Duran (Hagler fight) vs Jermain Taylor (Hopkins I & II fights)

I see Duran with his skills and experience prevailing

 

Taylor had a lot of technical flaws …and he didn’t always listen to his corner …he made fights a lot harder than they needed to be …Duran UD …with Taylor’s face a swollen mess

 

draw

 

Draw or close decision either ways, Duran didn't have the natural size of Hopkins but his experience is near the same as Hopkins,if not more.

 

Duran is never losing to Jermain Taylor. Not with JT's putrid stamina.

 

This

 

Jermain Taylor by virtue of being the natural MW. Duran only went the distance with Hagler because Marvin was way too timid.

 

Taylor would run around the ring and win a ud. Taylor never even really went down on the cards except for being scared in the Pavlik rematch. Let's stop pretending like Duran could do something that Hopkins couldn't.

 

He already did. He brought prime Hagler on the verge of a defeat.

 

Taylor is poison for Durán at middleweight, Taylor with the height and reach and decent long range boxing would just stay behind that jab and move, and since he’s the much bigger man, could just tie him up in close.

A cruder guy would be someone who Duran could beat where he can outbox them and they do fall for the counters etc.

 

Duran's aggression and pressure would have been great weapons against Taylor, whose biggest flaw in my opinion was his lack of stamina. But I think a better middleweight would have been needed against the prime Taylor of (Manos de Piedra was very good as a middleweight but not great), whose speed and footwork would have been decisive. The American would have boxed Duran from the outside and would have clearly won on points.

 

I'm sure Hopkins could lose to Hagler, if not actually beat him.

 

I did not have Taylor beating Hopkins, Wright, nor Spinks. I suspect I'm not alone in this opinion, since I remember Larry Merchant or Jim Lampley talking about Taylor getting all those questionable calls at some point of Jermain's career. All those guys were smaller than him, all past their physical prime - and Jermain was never dominant. There were a lot of vulnerabilities here.

I think Duran would do well here.

 

Great. Your scorecards don't count though.