ill answer this question after the Mayweather fight. Duran met some ATGs in his time. Pac hasnt met the type of quality Duran fought against. Id say Duran at present, by a fair bit aswell.
Duran was awkward, cute, elusive, and hit hard at 147lbs. His mindblowing showing against former champion Carlos Palamino aside, even a prime Leonard didn't have the capacity to keep Duran off of him in Montreal. A prime, motivated, Duran wouldn't give Manny the space to get leverage on his shots, probably forcing Manny on the ropes where he could let go with some horrible body shots and hooks upstairs. Manny is a well conditioned athlete, so he'd see the distance, but Duran was ultra skilled, and seemed to evade a lot of his opponents shots despite being so aggressive. I see Pacquiao doing well early, with the resistance becoming more futile as the body work and muscling takes it toll down the stretch. It'll also be discomforting for Manny when he watches Duran laugh at what flush shots land early. Erase the knockout loss to one of the fiercest hitters in history, and Duran's whiskers never let him down, not even against a gigantic Middleweight like Barkley. From Manny's point of view, he has a lot of things going for him in this fight. He has shown to have enough power to earn Roberto's respect, and his hand speed would see him undoubtedly land on Duran, even as elusive as he was throughout his career. If he was to keep the fight on the outside, he could probably win some rounds on simply throwing more punches and he's never given us a reason to doubt his stamina. However, Duran was great at slipping punches, feinting, and bullying his way inside, and I don't think Manny would back down from a firefight...he wont' win a firefight with Duran, he's too good in close. He'd need a lot more variety to his offense if he wanted to make Duran feel uncomfortable, and because he lacks that variety, in my opinion, he'd probably get countered more than he's ever been countered before, and he'd find himself missing more than he's accustomed too also. It's often forgotten, but Duran was one of the outstanding defensive fighters. ...I don't need to wait for the Floyd fight because it's a different assignment and for what's it worth, Mayweather would meet the same fate against Duran at 147.
Duran hands down.Pac could never keep Duran off.Be lucky to hit him clean.Doran was more elusive and hit harder than a lot of Pac's opponants.Remember waht a 44 year old Duran did to Comacho in thier first fight?Won at least seven rounds and got robbed.Camacho was a lot harder to hit clean tahan Pac.
There is little or nothing Pacquiao does better than Duran. Duran makes Pacquiao miss, takes this fight to the inside and out-hustles and out-muscles his way to a clear decision win.