I often hear other's say Duran is the greatest 135 pounder of all time. I'm aware how good his wins over Buchanen and De Jesus are. But how good is the rest of his 135 resume? How good were the likes of Lampkin and Thompson?
Lampkin always came up short in his big fights .. But Thompson was a tough Aussie and good boxer ..imo .. Buchanen and De Jesus are huge wins but I think Duran is thought of so high for his dominance(destroying) at 135 and eye test, maybe a bit more than his overall opposition perhaps
Good question. Yes, the standout wins were Buchanan and DeJesus (twice) but his win over Lampkin was impressive too as Lampkin was a live contender who had by many accounts been robbed against DeJesus only a year or so earlier. Duran also beat an excellent and slippery customer in Vilomar Fernandez in 1977 who would outpoint Duran's rival Alexis Arguello the following year in a non-title lightweight fight. That scuppered what would have been the deserved highlight of his reign, a fight with Arguello, one I feel Duran would have won if it had taken place. The only other fighter Duran missed out on was Antonio Cervantes, who was the dominant light-welterweight champion at the same time Duran was ruling the lightweight division. A fight against Cervantes any time between 1972 and 1975 would have been a hard call but Duran would have been a strong favourite had they met between 77 and 79 during Cervantes' second light-welterweight reign. He fought some stiffs too but other than Arguello and Cervantes there are no obvious omissions. With 11 kos in 12 successful defenses over 6 1/2 years, he is certainly the most dominant lightweight champion in history. Whether he is the greatest lightweight in history is a somewhat subjective question but he is only really competing with two other fighters for that honour, Joe Gans and Benny Leonard.
Thank you I have been meaning to watch Fernandez vs Arguello for a while now, I need to get round to watching it.
Some others: Guts Ishimatsu-Won WBC Lightweight Title from Rodolfo, beat a game but injured Buchanan. Edwin Viruet -Clever rangy boxer, beat Fernandez & nearly edged DeJesus. Saoul Mamby-Future Super Lightweight Champion, fought just above the limit as most non-title fights were. Hiroshi Kobayashi-Former Superfeather Champion Masataka Takayama-Japanese Lightweight Champion, KO wins over Buzzsaw Yamabe and Watanabe Lou Bizzarro-Undefeated Contender.
I think outside of Dejesus the contenders were weak but Duran did what you would hope. He was busy both in terms of defenses and non title fights and even in the non title fights he mixed in some good talent. When you dont have a lot of big superstar challengers to give you hard fights you stay busy and dominate the field. Thats what Duran did and when stars emerged north of him he jumped up and took them on. Great fighter.
Great response it certainly looks like Duran beat on the best around at the time. Although I get the point superfinghb made in stating its the way he did it which people focus more on.
Its still a fairly dense resume though. You have genuine great wins, and lots of solid to good ones. I would also add beating Marcel at FW, as an often underlooked great career win.
Duran title reign paralleled Carlos Monzon in that they both defeated a variety of opponent's and defeated their nemesis twice. ( De Jesus and Valdez ) Both who would have been dominate champs if were not for Duran and Monzon. Duran however got his super fight when he moved up to WW and faced Leonard but sadly Monzon missed his one with Hagler by 5 years.
Monzons resume is WAY weaker. They arent close to comparable. At least not overall. Even if you just use Durans LW fights Durans is has better scalps. Monzon has some flashy names but they were all on the downslide when he fought them. Overall Duran is head and shoulders above. Name me the best guys on Monzons record and Ill show you a guy who is on the downslope of his career and in the case of Valdez is was entirely calculated. He cant be responsible for Griffith aging or Benvenuti spending more time partying and screwing starlets than training but he ducked his greatest threat for 3 years and only fought him when he was seen as vulnerable. Duran fought his greatest lw threat three times at his peak.
