salt. He said he didn't want his guy backing up.. Duran is a heal to toe guy.. and backing up would be a mistake with Duran.. he wanted SRL backing Duran up because of it. He said how they planned on fighting Duran, SRL fought that way, it just didn't work. That doesn't mean he fought a bad fight in the least, it wasn't the best approach in hindsight. Going into the fight though, with no previous fights, one would have no way of knowing.

 

You make a good case for why the suboptimal strategy that Leonard used that fight was an understandable mistake but it still seems pretty clear that he would have been much better off using his legs, as he did in most fights against aggressive, physically formidable opponents. He simply underestimated Duran's physicality and strength (or overestimated his own).

 

Great question

Frazier was vulnerable and unstoppable against Ali I was too young to understand the magnitude of the fight at the time but up to that point Frazier was as good as any in history with Ali coming off the layoff Frazier was undersized but had the edge of no rust.

IMHO the Duran of the Leonard 1 fight was the most impressive of the 2 fights, few fighters had SRL's total package as a fighter. Duran was meaner than SRL was talented it is hard too say if Leonard was in his prime but damn close too it.
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Agree. Duran because of his defensive performance. He was fighting a guy {Leonard} with blazing fast hands and Sugar Ray had trouble hitting him with anything clean the entire night.

Duran unlike Frazier didn`t leave the ring all busted up around the eyes because he was rolling and slipping so well.

 

Fair post K, we mostly see the fight much the same anyways, we just disagree on some details. You're right though, Angelo and SRL certainly must have underestimated Duran in some way. Seem plausible. Then when he got shock up in the 2nd round, he went into survival mode, and to his credit, said Ok.. let's do this, and fought his ass off. What that did though, was make it a Duran kind of fight for the next 4 rounds, and SRL unable to make better adjustments without having a clouded mind. Who knows, maybe they both still believed they'd impose themselves on him eventually and told him to stay the course; in the end, it was just Duran's night and SRL would have his day again.

 

Agrred:deal