A friend suggested that this would be a good hypothetical fight,prime for prime. Well,no disrespect to Paddington's finest,who was a good strong aggressive fighter,but I reckon that Randy would win this comfortably. Because of Terry's durability,it could go the whole fifteen,but Turpin would simply have too much variety. He was better in all ways.
I think Turpin was better too. More well-rounded, harder-hitting, and beat the legendary SRR when he was much closer to his prime.
I think Terry could of give a good account of himself here. He was champ albeit against Paul Pender, bit of a forgotten man. Nevertheless, the only middleweight to not lose his title back to Sugar Ray. Terry also gave Willie Pastrano a great fight for the lightheavyweight title.
In his prime, Turpin was a heck of a Fighter and carried shuddering power. Terry was a fabulous all action battler who never gave less than all he had. However, Downes was terribly vulnerable to damage around the eyes and, most famously, his " Hooter ". I think Randy would break him up in 8 rounds rather like Spider Webb did. Would have been a great fight though.
Although Pender was indeed the only middleweight not to lose the title back to Robinson, I think it's a weak argument. Robinson was way, WAY past his prime by this stage and the decisions in both their fights were hotly disputed. On the other hand, Turpin was the only fighter to dethrone Robinson during the first spell of Robinson's career and he was the only man in that same period to beat him without having a significant weight advantage.