I seriously don't know what some of those people are smoking. Comparing Castillo to Duran... Just incredible.. What's next? That Floyd could move up to MW and beat Hagler? Or that he would beat Leonard? Hearns outboxed Leonard in both of their matches, the guy stood up to Hagler for a few rounds and traded with him. Fought Duran, Benitiez and there are people here who are comparing him to Floyd who had a manufactured 50-0 record. Who needed to fight in Vegas, pick the referee himself, pick the judges and even paid his opponent money to not fight with the gloves they preferred to manufacture that record. Don't get me wrong, Floyd is very skilled, a great boxer with a very high ring iq (both inside and outside the ring, wink wink) but those comparisons started to be more and more ridiculous. Comparing someone who lost to Castillo and Maidana (Floyd lost first matches against both) to someone who outboxed Leonard is the most ******ed thing i ever read on this forum. Edit: that mentally challenged Olu Routimi guy was even more sane than the guy above.
It doesn’t make me crazy. But I’m going to make reference to it on a thread where it’s been discussed.
Fine. There’s no point in discussing it any further. Fans will always choose a side. An objective and intelligent fan will be able to work it out for themselves.
Exactly. That's why I don't worry about Floyd fighting older versions of Pacquiao, Hoya, Mosley or Cotto, or Hearns missing McCallum and fighting old Duran and old Benitez. All I do is look at what they did and determine who's greater in my opinion.
Benitez was not old. He beat Duran rather easily and 154 was his best weight. I think moving up to middle weight was not the right move for him, but to say he was old. He was the same age as Hearns an 154 was almost his best weight. And Duran being old. I have gone over that for years. He was the WBA champion and the age was not a factor. If there was a problem, it was not age. I think Benitez and Duran are names which eclipse the names Mayweather fought. These were champions. Manny was much older. Floyd waited 5 years to fight him. Oscar and Mosley were way out of his generation. Cotto was no Duran or Benitez.
Duran was third in his division when Hearns fought him. Manny was second on the planet when Floyd fought him. Hearns was young. Floyd was 38. Benitez was about half a year away from getting his ass beat by Hamsho and spiraling into dementia when Hearns beats him. Fax, homie.
These are the exact same arguments people have though aren't they. Don't forget, De La Hoya, Mosley, Cotto and Pacquiao all had belts when Floyd beat them. All were arguably the best fighter in their division when Floyd beat them. Hearns clearly didn't beat prime Duran, that's evident to anyone. Benitez as a prime LMW, I don't buy it.
Good wins for Floyd but in my opinion hearns has the better to top wins in his record.Floyd has longevity and also depth in his record.So it is close. Now, I am repeating myself. I was merely responding to a post that Benitez and Duran were old when in fact they were not.I also strongly reject the proposition that the castillo win is better than the Duran win
I agree its close. My point is that people pick holes in Floyd's resume yet are unwilling to pick the same holes in other people's. The Benitez win, I can see the argument for that being prime, I might even concede that point. But the Duran win, no way. I think the version of Duran that Hearns beat was a very very good fighter, but not as good as he once was. It's clearly better than Castillo though. I put the Duran win on par with the Pacquiao win tbh. A past prime great who was still one of the best in the world.
Floyd for me and not that close. He was undefeated beat the best in every weight class he participated in except at 140. Hearns lost to the best at 147 and 160 and arguably didn't face the best at 154 (McCallum). It kind of weird that he has a case for beating the best at the time at 175, though, and that's a hell of an accomplishment. His win over Hill might be the best they have between them, but after that I'd probably put Corrales, Pac, Castillo and Canelo. There's an argument for Benitez and Cuevas to be in there as well, though. So in terms of top wins I have it pretty even, but in second tier wins it's probably Floyd. And he never lost. Hearns lost three times by KO in his prime.
