Much has been made of Duran's success and failure as he moved up to welterweight, middleweight etc. I don't know of any featherweigts who moved up to challenge Duran at 135. Does anyone know of any featherweights that could have moved up and beaten him at 135?
Featherweight to Lightweight is a pretty big jump and in terms of the era when Duran was a lightweight, the guys fighting at featherweight were either at their natural weight limit, like Danny Lopez, or had moved up already from lower weight divisions, like Ruben Olivares. Duran beat a legit future featherweight world champion in Ernesto Marcel at the time that Duran was a featherweight himself (1970) so there's one example of a fighter who couldn't beat him. The only guy of the era who potentially could have done so was Alexis Arguello. But that fight lost momentum when Arguello lost to Vilomar Fernandez in a 10 round bout at lightweight in 1978. Had he won that, he'd be in with a decent chance of beating Duran, although Duran would have been favourite. It's one of the great lost matchups of the 70s. In terms of the rest of the great featherweights, many of them never had the same success at lightweight as they did at featherweight. Willie Pep was too small, as was Abe Attell. Sandy Saddler had the height but maybe not the frame to move up. Salvador Sanchez never got there. He wanted to fight Alexis Arguello but we can only imagine how that fight would have gone and how the move north would have affected Sanchez. Terry McGovern beat two world lightweight champions in Frank Erne and Joe Gans, although the fight with Gans was probably not on the up and up. He had the power to beat any lightweight but Duran was a smart fighter so I'd suggest that he could possibly outbox McGovern. That leaves two fighters in my mind who could have done it - Tony Canzoneri and Henry Armstrong. Both were featherweight world champions and became lightweight world champions. Canzoneri had the strength and power to keep Duran from rushing in so might have been able to outbox him. Certainly, the younger Duran would be up against it. But the fully-formed Duran of 1977/78 would have the variation in his attack to be able to counter Canzoneri. Close fight though. Given that he was barely above lightweight, I wonder whether Armstrong, had he chosen to drop down to lightweight rather than defend his welterweight title, could have racked up the same sort of numbers as Duran did at 135 pounds. I think Armstrong could have beaten Duran at lightweight - he was relentless. But it would be a very, very close fight.
Armstrong actually did move from Welterweight champ down to lightweight: "After one more bout, Armstrong, still the Featherweight division world champion, challenged a fellow member of the three division champions' club, Barney Ross, then World Welterweight Champion, for the title. Armstrong, at 133½ pounds, beat Ross, 142 pounds, by unanimous decision, adding the World Welterweight Championship to his belt. He then moved down in weight from welter champ, and beat World Lightweight Champion Lou Ambers by split decision, becoming the first boxer ever to hold world championships in three different weight divisions at the same time. He decided not to make the 126 pound weight anymore and left the featherweight crown vacant. Armstrong dedicated the next two years to defending the welterweight crown.
Duran vs Arguello would be an interesting matchup. The early Duran might have trouble, but the 1978 Duran would be too smart. Instead of trying to walk through Arguello’s bombs, he would make him miss, and then go inside. A later featherweight who moved up to LW was JC Chavez, would be an easy matchup for Duran. Duran would welcome his straight ahead attack.
As has been pointed out, these were the days before 126 pounders became 147 pounders on fight night. Giving away size to a peak Roberto Duran is one of the hardest tasks in boxing history. That said, I'd love to have seen how Salvador Sanchez with his quick, fluid boxing and sublime poise would have fared!
