The greatest lightweight of all time - ROBERTO DURAN

I'm not sure where I'd place him in terms of all-time rankings at LW. Even though it was his best weight, he is so highly thought of because of his ability to move through the weights more than his 135 reign. I'm not sure where he'd place in relation to Leonard, Gans and Williams at lightweight, but he's a lock for my top 10 P4P.

 

joe gans

 

What a fighter he was. One of the more subtle geniuses of all time for my money.

 

I hated that motha****a... But props to him. He was a tough cookie, and he was undoubtedly one of the greatest at that weight.

 

Not in a personal sense, just in a sports sense, kinda like how I hate the Indianapolis Colts and the Phoenix Suns.


And I hated Leonard the same way. I grew up thinking I was Tommy Hearns.

 

I actually think Ike Williams would out-Duran Duran and Benny Leonard would have the skills to beat him. Whitaker-Duran would be 50/50.

 

i respect durans skill and wont argue that he wasnt great, i just hate the excuses everyone makes for every loss he has. the book "hands of stone" is a primetime example of what i mean. plus, i like joe gans :good

 

I would definitely been more of a fan of Duran had I been a little older, and understood the significance of what he was doing in and out of the irng. But I was obsessed with the Hitman. I might have cried myself to sleep after the Hagler fight.:rofl:rofl:rofl

 

You have a tendency to gravitate towards tall and skinny black guys(hearns,Williams),let me guess you loved Mark Breland too?

 

i can still remember as a kid with my uncles watching the fights of duran in the sitting room.

what a fighter.

 

So many great, legendary fighters, but Roberto Duran truthfully was a beast to be respected in any era and in his best fighting form had what it took to beat any fighter. Aside from his ring greatness, he had quite the character and was larger than life. I mean, when a guy knocks down a horse and knocks down the wife or the mother of a fighter he had just ko'd, that's movie stuff.

Even his roots and his past is a topic for conversation that fans like to bring up. He might of been incosistent at times and when he didn't feel like training for a fight he wouldn't and lost fights he really wasn't supposed to and his rep as a party animal was well known, but when that stubborness was put aside he reminded the world he could win fights when he wanted too. He also showed a soft side when he would go visit his arch nemesis Esteban DeJesus in his deathbed.

He was also very versatile. Some of Duran's greatest wins were using a swarming style early in his career, but became more of a technician in the higher weights. But when he had to, he was more than happy to go toe to toe and many bigger men heavily underestimated him as just another "blown up" lightweight only to be lying flat on their backs courtesy of a Duran right hand. He also had one of the best right hands of all time. He had an underrated defense. All these factors helped make him the best lightweight of all time IMO. Hail DURAN! Viva Manos de Piedra!