I think we should compare great fighters at their natural weights,but I'll give it a shot....I saw Willie Pep in his featherweight prime,he was fantastic as a 126pounder..He did whip a great lightweight Willie Joyce, who beat Ike Williams twice...Pep also lost a close dec.to Sammy [the clutch ]Angott,in 1943,ending Willie's win streak...Incidentally, I believe Duran would have his hands full with Sammy Angott,a real toughie...I think Duran would be too big and strong for the smaller Pep, methinks...But Henry Armstrong lcould come in at 134lbs.and eventually wear down Duran, at Henry's best..Armstrong was a freak of nature, as was Harry Greb before him...Armstrong by dec.15 rounds...
That really works both ways ripdog...In both Castillo fights you saw how Floyd didnt enjoy being muscled around and against a competent ring general how he didnt enjoy getting cutoff and pressured intelligently. I thought Jose did a pretty good job with his distance in those fights, he managed to prevent Floyd from landing at will with his counters. I think Floyd showed he could be open for a good feint in those fights aswell. Something Duran is just straight up the master of. Floyd was definitely wary of Castillo and seemed to be tensing up at times when Jose shaped to punch. I really think something that will benefit Duran is his footwork..his ability to close the distance and keep his balance in awkward positions will have Floyd in two minds for much of the fight. The momentum he gets when coming forward would pretty much negate Money's tendency to invite his opponent back in straight lines to get a counter opportunity..Duran would be closing the distance better and be slipping shots more effectively then anyone Floyd has fought before. Floyd is pretty good at dealing with conventional fighters who use conventional moves but Duran is awkward and instinctive, which is hard sometimes for pure boxers to deal with. I think factoring styles and abilities Duran would win regardless of weight.
Pretty much what I think. I spent some time watching Duran and noticed that he could make adjustments rather quickly. He has more dimensions than I thought he did. People should watch video of Duran before commenting about his skill. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gac4u7iqclk&feature=related[/ame]
The mid seventies duran? None. Even of natural lightweights there are none to be favoured. I think maybe whitaker would be the most interesting,and armstrong the most exciting.
Armstrong has at least a 50-50 chance. You can't really count fighters who started at 126 in the era of the moved weigh in times. e.g. Mayweather was never a Featherweight by the rules of Duran's era.
I don't think Pacman could because Manny stands too much in front of guys that Duran would probably hit him, but Manny's speed might pose a problem. But a guy who moves and uses the ring has a good chance of beating Duran's style. Duran foot positioning was always wide apart, and that made his mobility against the better fighters not so great. Who that is it would be tough to find. Arguello had a chance I think but Alexis would probably crumble to Duran's pressure, but Alexis right hand is a punch that not many guys Duran fought at lightweight had. And he was quick at lightweight, but the opposition was not exactly fast at lightweight. Duran's is lucky that his weaknesses were exposed when he moved up in weight so that he has excuses that he was older or overweight, regardless of weighing in at 154 in 1978 before Hearns or Benitez or Leonard ever did.
It's funny how i've told you before about this and you never reply to me, but you never stop saying it.
I've racked my brains about your question. And no,I can't think of any fighter who could move up in weight to beat the prime lightweight Duran. Someone like Alexis Arguello would have been competitive,but not pulled out a victory.
I think a bout between Mayweather and Duran plays out more like the second Mayweather/Castillo fight rather than the first one. First of all I do not think the fight was as close as the official scores indacated. Sure Castillo rughed Mayweather up at times. However Mayweather seemed to have an answer and perhaps more importantly most of the punches landed by Castillo were while he was holding and hitting. Last I checked that is illeagle. Therefore those punches should not count towards any score. In the second fight Mayweather was healthier than he was in the first. I aslo think we saw a better version of Castilo in the second fight than in the first. His being more actave in the second is what leads me to this conclusion. In the second fight Mayweather landed 162 out of 162 for a 41% on the other hand Castillo went 137 out of 604 for 23% . Mayweather has a way of making extraordnary boxers look ordnary.
Mayweather threw more punches in the first fight dude...so that argument is out the window. He fought a smarter fight in the second but it was fairly minimalist and just enough in approach. You will not beat Roberto Duran that way.