There never was a bad Duran at welterweight until Montreal. In his two big fights there agaisnt Palomino and Leonard I he was awesome and i'd pick him to hand out a viscious late rounds beating. If it's over 12 I pick Duran by decision and if it's over 15 he stops him late. Duran was just too good at cutting the ring off.
I was always of the opinion DLH probably beats Duran above 140, except for maybe the possessed version from the Montreal fight or if the fight is 15 rounds (due to DLH's stamina issues). DLH typically faired well against fighters of Duran size and style. Of course he never faced any near Duran's ability and guile. But i feel he had the size and range, and the speed and boxing ability needed to frustrate Duran. He definately had the power to get Duran's respect with that left hook (De Jesus was able to drop a prime lightweight Duran with a left hook). De La Hoya could box and move well enough in his prime, as seen in the first 8 rounds of the Trinidad fight. People acting like Duran is a god and crying 'blasphemy' at the suggestion DLH had a chance need to realise Duran didn't have a good record fighting elite guys above his best weight. It's worse than DLH's record in big fights. Sure Leonard, Hearns, Hagler and Benitez are ATGs, but he was totally outclassed in 4 of the 6 fights against them. DLH in his prime was atleast competitive against his elite contemporaries.
Man old threads like this bring back memories a lot of this posters are MIA makes you think what happened to them
Don’t know how this got bumped but I’ll give my opinion. Oscar had the size, length and style that could frustrate Duran. I can see Oscar UD fighting in a similar fashion as Leonard is the 2nd fight.
I wasn’t a big fan of Oscar but he could have easily retired with only 1 or 2 losses if didn’t have the take on all comers mindset. People can say Whitaker was old but he hadn’t had a loss for 10 years and was P4P #1 or #2 at the time of the fight. Same people that rate Teo highly based off his win against Loma try to discredit Oscar’s win over Whitaker
Very old thread.................I'd pick Duran by decision, I base this solely off of Oscars wins vs. Quartey and Sweet Pea, and his loss vs. Tito. Quartey gave Oscar a rough and tumble and nearly pulled it off (Duran definitely could duplicate this), Oscar struggled somewhat with Pernell's defense (I think he'd struggle somewhat with Duran's ability to roll shots and come right back), against Tito late, he fell back. I think Duran's style would weigh on him a bit and cause him to pull back offensively. Oscar couldn't detonate Duran, and I don't think he could duplicate Benitez or Sugar Ray's success (at least not for an entire fight). Wouldn't count Oscar out though, he was a bit of a monster at WW.
That's it! Oscar fought straight up. It'd take Duran about a round and a half to slip Oscar's jab and plant a right hand on his head. Oscar would wobble but survive but the course would be set . Duran stops Oscar around the 12th or 13th round after administering a thorough beating.
The best versions of themselves at 147 in a 15 round fight Duran wins big. Oscar allways had stamina problems and Duran would set a pace that Oscar wouldnt be able to keep up with and he would stop a battered and exhausted Oscar around the 13th round.
Quarteys jab though, who possesses a jab like that, that’s what Oscar struggled with. One of the best all round jabs I’ve ever seen
