Floyd Mayweather vs Roberto Duran at 135 pounds 15 rounds

Hmm,I dunno so man.

But I believe,that the sport eventually stopped evolving when various boxers starts to figure out many techniques,defense moves etc.


As the moves were already done, it's just up to the people to utilize the already carved tools or actually made one from scratch themselves.


I think Duran may be the one who had sharpened the carved tools given to him,some may say he had horrible distancing,but the left stepping, constantly moving his head out and in punching range,and feinting with those leads, that's quite modern from what I see from your standards,same to Floyd.




I ate back some of my words,not all modern fighters are inferior to
Old schools,but yet,the old schools wasn't so invincible at all, it's a matter of how the fighter uses his IQ,physicality,and tactics to make it work.


With that said tho,in a match where both Floyd and Duran were on their peak in all stats, it's a 50/50 that I could see for now,maybe would end up a 1-1-1 trilogy,because I can't absolutely see how they'll defeat each other at all.


Duran rarely matches up vs flat footed counterpuncher but with his match vs Benitez,you could argue that was his real weakness, Benitez wasn't responding to his jabbing threat and kept throwing.



But Floyd was by no means immortal from what I saw,he could be rocked and hit by fighters,you could say he had a different approach for each but there's some plenty ways a fighter made him think longer than usual.

Zab with the southpaw jab.
Castillo and Chino with the rough fighting.
De La Hoya with his jab.
And Augustus,who despite got beat really forces himself upon Mayweather and pressured him good,I even read a yt comment Augustus told Mayweather's weaknesses to others once.



And for either fighters,both were massively adaptable too, Duran always had a feint or a more disciplined,range-y version of his pressure fighting style to catch hard-to-hit opponents.


Mayweather had a key for most solutions,while his weakness seemed to be the body,at most times he would sway those punches with a harder,cleaner hitting counter,he could collar tie and such,he took pages from many great fighters.




In the end,I believe what matters is the one that could get a better grasp at finishing the final rounds, Duran weren't exactly a final round finisher despite being able to accumulate, it's possible Mayweather could go 15 with his conditioning,but Duran liked a tiring pace for himself and his opponents.

 

Fair analysis, fair analysis.

 

Both have what it takes to beat the other. If Duran's in shape, and motivated like he was against Leonard the first time, he wins.
If not, Mayweather wins a decision.

 

Hmm,if Floyd were able to keep his distance and change angles,he might be able to closely decision a prime Duran, that's if he was able to and avoid any exchanges, Duran could adjust to make the fighter he's facing trade.

 

We saw Floyd masterfully trading with one of the slickest boxers of all time and Augustus. Not trying to say Augustus is Duran, but, Augustus is like a slicker Duran who can trade, but when he trades he's also defensively responsible when trading. I would say the only thing Floyd needs to watch out when trading with Duran is his power. Trading generally favors the faster hand speed, which Floyd has. If Duran is not careful when trading, Floyd might stun Duran with a lightning fast punch. Don't forget Floyd has an underrated chin. Chin takes away power when power does not fulfill wins. Combine Floyd's chin with his already indestructible defense, I don't think Duran trading would make him win. I feel like especially prime for prime where Floyd looked near unbeatable, Duran has to be super careful and make the fight extremely boring in order to throw off Floyd's timing and find the incredibly small and tight openings that Floyd allows.

 

Not only does Duran need to prepare, Duran has to prepare the most he has ever possibly prepared for. Duran has to study, spar hell lot and needs to fight more competition. 4 competitive fights with 4 kings is not enough to prepare Duran for Floyd. Duran needs to face constant competition, he needs to fight the 4 kings multiple times, and he also has to study and not allow anything to get in his way in his training. To beat the best, you have to train like the best, and that's hard to do, and that's why it's hard to beat Floyd. If Duran can train like he's the poorest person in the world, his chances of beating Floyd increase a lot.

 

Not really imo,we saw how Duran managed to crack several openings by just trading with Leonard,a bigger man with better handspeed,and I don't think Augustus was like Duran.

Augustus,when hit he sometimes doesn't roll at all,unlike Duran who rolled atleast 90% of the hits you threw at him, Augustus had a head movement that's more suited for exchanges, Duran is more usable in multiple situations such as countering,closing the gap etc.

 

Here’s the thing though SRL is not as smart as Floyd and Augustus doesn’t have better defense than Floyd, like I said beating Mayweather is not just about trading, it’s about being smart and trade when needed to. You have to be versatile like SRR and you have to be constantly, constantly think in a chess battle, nobody knows how to beat Mayweather, and everybody here acts like they’re Freddie Roach and say there’s so many ways to beat Mayweather when it’s easy to say these things when he’s retired, the truth is we don’t know, but if we do want to beat him, we can only make assumptions for a fighter to INCREASE his chances of beating May.

 

Leonard does not stop Floyd please, stoppage and Floyd don’t go in the same sentence unless it’s Floyd doing the stopping

 

That's why Duran needs to trade tho,he was one of those who could be very smart,subtle and always thinking when trading.


I'd expect him to break off some gaps in Floyd's guard with his jabs and feint,then trade a few, that's his best chance,or else he had to force Floyd to actually initiate himself and get reckless(not too impossible, Floyd could bang at times),and the last option,he would hold everytime a punch was gonna hold him or Floyd was going to change angles,and flurry.

 

In all honesty I really am not sure how Floyd could beat Duran. Not even the greatest Southpaw could beat Floyd and you and I could both be correct and incorrect at the same time. The sport of boxing is very unpredictable and outcomes can be sweayed by even the most minimal errors. It's really hard to tell, but judging by what we see, and judging by the objective qualities both fighters possess, I feel like Floyd has the edge. I can guarantee that "jabbing" your way into Floyd's guard has to be a bad plan, mainly because you use the jab to not penetrate someone's guard, but you use it for many different reasons like poking holes, getting someone to react, using it to probe, especially against a fighter who nullifies the jab easily like Floyd. I feel like because of this, when they make adjustments, both of them, Floyd has the faster adjustments, because Floyd adjusts fasts and he has fought in a more advanced era. Ultimately, if I can imagine it really hard, I can see it looking like Duran vs Hagler, where they are banging, but they are banging long distance "pause." So they are not inside the pocket but they are trading blows at a distance.

 

In all respect too,I'm not sure how Floyd's jab could do Duran in also.
Duran was also a man who's trained to beat jabbers,even Benitez beat him using multiple counters,not jabs.


I believe that Duran could also reverse Floyd's trap into his own hands too,like jabbing to invite a catch counter or a jab back,only for Duran to smother inside and bang.



Maybe Leonard couldn't be as smart as Floyd,but I do believe he was close to Robinson's or Floyd's intelligence when it comes to changing tactics,yet Duran still managed to conquer him in the first fight using feints and slipping those unsure jabs.



While you can argue that Floyd adjust faster than Duran,he was also a bit more riskier because he's actually trying and switching different tactics and testing it to see if it works,in real time,that may be an opening Duran is able to exploit if he actually could change gears multiple times and keep his mental stable.

 

Floyd would take alot of punishment over 15 rounds..... I think Duran at 135 was a beast and I'd pick him to beat Floyd at LW, especially after how he struggled against Castillo and arguably lost the 1st fight.

 

Hm, I never knew Duran had those abilities, it seems like you just pulling out new abilites for Duran, and you may as well be correct, and you are definitely correct that Floyd does do risky things to adjust but I feel like this matchup is purely by chance. The thing about Floyd is that he adapts faster, if you say Duran could do this, Duran could trap Floyd, then Floyd would just adjust, kinda like Doomsday, kinda, but Floyd has to take the risk in order to adapt, and I do believe these minor risks could catch Floyd off guard if he's not careful, but it has to be split second capitalization, and you know Floyd is too mosquito pesky for you to capitalize a smother on him like that, IDK, my guts and my brain just have that instinct Floyd would win, these same guts and instincts winning me many bets, if history tells us, I would never bet on Floyd, that Pacquiao fight would tell us a lot I would need to know how Floyd would do vs Duran, I guess the victor is who prepares and who studies better and who is in the better conditions.

 

If you want to see Duran do some tomfoolery of trapping and feinting,I recommend you to watch that Palomino fight honestly, it's not exactly like what I said,but he did make Palomino so aware and scared of the cross followup that he opens himself up to many other shots.


And Duran's jab feint for smothering tactics isn't exactly a thing I made up either,his setups are basically one two,smother,but he executed them thru multiple feints and such it's hard to see thru, that's how he also made Leonard hard to box away from him.