Too skilled of afighter for pea dont lose to dejesus or quit against srl lose to benitez and no hopers like laing and simms. Nor do too skilled for pea fighters need excuses after every loss either. Too skilled for pea lmfao lesser skilled fighters than pea beat or knocked him the hell out. Stop overrating duran like he was a God he was beat many times.
That was before he was at his peak. I strongly suggest you take a look at the 1st DeJesus fight and then watch the 3rd DeJesus fight. It's a totally different fighter. And he did lose to SRL after a 5 month bender. Duran is like Hagler, he never lost a fight in his prime.
Leonard Buchanan Marcel Fernandez Viruet Ortiz Bizzarro To name a pair of ATGs and a bunch of slick, world-level fighters who Duran beat (with ease). This is a myth. Duran hurt Leonard early and he tried to run, he failed. Multiple times. Leonard was bigger and quicker than Pea, he also had more power to keep Duran honest. He failed to keep Duran off him... Based on what? Prime Pea was getting hit in the centre of the ring by Buddy McGirt and Jose Luis Ramirez. And still lost every round coz he'd be getting out-worked. Pea isn't gonna be landing any where near his normal amount coz Duran isn't easy to hit. Pea is 1-1-1 vs the best pressure fighters he fought. Duran is 5-2 vs the best movers he fought.... Does this tell the whole story? **** nah, but it blows your 'point' out the water. Ramirez and Chavez (despite losing) were both old and gave Pea plenty of issues. Whereas guys like Buchanan, Leonard and Fernandez were clearly beat.
Pea was not prime and coked up when he fought oscar and even still he outlanded dropped and clowened oscar and arguably beat him.
How is this any different to Durans loss to SRL? He was downing cervezas for breakfast and gained 70 pounds.
@George Crowcroft Whitaker's defense is overrated, and Duran's is underrated. Its Duran who is the better defensive fighter and it's really not debatable. People forget that Duran was hard to hit.
Let's look at Duran's losses. Esteban DeJesús I - had fought two weeks earlier, was very green, avenged TWICE. Sugar Ray Leonard II - Durán's prime ended here. He'd apexed after his best win and gone on a 5 month bender where he had to shed 40lbs in 5 weeks. Was coerced into a rematch he wasn't ready for by Don King. Quitting is undefendable, but no-one under those conditions was beating Ray Leonard at his best. Montréal Duran beats him every time. Wilfred Benitez - Blatant to everyone that Duran didn't even train properly for it. He was at his '**** everybody' stage. Benítez on the other hand was firing on all cylinders and would beat virtually every 154 ATG that wasn't Hearns. Kirkland Laing - See above; Duran didn't give a ****. Marvin Hagler - Almost beat a prime ATG MW... literally gave him the hardest fight of his entire career. Tommy Hearns - it's Tommy Hearns... he'd do that to 90% of 154lbers, and 100% of 135lbers. Duran was also aged, drained and inactive. Robbie Sims - Talented southpaw, Hagler's half-brother. A 35 y/o Duran almost won. Sugar Ray Leonard III - shot, fat. Pat Lawlor - shot, fat and injured. Vinny Pazienza I - shot, fat. Vinny Pazienza II - shot, fat. Hector Camacho I - He was 45.... William Joppy - He was 47.... Omar Eduardo Gonzalez - 47 again. Hector Camacho II - Final fight, he's literally 50 years old... None of them are representative of a peak Duran.
Pea whitaker was robbed against Ramirez that fight wasn't close. He won that fight against mcgirt. Srl allowed duran to get into his head he fought durans fight not his thinking he would simply bully the smaller man even still it was a very close fight. He realized this in the rematch and fought to his strengths. Pea schooled jcc he wasn't old that was an excuse. What did pea have to keep jcc off of him? Yet he still put on a clinic and won atleast 9 rounds and was a victim of one of the worst robberies in boxing history. None of these so called slick guys duran beat were anywhere near pea whitaker. He lost to great slick fighter in bentitez and bentitez is a level below pea.
@George Crowcroft My last input for now. Duran from the late 70s up until Montreal is the most perfect fighter I've ever seen. No man is unbeatable. Everybody bleeds. But I got to say, I dont know what the gameplan w0uld be to beat a prime Duran. What are you supposed to do? Hes that good. He took on maybe the 2nd best fighter of the last 40 years. Moved up in weight while doing it. Then basically outclassed him. It was an obvious showing of yea Leonard is a magnificent fighter, but Duran was clearly more skilled. It was obvious, he was simply better. But I wont pile on.
I don't hold any duran loss against him past simms to be honest. With that said duran and his fans simply have too many excuses for his losses. Why is that? No other fighter in history gets the passes duran gets. You want to take credit for the wins well you have to take criticism when you lose that's the way it works. Duran isn't a god and is beatable and was beaten.
