1978 Roberto Duran vs 2003 Floyd Mayweather jr. 15 rds @ 135

Floyd is just as fast vs Leonard and Benitez, and IMO has an even better defense. In addition Mayweather is a very smart fighter, with amazing accuracy & timing. If Mayweather wants to use his legs, he can. And his chin is a fine last line of defense for the blows that land.

Duran and his 66" reach ( Flyweights have better reach ) would need to get in close. Mayweather would not let him get there often without paying for it.

Could be a frustrating fight for Duran fans. I like Mayweather via SD with one judge giving it to Duran the way Hagler got one to side with him over Leonard.

 

I disagree on most of these points but it doesn' t matter.

This thread is asking about the 135 lbs Duran who took out De Jesus in the rubber match. Not the older slower heavier Duran who fought Benitez and Leonard. The topic is pretty specific on which version of Duran we are talking about here.

 

Mendoza says: Floyd is just as fast vs Leonard and Benitez, and IMO has an even better defense. In addition Mayweather is a very smart fighter, with amazing accuracy & timing. If Mayweather wants to use his legs, he can. And his chin is a fine last line of defense for the blows that land.

Duran and his 66" reach ( Flyweights have better reach ) would need to get in close. Mayweather would not let him get there often without paying for it.

Could be a frustrating fight for Duran fans. I like Mayweather via SD with one judge giving it to Duran the way Hagler got one to side with him over Leonard.

Okay, who did Duran beat that was great at lightweight? Marcel and Kobayashi? They were blown up feather weights. Buchanan? He was decent, but Duran low blowed him up on points.

If you ask me Corales and Castillo who Mayweather defeated were better than any light weight that Duran defeated.

Don't discount Duran's T-rex reach ( 66" ) in this fantasy match up. Mayweather would be the better on the outside, and if Duran got wild, Mayweather is a skilled counter puncher.

 

This, is the same reason why i pick Mayweather over Pacqiauo everyday of the week, he would use every inch of that reach advantage.

There's nothing more frustrating than facing a guy who has a longer reach than you and hes hard to hit, but he can hit you at will.

 

And that fight is scheduled to happen when exactly?

 

Buchanan was more than decent, and yes, Duran had him outpointed before the accidental low blow. So?

DeJesus was excellent, very close to great, and I would place him over Corrales and Castillo. DeJesus was Duran's toughest light weight opponent, he got one on Duran, beat Lampkin, Viruet,..etc.

What of it? Duran overcame longer listed reaches than Floyd. Since we want to keep digging into his later years, Duran was getting inside Hagler's freaky reach.

 

Dejesus beat no one prior to facing Duran. He was small 5'4" with just a 67" reach, and had Duran down.

Post Duran DeJesus didn't beat very good anyone either. He lost his WBA title shot to Cervantes who floored him three times, and only won the WBC later in his career vs 31-11-16 fighter. Hardly impressive stuff.

To say DeJesus was better than Castillo or Corrales to me is a stretch.

 

Im Azzer85, not Bob Arum :good

 

Not to be off topic but Cotto had the same listed wing span and arm length as Pacman and he touched May.

Mayweather's listed reach I suspect is not as big as we are led to believe, Mosley for instance, clearly had way longer arms when they were in the ring together, didn't help hm much but...

 

The major difference is, in the first 4 rounds Cotto, tried to outslug Pacqiauo and very quickly found out that aint going to work.

Actually it was the Cotto/Pac fight where i made my mind up that Mayweather would beat Pacqiauo.

Look at the second half of the fight, Cotto got on his bicycle and Pacqiauo was unable to catch him, at one point, Cotto even went to the ropes ala Mayweather and made Pacqiauo miss a whole load of punches. (I cant remember what round)

Pacqiauo also showed signs of frustation in that fight when he couldnt catch Cotto, at one point even putting up his fists, urging Cotto to fight. Duran also quit against Leonard due to frustration, the same reason why Tyson bit Holyfield.

If Pacqiauo thought catching a backpeddaling Cotto was frustrating, Mayweather would have him breaking down crying his eyes out.

 

Wow, same reach as Duran.

He faced Duran 3 times. So I guess your claim is he never beat anyone not "very good" ever. Not true. In addition to Duran, he beat Viruet, he beat Lampkin, Suzuki, Medina. All these guys were very good to excellent. What are you talking about?

So? He lost to a welter past his prime after you just pointed how small he was. He gave up something like 5 inches in height. BTW, he wasn't that bad. He took a prime Benitez to a close split decision, and had a two year title reign before losing to Pryor. :nut

To you it might be a stretch since you don't seem to know anything about the guy other than his reach and height and his few losses to welters. The guy was a monster at light weight.

 

I was talking about Cotto touching May despite having the same reach as Pac.

Eh..I usually agree with you but this is an odd analysis. Pacman took his foot off the gas in the late rounds, he would land on Cotto, knock him around, than stop and look at the ref. Cotto took a horrible beating, Pac's only frustration was the fight being allowed to continue when he was scared of killing a brave fighter in the ring. That's not hyperbole, or me being poetic, it was just a bizarre spectacle you don't see too often.

Seriously..Cotto was getting the **** kicked out of him, it was butchery. The fight could have been stopped as early as the 9th. I give Cotto credit for standing up to a bad beating but he wasn't frustrating or eluding jack ****. He couldn't even see, man.

[url]http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/images/photos/001/532/216/93090313_crop_650x440.jpg?1326810709[/url]

 

I cant believe someone just typed Buchanan was just decent and no better than Castillo and Corrales lol. Buchanan would have boxed rings around those two and is a higher ranked lightweight than Castillo. Buchanan was a beautiful mover with an outstanding jab/left hand. A brilliant counter puncher who could war with the best of them and had a head made of concrete and a fighting spirit of a true Scot. Ken would probably beat Floyd and I aint even joking.

 

Well after actually watching them fight, and not focusing only on their physical features I think De Jesus is better than both of them, and I also think he'd be a handful for Floyd as well. He had a great left hook, good boxing skills and a hell of a chin. And Cervantes was a damn good fighter btw