Why? We are comparing the two's durability vs. the same man, and Hearns landed MUCH more on Leonard. Yet Duran was pole axed in two rounds. The question is who had the better chin. Duran's 60+ matches at lightweight do not factor into the equation for me. The question was not asked in a pound for pound sense. The two best punchers Duran fought at welter stopped him ( Hearns and Leonard ). Kirkland Lang, by no means a puncher hurt Duran ( Duran was 31 for this fight ) in round 7 of their match, and took over in the later rounds to upset Duran Hagler for whatever reason seemed spooked or gushy to engage with Duran. As for Leonard, he was only stopped once, in his final fight at age 40.
Because his lightweight fights DO count for one. You don't remove them because you're talking about a p4p sense. Even when discussing p4p ALL weights are factored in, not just the higher ones, they all count. So you wrongly dismissed his LW fights first of all. Second, SRL didn't stop Duran because of his chin, again, another disingenuous comment from you, which again, is what you did before. At NO point is their fights did Hearns hit SRL with the same kind of punch he did to Duran, so that is another non-existent thing you posted. Since we're comparing fights against the same guy... Hagler hurt SRL on a few occasions. While Duran, not so much. Shoot, Duran put SRL on his Q Street, to which SRL said "my brain was in a cloud for the next 3 or 4 rounds". SRL never put Duran in such a phase like that. Again, another disingenuous post from you
First, Duran didn't fight Hearns at welterweight. Second, how ON EARTH did the NO MAS fight show Duran had a bad chin? Duran's chin played no part in that fight. His colon did. His chin didn't. Duran fought 119 times, from super bantamweight to light heavyweight. He was dropped how many times? Leonard fought 40 times, from welterweight to super middleweight. How many times was he dropped? Duran had the better chin.
I think the consensus for Duran is fair. They both had fantastic chins for mine and i cannot see either getting stopped at their peak weight by anyone in history.
Okay, so they fought above welter weight. It doesn't change the question of the thread. What happened when Hearns hit him? Duran fell face first and was out before he hit the floor. A one punch KO variety early in a match, the type where critics used to and still slam Lennox Lewis for. A bit of a double standard? I think so. Leonard took Hearns shots for several matches. So based on the same guy, Leonard has the better chin. As for the " No Mas" , Sugar Ray was hurting him to the head and body. That's why Duran quit. He did not want to get stopped. Quitting did not enter Duran's mind when the fight was close in the early rounds. Once again there is a double standard with Duran. When other fighters quit, most critics question there heart, but with Duran, its spun. Why? As I said before, who had the better chin to me is clear. Leonard. You really don't need a top chin at bantam or lightweight if you very good as Duran was. But when he moved up to 147-160+, I think he was hurt easier.
When most fighters' quit, people don't say it proves they have a BAD CHIN. Which you did. Again, how the hell did the No Mas fight prove Duran had a bad chin? I never saw him staggered. I never saw him go down. I can't recall seeing him ever needing to hold on to clear his head in the 34 rounds they fought. You're the one spinning here. Based on your criteria with Hearns, Camacho fought Leonard and Duran around the same time. Camacho floored and stopped Leonard, and he couldn't floor Duran in two fights. And Duran was much older than Leonard and had about 80 MORE fights. And Camacho couldn't hit for crap. I'm a big fan of Leonard. I hung out with him for more than an hour once at an event I was working. I have gloves he signed for me. Great guy. I was never much of a Duran fan. But Duran had the better chin. He was slugged by Hagler. By Iran Barkley. By Cuevas. By Jorge Castro (who had nearly 100 KOs). Even by Leonard. All big punchers. Hell, Barkley spun Duran around on his heels with a solid shot. Duran went nowhere.
No spin at all. I'm using boxing facts. To be blunt Duran time at lightweight means nothing in terms of who took the better punch. He was KO'd by one punch in a fight where he was hardly hit prior. A face-first fall. Leonard had no such problems. It took his last fight ( check how old he was vs Camacho ) at an advanced age to him to get stopped, and his resume of wins is probably the best in the past 30 years! Duran was quickly stopped by Joppy in three rounds, but I'll be fair and say like Leonard that one happened at the end of his career when he was way past his prime. When Fighters quit, its because they are either injured, mentally weak or on their way to being stopped. Duran wasn't hurt or mentally weak. He was hurting and getting outclassed. Leonard was in a zone. That is why he quit. It wasn't Duran's day and he knew where the result was going. As I mentioned before Kirkland Laing, who upset Duran hurt him in round 7, and took the steam away from Duran for sure. Watch the fight. The problem here is Duran fans are stance supporters of their man, and never want to be open minded that he really didn't beat anyone better at Buchanan at lightweight ( and he won that one on a foul in the lead ), didn't give a rematch to Buchanan, and give him all sort of credit for losing to Hagler, never talk about him being axed quickly by Hearns and never talk about the No Mas moment, admitting he was hurt. Duran is overrated past light weight, and upset twice before he meet Hagler by lesser fighters! Who has a better chin, a natural Lightweight or Welter, and using the fight with the same man to me the answer is obvious. That's how I see it. Unless new facts come up, it won't change.
Maybe, just maybe, Hagler, Toney and Lamotta take that punch. Ray goes out cold like any other remotely normal person.
Both are complete ATG fighters, both were durable. I think Duran had a better defense than Leonard, and was able to roll with punches better. Both are great and it's close...
What? he was ko'd by one punch in a fight where he was hardly hit prior? Maybe you'd better watch the Duran Hearns fight before you make such a ridiculous unsubstantiated claim that renders your argument meaningless. Hearns dropped Duran in round one with a crushing right hand. In round 2 he again landed several rights before the KO punch. Watch it and please correct the error
I agree with you Mendoza is off on all points. Another Duran hater. Mendoza I guess you forgot Duran was I believe 71-1 going into 1st Leonard fight...and they don't count. You fight 72 fights and than tell me "Oh they don't count'?" Let a high school kid take his best shot at your jaw, and see if your not rocked. Chances are you would at the least stagger. Overall I think Sugar Ray was the best at that time, however in that 1st Duran fight Leonard was clearly beat, and Duran earned the win. KuRupt is pretty much on point. BTW by the time Duran's career was over he had like 120 or so fights, and won a championship ( NABF)at age 50. That's like 3X the amount of fights Leonard had. He only got KO'd 1 out of like 120 fights. You try that.
My first reaction was Duran. Having thought about it again, it's still Duran. Agree with JT though, neither Duran at lightweight nor Leonard at welterweight are getting stopped by anyone in history.
Hearns never hit Leonard consistently as clean as he did Duran for those 2 rounds. That was not a one punch knockout he put on Duran. he just landed the best punch of the fight last as Duran was wobbly. Duran took a lot of punches from Hearns. He had a good chin, but Leonard was never hit that clean by Hearns over and over. I would say Duran had a better chin.. Leonard's chin was a case of not being hit clean on the chin. Duran took Barkley's punch and most guys punches well. Hearns was just a fast guy and anyone getting knocked out by his right hand is not really an insult. Hearns at 154 would knock out most.. I like Duran's chin more. One of the best.
