Duran doesn't believe Mayweather would have dominated in his era

He missed every single one of them. A 6 pound weight difference isn't a valid excuse for not fighting someone either.

Hagler fought Leonard and Duran despite both guys being unranked at middleweight and unproven at the weight. Somehow that didn't stop the fights taking place.

 

He is right. Floyd would have stayed at 130 to avoid them anyway.

 

This is silly.

Completely unrealistic.


He was already past his best at WW with a mostly cautious style.

He wouldn't have been favoured over a prime Ray.


Even if you picked everyone over Floyd, he probably would have gotten to 2-4 or 3-3?

Against WHO?

There is nothing probable at all.


How on earth was he more likely to have gone 6-0, than 0-6??

That is a ridiculous statement to make.


Breakdown the match ups.

 

This has already been explained to you by both me and Dynamicpuncher.


You have to look at the timelines.

It wasn't just a 6 pound weight difference.

He fought the rematch with Ray at SMW in 1989.

By 1991, he was fighting Virgil Hill at LHW.

After that, he fought at CW.


When guys like Jackson were prime in the early 90's at MW, he was already two divisions higher at LHW.

He didn't avoid any of those fighters.


Marvin fought guys who came up to him. Whereas Tommy constantly moved up to fight guys in higher divisions.

You can't criticise him for not fighting a guy like Kalambay, when he was 2 divisions up fighting an undefeated Hill.


You have to realise that he was at SMW as early as 1988.

So he'd have needed to have moved back down 1-2 divisions to have fought many of those guys.


You don't have any case to claim that he avoided anyone.

 

Hearns had the frame to continually move up. 6'1" with a 78in reach. Same reach as Usyk, Ail, and Foreman. Even stepping up to cruiser where he wasn't tall for weight class anymore, he still had a HW's reach.

 

Sure I do. To start with Jackson and McCallum were both ranked in the top 10 at junior middleweight when Hearns was the reigning champion. After beating Duran he defended against Fred Hutchings and Mark Medal. Fighting McCallum instead of those guys would have been the better option pretty clearly as he was rated higher and considered more formidable.

I don't think it's unreasonable at all to criticize Hearns for not fighting McCallum as he was rated in the top 5 in 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1985 at junior middleweight without Hearns ever facing him. He's the highest rated guy Hearns didn't face at the weight.

 

Yes, he could have fought Mike. There was only a small window, but it could have happened.

I’m personally of the belief that Manny didn’t want it.

He’d had Mike at the Kronk. There’s still some great footage of them sparring on YT. I saw it recently.

So I’ll give you that one. But I don’t think that Tommy ducked him.

Jackson was ranked, but that’s not a big omission.

He wasn’t in his prime until the early 90’s, when Hearns was at LHW.

Also, you could hardly accuse him of ducking threats, when he moved up to fight Marvin.

Maybe if he’d have beaten Marvin, he’d have remained at the weight for longer. I’m not sure.

But I don’t see how he can be accused of outright ducking guys like Kalambay etc.

Just because they didn’t fight, it doesn’t mean that they were avoided.

The thing is, every fighter in history has missed someone.

Harry Greb had over 300 fights. Ray Robinson had over 200. But they both get accused of missing guys. And that’s the same for every guy, all throughout the sport’s history.

 

I doubt he’d have gotten around to fighting most of them, probably not Hearns or Hagler.

Hagler too big, Hearns too big.