Spent themorning watching Duran vs. De Jesus 2 from 1974 and other Duran mid70s fights. Duran is so fast and ultra aggressive. A crushing snap puncher with both hands. I do not believe this Duran on a pd for pd fight, has any trouble with Hagler or Leonard at all. Duran by KO. AND FOR SURE DURAN KOS WHITAKER. For the eye test, Duran just appears at his best to be able to do things noone else has ever done before or since.
I don't see him knocking Hagler out, even considering your p4p criteria. Hearns would be a problem because of the size & reach. I'll go for..... UD win Hagler UD win Leonard UD or late stoppage loss Hearns.
Noooo. Roberto had problems with both Edwin Viruet and Ray Lampkin, neither who were in the skill level of Whitaker. A top all timer, no doubt, unmatched in what he could do, don't see that.
The only times he fought elites he lost to all of them, excluding Ray when Ray fought his fight. If we had him fighting elites at lightweight we could be able to say more conclusively he would beat them conclusively. But none of those guys were elite which he fought.
Hearns would ALWAYS be a total mismatch against any version of Duran. Duran, His physical limitations would always be his Achilles against and his downfall against Hearns. Duran is a top 10 pound for pound ATG. But he never faced anyone close to the skill level and physical ability at light weight of a Hearns or Hagler . Prime vs Prime even at lightweight weight ( let's say Hagler and Hearns were able to fight Duran at that weight limit) He possibly/ probably out point Hagler, But Hearns? I see the same result as their Jr middleweight fight, but it would get past two rds. Hearns, a lightning quick, punishing jab, and probably best straight right hand in the history of boxing would always be that mountain Duran couldn't climb. The physical advantages Hearns had would always ALWAYS be the difference in my opinion.
Duran did most of his work at LW and dominated and destroyed some very good boxers for a very long time. To somehow allude to his resume wasn't good at LW, just doesn't hold water imo because he went up to WW, SRL's weight and beat him .. End of story .. You can not do that unless you have been completely battle tested and proven as Duran was by his fights at 135 AND he went up, and it wasn't the first time btw... I think it's a mistake to look at Duran at 154 and think he was remotely the same fighter he was at 135, and he would be some easy to hit guy as he was at 154 vs Hearns, probably Hearns' best weight and in Prime … p4p, Duran gets through to Tommy and KO's him in a 15 round fight … Too good at defense coming in and too much pressure for Tommy to handle ..
If Duran hadn't been around Dejesus and Buchanan would be considered elite. The reason they aren't(by you) is because Duran beat them.
I don't think it works like that. Elites will come out no matter who gets in their way. Hearns was beaten by Ray and was not going to be denied. Even guys who were not great like McGirt lost to a guy named Warren and came back and beat him and became a good fighter. DeJesus and Buchanan were not all time great elite fighters. And we all know it. Beating Arguello would have been nice for Duran and he might have been able to beat him but he did't.
Are we assuming that these fighters like Leonard and Hagler are going to lose weight to fight at 135?
I can't see any logic for him losing to Hagler P4P. Crikey, an old puffed up Duran gave him a good fight even if the closeness if overstated. Imagine a P4P Duran giving away less physical advantages, carrying far more P4P power and also speed. As great as he is i can't see Hagler winning that in a fit.
Hmm...so they meant it's about P4P wise? Alright then, Duran is like 4 Roldan condensed into one great fighter for P4P Hagler.
Yes, it's picturing the in ring standing and assets Duran had at 135 against those that Hagler had. It's deep and a lot to take in. What makes this one easier to compare than most is that they fought, with Duran miles past his peak and best weight and Duran made a decent fight of it. It's not open to someone saying but a bigger Duran loses a lot of speed.....well he'd have more P4P speed than the one did that actually fought Hagler, for starters. Also Duran didn't hit near as big P4P at 160 as he did at 135. I'd call him a big puncher at 135, and an average one at 160.....nothing like he was at the lighter weight.
