greeter fighter - Duran or Ali

Duran was the better fighter. He was equally skilled, equally tough and had more lb for lb power. Could fight and box; basically he could do it all.

Ali, OOTH, couldn't do it all. In fact, there was an awful lot he couldn't do, such as attack the body, slip punches through defence rather than reflex, attack effectively on the inside. But he was so good at what he was good at, he didn't need to be that good at everything else.

When those reflexes faded, though, he was left without many of the fundamental skills that might have compensated. That's where his greatness comes in. Taking Frazier to the wire through sheer heart (and no little talent), sticking in there with a broken jaw v Norton, what he did in The Rumble - 'nuff said - and that unyielding will he displayed in Manila takes him to another stratosphere for me.

Their careers followed similar trajectories. At 21, 22 years old, they won their first title, Duran against Buchanan, Ali v Liston; at 29 they had, arguably, their biggest fights, Ali v Frazier in FoTC, Duran v Leonard in the Brawl; then at 32 the veteran Duran took Hagler to a close decision while veteran Ali kayoed Foreman.

There were, of course, many other moments for both but they might be the three main milestones for each man. And here's what it comes down to. As great as Roberto's shining moments were, they weren't quite as great, in total, as Ali's. Whose were?

Here's a silly analogy. An alien comes to Earth and challenges our best fighter. You can blow Duran up to 215lbs and he gains everything exponentially - so he is a 215lbs version of the Duran of de Jesus 2. I'd pick that man. What a package of a fighter that would be to see the alien off.

And yet, if Ali was on the scene, I'd be torn as to whether or not to pick him. While Duran had the most complete set of skills, Ali found a way. I'd trust him to defend Earth too. I wouldn't know how he'd do it, but he'd do it. For me, he simply was that great.

 

lol! Benitez was better defensively than nearly any heavyweigt in history and P4P nothing matches Hearns physical advantages and gifts, Hagle was simply one of the greatest technicians of alltime, very few heayweights have that type of boxing ability.

 

Leonard was looking to fight the Golden Boy in 1997. He had balls and his reach exceeded his grasp. Along with Ali and Lewis they're my favorite fighters. With all that being said a prime or near prime Golden Boy takes apart a 41 y o Leonard. Prime for prime it's a nice fight but Sugar is just too good.

 

What an absolutely ridiculous comparison.

 

Greatest fighter of my life time - Duran
Greatest fighter of all time - Ali

 

Why? He shamelessly held on to Frazier in blatant violation of the rules.

 

The shorter guys in this comment section pretending like Duran was better are crazy. Relative to his size, Ali was way faster, had a way better chin, way better defense, and had far great accomplishments. Nobody had to watch 32 year old Ali KOd in the second round. No offense to shorter guys, you're just as cool, but chill with the Napoleon complex for a minute.

 

His wonderful defense got him Parkinson's by the age of 40.

 

What was Ali's greatest moment? Beating Liston or Foreman? Foreman's entire reputation rested on beating a smaller fighter who stood in front of him.

 

It's the ref job to tell him not too. If he held on to make the ref DQ him because he wanted out of the fight, then I can see the comparison. But it was no such thing. He clinched as a tool to win and continued since the ref allowed him.

To in any way shape or form compare that with a blatant quit job in a winnable fight is beyond silly.

If you don't see that you're not worth my time. And if you do but just troll... then you're not worth my time. So long.

 

I'm talking about at his best. Besides that, though, he did retire and unretire like five times, fought way bigger (and better, in terms of pure ability) opposition than Duran before his neurological degeneration became evident, and was known for doing extremely hard sparring extremely often. As Holmes said "he would just let me hit him every week".

 

"He fouled to win" is not much of an argument.

Return to earth, bozo. You spend time on an internet forum arguing with strangers. Your time isn't worth much.

 

He was a greeter at a Las Vegas casino.

 

Roberto Duran

A natural lightweight who went 15 rounds with Marvin Hagler.......... that's enough for me.

 

Half a dozen and two threes. It makes no difference who you pick here, their accomplishments are extremely close and either could be argued above the other. Both have to be in the top ten ever IMO. I'd probably shade Ali overall, but that's only what his achievements - (résumé, consistency, longevity, etc; - not that Duran was lacking in any of these areas).

Duran was a much better fighter, though. I'd actually argue there was no area of skill that Ali did better than Duran. Duran was better at feinting, his jab was just as good - better, IMO - Duran had better footwork, better defence, better up close, at range, upstars, downstairs, better at manipulating his opponent. Just in general, way more skilled. In terms of physical ability, Ali's advantages were his chin, speed and intangibles. He could be relied upon to beat anybody, whereas Duran could turn up and **** it away.