I've been watching him a lot lately. His whole career really and I'm amazed at the ability he had in the ring. I'm not asking if he's the greatest fighter ever, but a good argument could be made that he's the greatest since Ray Robinson. Is he the best fighter ever? An unmotivated, old Duran and out of shape Duran destroyed Barkley a MW. He was leading after 12 rounds against a prime Marvin Hagler. WTF, the man was a lightweight. He pushed a prime Leonards teeth in. Again he had a noticeable size disadvantage. But did it anyways. He beat Marcel the man who beat Arguello. And that great win doesn't even register on the radar despite it being an incredible win. Tremendous power, speed, workrate, chin. Fabulous footwork, jab, left hook, inside fighting, outside fighting, body punching, head movement, pressure. I mean damn the guy was really good at boxing.
Is the best fighter ever? To me he's clearly the best fighter of the TV era. I haven't seen a better fighter on film. A prime Ray Robinson isn't on film.
Great fighter, elite but not truly the most elite. 1-5 against THE FAB 4, you can't work your way around that. Done a lot of great things but the Leonard who fought his fight clearly beat him up and made him quit Hearns knocked him out in 2 rounds Hagler had it the entire time, and beat him decisively. Benitez also beat him.
He's an ATG, that's for sure. As far as the best talented? I don't think so. He's lost to better talented fighters.
I would go with one of the most effective. Because, IMO at least, there have been more skilled and more talented fighters who made far less of themselves than Duran did.
And past prime in all his fights against the fab 4 except for the first Leonard fight. Think about this. A shot Roberto Duran took a peak Hagler life and death. A shot Lightweight gave an ATG prime MW hell.
Could you give us some names of more talented and skilled fighters who made less of themselves than Duran?
Top 10 but Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong were great too. Once you get that good, it's hard to say you are definitively the best. It's more like you've just hit the human maximum. It's rare but it happens from time to time.
Probably. The point I'm making is Duran subsidized his natural talent with an amazing desire to win at almost any cost. Few, if any, ever, had more desire and more beast in them than Duran.