Where does Duran rate in the all time middleweight rankings? A natural lightweight of course that moved up and went a full 15 with Hagler and years later beat Barkley I would think he rates maybe top 25.
I don’t know if he’s top 25 at middle. That’s a pretty stacked division. Although in actuality I could see him giving a lot of top middleweights tough fights
As much as I love Duran, he was not a great middleweight. He only fought seven fights where both he and his opponent weighed more than a junior middie but no more than the 160 lb middleweight limit. His record in those fights was 2-5. Other than a bout against Jimmy Batten his fights were all against very good to great fighters and Duran was 1-5 against them.
I dont think he ranks anywhere close to a top 50 or maybe at all, but the Duran of the Hagler and Barkley fights can hang with some of the others middle greats for sure
I can understand your reasoning he also beat Cuevas but IMO he would rate at 147 had he had some longevity but he was inconsistent far too much so to rate with the Walkers, Basilios, SRR, Kid Gavilan, SRL and so on that is not to say he couldn't beat any 147 champion on any day he just didn't dominate the division for any length of time
Not IMO he wasn't consistent and it isn't where his legacy was as a champion it was his IMO #1 the best lightweight that ever walked the earth followed by Henry Armstrong, JCC, and a few others can fight for #2
