Once Duran was above Lightweight, he had few defenses as Champion. This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected
he would have lost to Benitez and cueves Hearns (absolutely as the mismatched showed later) and Shields.
Cuevas definitely to unify the belts. Maybe a fight with benitez and hearns at a lower weight would prove fruitful for duran but in the aftermath of the first leonard fight he seemed worse noticeably so chances are after cuevas he'd have lost his next fight anyway because leonard, benitez and hearns were all great fighters and that version of duran (post leonard 1) just didn't seem as motivated to me.
Randy Shields impressed me as a fighter back then and he still does today. If only he had some pop in his punches, I think he would have beaten Cuevas.
Pipino's defense against Hearns was a month and a half away when Montreal took place. With Duran having defeated SRL, the only match which could have properly motivated him was one he was expected to lose, a WW Title unification against the winner of Cuevas-Hearns. Immediately after Montreal, pundits were writing that if Roberto fought Jose like that, he'd get himself knocked out. ("If Duran punches with hands of stone, Cuevas punches with hands of lead.") Right after Tommy nearly decapitated Pipino, many believed Hearns was invincible. Bob Arum predicted in a televised interview prior to SRL-Hearns I that Tommy would catch Ray early, just like he did Jose. There's no way Duran would have taken Hearns lightly in late 1980. El Cholo would have fully realized what a threat Tommy was, and this was the one opponent who he might have gotten in even better shape than Montreal for. But a rematch with SRL guaranteed him an $8,000,0000 payday, and he took it.
