Floyd Mayweather vs Roberto Duran at 135 pounds 15 rounds

The best actually. The only guys I think who could adapt as fast as Floyd is probably James Toney and SRR. Floyd's style is heavily based off of Toney's and they fight very similar, shoulder roll, philly shell, Michigan fighers man. That James Toney vs Mike McCallum I is the most beautiful fight I ever saw, super high IQ fight with good techniques and fast adaptations from both fighters, on the fly adaptations. Besides a prime James Toney and SRR, no one else could adapt like Floyd who can make adjustments literally on the fly, and not only can he adapt he can adjust his style and capitalize on his opponent's weaknesses even if it's the smallest slightest flaw, he will capitalize on it and punish those small flaws in your style until you are force to correct it, and correcting your flaws can be difficult cause if you correct a flaw it can open up other holes. For example if your guard is loose Floyd will use jab control to force you to tighten your guard and make you hesitant to punch. Tightening your guard limits your offense. If you loosen your guard up to play offense, Floyd will punish that, so Floyd is good at setting up lose-lose situations until you are forced to correct a habit that made you win a lot of exchanges. That's why he's so boring but so efficient. Every move needs to count and Floyd does not waste moves, if he punches, it's a high percentage shot, that's why he has such a high landing percentage compared to everyone else, and you can say it's inflated stats, but I don't think Duran in his first 50 fights or Hearns in his first 50 fights got even close to 40% landing rate, Floyd on the other hand lands damn near 50, I think Floyd has like 48.7% landing rate, that's damn near 50%. Imagine your opponent throws 2 punches and 1 of them is guaranteed to land regardless if it's soft or not. That's super high but then again he doesn't punch a lot and his punches are super super efficient, that's what makes him the best or if not the best, one of the best boxers of all time, his ability to grow along with the competition.

 

In the end honestly,I think this debate ends in a stalemate for both sides.
Floyd and Duran has each showed vulnerability vs their own styles,and i think it's just the one who came out stronger in the championship rounds ...that will dethrone the other.

I respect @Aden Yuan 's opinion though,he also watched more fights than me so he should have a bit more understanding than me.

 

I agree, although I would add, that even though stylistically, they both pose problems for eachother (although I'd argue there's much more evidence of Floyd suffering against pressure fighters, despite his cleaner record), only Duran has proven he can beat a prime fighter as good as their opponent. Duran basically did the impossible by beating Leonard, and there's no spin you can put on it that changes that. If you can move up two weights and beat Sugar Ray Leonard, you can beat Floyd imo.

 

I think Floyd wins this all day. The worst kind of fighter for his style. Think Kirkland Laing. I get Duran was a beast at lightweight, but he never fought anything like the calibre he did after he moved up into the elite level. Admittedly he held his own, but he lost as often as he won against the best of the best. Floyd is at that level.

 

I appreciate when one understands that he is less experienced in watching boxing. Not only do I watch boxing I do some boxing myself and that gives me credence to my opinions. I like Floyd for a reason, there should be a valid reason why I like a fighter, and there should be no apparent bandwagon reason why I should like someone. I like Floyd because the moment he fought he stood out to me. He stood out to me, the way he does things, I can't imitate it. I watch a lot of fighters too, and suffice to say if I watched someone like Lomachenko if Floyd didn't exist, I would be a huge Loma fan. I am just so fascinated how a can completely change his style, from a young aggressive person who could KO world champions to an older, slower dude with soft hands still winning against the most dangerous offensive boxers. Like you could throw a million punches at this dude and like 5 would land, and the 5 that would land are probably partially blocked punches. I've been in the ring and even dodging 3 punches is hell of a task, granted I am a rookie boxer with 4 years of experience, but like, dodging and blocking 3 punches is already hard, now try dodging like 40 punches. The only other fighter who made me feel this in awe is RJJ and old SRR.

 

Duran wouldn't have needed 15 rounds with Floyd.

Roberto by KO - If he found a way to hurt Leonard he'd find a way to hurt Mayweather

 

You’re just a delusional Duran D rider. No one KO’s Floyd ever, you don’t put KO and Floyd in the same sentence unless it’s Floyd winning. Floyd is too prideful to get KO. If Leonard can find a way to make Duran No Mas quit, no honor, Floyd can do it too LMAO

 

Well said! He's vastly underestimated at WW. The night he fought Leonard he was very close to perfect.

 

Of all the GREATS in boxing History from 140 to 154 NOBODY KO's your guy ever!? Cmon man

 

For me though,how Duran fought always makes me in awe,dude was the underdog for all of his 4 division title wins,but always got his shi together with all the skills and experience to back it up.


He also had nice feinting,great jab and good footwork for cutting off/moving around the ring,had multiple right hand setups and was an expert at hand fighting,he literally made me appreciate the clinch better,and his level changing and distance keeping was top notch.


Stay safe tho,see ya any time soon.

 

Of all the greats... he says confidently SMH. Name me 5 guys in those those categories greater than Floyd. You say of all the greats like Floyd ain't top 2 in those weight classes WTF? You funny as hell

 

That's valid, that's valid, I actually saw Duran before Floyd which eliminates any bias. I'm in my late 30's RN, I started watching in my early 20's. Before watching boxing, I was watching cricket and volleyball. Then for nearly 2 decades I dedicated myself to be a boxing fan. My dad is not a fan of the new school so he forced me to watch old grey tapes no color tapes, so I was introduced to those first. My dad had a top rank subscription so he had access to lots and lots of old tapes, some lost tapes even, the good old days. Anything past 1998 I didn't watch until like 4 years ago. This is because I never cared to watch new stuff, didn't know any new school boxer names, only like the most famous of the famous names I knew, only watched like 3 new school tapes. So I was exposed to 4 kings, then I saw Floyd, the one and only king of his era, and he fascinated me, the 4 kings was great but this one kid, this one magnificent boxer stood out the rest, completely dominating, a league of his own. To me, boxing died when Floyd retired.

 

Fair enough,the closest thing we ever got to an ATG that could fight in every gloved boxing era after Floyd was Inoue imo,and he still had his own flaws.


I may up Floyd to at least one place below Duran, although I might notch him up above because his career kind of had less faults.

 

Hmm, IG it depends on the kind of person you are. In terms of P4P, the majority of people consider Duran to have the best career of the 4 kings and rank him the highest, although when it comes to competition, he is lackluster due to his weight where he struggled actually fighting the 4 kings. I personally do not have Duran in my top 10 but I can honestly see him in other's top 10, low top 10 is his high end. Maybe like #9. I have SRL above him and Floyd above SRL. If you give Duran Floyd's opponents Duran would definitely do worse because first, Duran has less accuracy than Floyd. It is definitely possible Duran may win all 50, but Duran does not KO 27 or stop the 27 because simply because of the advacement, and also the weight distribution is to high for Duran even with his stone hands. I also don't see Duran becoming undisputed, at lightweight, Roberto Duran fought Esteban DeJesus as his best opponent. And beat him twice and lost once. Floyd best wins at lightweight is Castillo, and he beat Castillo convincingly both times, the way Floyd beat Castillo is worse than how Duran beat DeJesus at lightweight because it took Duran more fights to adjust to his opponents, highlighting Floyd's tremendous fight IQ even at such a young age. In a 3 match fight I have Duran vs Castillo 2-1, and Floyd vs Castillo 3-0. The way he beat Castilllo in the rematch tells me Floyd could possible KO or maybe stop Castillo in the 3rd matchup.

 

Imo,I don't think his best opponent was De Jesus in lightweight, Ken Buchanan had a much better resume.

Duran taking more fights to adjust is kind of true, considering his training habits of being lazy,but in a pure fantasy scenario where he trained like Hagler,I believe he would adjust like Leonard or Even Floyd.



And for "advancement",maybe only a few would employ their all time skills vs Duran,I believe Duran is the type of fighter that'll be formidable in any era,to name,maybe like Cotto, De La Hoya,pac,and Mosley, Marquez also.

He'll blow up the rest for me.