Behold your false god, Roberto Duran

He's a top-5 lb4lb'er in my book. All-time.

SRR
Langford
Greb
Duran
Armstrong

and yes, Ray Leonard is way up there, also, though not top-5.

 

Duran beat one great and he is top 5 ATG? And he never knocked out a great. Ray beat 4 greats. The great Duran beat then easily made him quit in the second fight. Just on that criteria putting Duran as top 5 ATG is ridiculous.

 

yet Duran is the only one all the greats beat including Benitez. Benitez,Hearns,Leonard,Hagler all beat Duran. Duran never fought a real great at lightweight. His machismo and charisma overrate him.

 

Wow, really? This is the argument? Fine, I'll recognize Duran as a great fighter while you guys keep determining the lines you draw in the sand. I'd say Pernell would give him hell but Mosley? Ugh, Mosley? Come on.

 

Duran dominated Buchanan,who was great.KB beat Laguna TWICE ffs.We all know you hate Duran and can't give Ken his props but that's your problem.He also beat DeJesus,Lampkin and ko'd Marcel(at 130),when Duran was what,20?Oh,by the way,Marcel beat Arguello(as did Fernandez,another Duran ko victim).And just for the ****ing record,Duran beat Palomino much,much more convincingly than Benitez did right around the same time,and the CP-WB fight was a split decision in Wilfredo's Puerto Rico.Keep dreaming.

 

ripcity - you're a half-functioning human being. If somebody called yourself simple-minded, they'd be insulting simple-minded people. And you can't spell for **** and never change your opinion regardless of the points made against you. It's a shame. It really is.......I love to read posts on this classic forum, it's like getting a first-class education in boxing history. But then every so often, you see ripcity's dumb ass and his posts that make you loose faith in humanity.

 

Another useless statement.All of them were naturally bigger than Duran and he fought every single one of them after his prime and after 65+ fights.

 

Well now the big elephants out of the room. Someone had to do it.

 

Holy ****, I've never seen any of this before! I bet none of us have!

 

Is that a blend of accomplishments and H2H?

Anyway I'd have Charles 1 spot up, with Duran at #6. But yes, he's top 10 material no less.

 

All of them were bigger but Duran was the one weight drained against Leonard :huh

Also, it's not uncommon for ATGs to face some of their biggest challenges past prime, Lewis against Vitali, Ali against Frazier/Norton/Foreman, Hearns against Hill, and the like.

In addition to that, no one forced Duran to go up in weight. He chose to do so to achieve higher glory, and while he did, you have to conversely accept that he became inconsistent and lost to the best fighters at the higher weights he faced.

 

All correct statements.But you can't deny that his best weight was 135.Plus,you can't deny that all the the aforementioned fantastic 4 were naturally bigger.Plus,you can't deny that his resume at 135 is fantastic.Plus,you can't deny that when he finally moved up to welter,he had had 60+ fights against some serious opposition.Those facts you can't deny.And if you're going to claim that he was anywhere as good at 154 as he was at 135 when he was 30 and under,you and I both know that you'd be stating falsehoods.

 

I'd say his post-135 career ranks about where Michael Spinks' post-175 career does. Doing what they did pounds past their best is admirable, and they do have decent scalps (Leonard and past prime Holmes, respectively), but also some bad losses that can't be stricken from their record because at the end of the day, the choice to move up in weight, the choice to face that particular opponent, that all comes back to the fighter.

So while his courage and fierceness are admirable traits, I don't believe that they negate his defeats and it has the unfortunate consequence of diminishing his conquerors.

 

Gaining weight only happens to those "out of their prime" or leaving it. Ever heard of the condition called "creeping obesity"? That's when an aging person gains one pound a year because their body is aging. Your weight argument is crap.

Creeping obesity is when the human body maintains similar activity, yet the metabolism slows due to the aging process.