Barkley vs. Duran

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Close fight because of Duran's late surge but like Al Bernstein, I had Barkley holding on and winning by a point or two. A draw would have been fair. The two Duran scorecards were way too wide.

 

I scored it a draw at the time.

 

Do you even watch boxing? 'I mean seriously. In about round 10 'Bernstein himself says he hasn't been scoring the fight round by round but thought Barkley was probably ahead. These were pretty much his exact words.

That said it was a damn close fight and l think the decision could have gone either way.

 

I had Duran winning close but clear. There were a few close rounds that I scored for Duran due to his cleaner punching and the effect of his punches. Barkely was busy the entire fight. He worked the body well but Duran was really drilling him with that right hand.

It was a rare fight in the sense that Iran Barkely fought probably the best fight of his career and he still lost. It was a great fight to watch and it was an amazing performance by a 37 year old Roberto Duran against a really big, powerful middleweight.

 

I too thought that was one of Barkley's best performances. He was busy, had a good jab, and went to the body constantly throughout the fight. I would say Duran's chin was the main difference.

 

I thought Duran won a close decision.

Barkley lost the 11th (2 point round) and 12th rounds and thereby the fight.

 

It was close and both fought very well. Duran swept the last few rounds which won it for him. At the end of the fight Barkley looked like he'd run into a brick wall. Duran was barely marked.

 

Bernstein had Barkley up throughout the fight. He had Barkley ahead but thought that Duran might have done enough in the late rounds to convince the judges otherwise. He called the two Duran scorecards "shocking" when they were announced because of the margins of victory.

BTW, YOU are accusing someone of not watching boxing?? That's rich.

 

Berstein might have had Barkley up throughout most of the fight, but he himself said he wasn't scoring the fight round by round, so what's that worth? Apparently a lot to you, not much to me.


He was talking to Clancy and he said, I haven't been scoring the fight round by round, but I imagine Barkley's ahead by a few rounds, then after the fight Clancy said, hard to say who won, some of those rounds were close and they could just slide on over to Duran. (meaning they both thought Barkley may have won those close rounds, but the judges may have thought differently).
Clancy then went on to say, it's going to be hard for the judges to give the fight to Barkley as they usually favor the stronger guy at the end.

Duran won the later rounds, including a 2 pt round to secure the victory.

Later on someone said they seen Barkley talking to himself muttering "too much heart, too much heart, the man just wouldn't go down, I hit him with shots that would have knocked down a wall."

All that aside, I don't have a problem with someone scoring that fight for Barkley, it was close enough that it wouldn't have been a robbery regardless of who won, personally though I thought Duran deserved the win for the work he did in the later rounds, but he was behind after the 8th.


In fact this is probably my favorite fight, given the odds Duran had stacked against him, and all he had was experience, boxing skills and a great chin. Barkley had youth, strength, power, reach, and he also displayed a very good jab and worked the body well.

Both Clancy and Bernstein remarked that that was the best version of Barkley they ever seen. (at least up until that point)

Berstein kept saying that all Barkley's bodywork was going to pay dividends in the later rounds, (which you would think would be right) but it never did.

I was thinking about this when you started a thread about how effective bodywork really is.

Clancy was pretty much in awe of Duran's performance and rightfully so given, he was in the corner when Duran beat Buchanan, some 17 years earlier as a lightweight.

Tons of action, much more so than most of todays fights.

I'd go so far as to say that in my mind at least, this is the fight that truly separates Duran, from the Mayweather's of the sport. No way would Mayweather ever have stepped into the ring with someone like Barkley and if he did, no way would he have won that fight.

 

Bernstein's opinion doesn't matter much to me at all-- I only mentioned it as an aside. But the fact remains that he had Duran losing and found it "shocking" that judges gave Duran the fight by 4 and 6 rounds. I happen to agree with him.

That being said, the fight had several close rounds. I thought that most of those close rounds were Barkley rounds or at worst even, but they were certainly the kinds of rounds that fans of Duran's could give to him without feeling guilty.

I didn't find Barkley's performance all that impressive. He did what you're supposed to do against an older, smaller fighter.

 

We've been over why I think your speculations about what Mayweather would or would not have done against Barkley are wrong and beside the point so I really don't want to rehash here again. But it's worth pointing out that Duran hadn't fought below middleweight for almost 6 YEARS before the Barkley fight and was actually higher rated than him at middleweight, by Ring Magazine. The Duran fanboys who pretend that Duran taking this fight was equivalent to Mayweather moving up to fight Golovkin are ridiculous.

 

BTW, I thought it was very weird when Clancy kept saying this, as if judges go back and rescore their earlier rounds because one fighter finished stronger than the other.

 

Well both Gil Clancy and Bernstein were praising Barkley's performance throughout the fight. (again do you actually listen to what they say?)

You don't seem to have heard that, but you heard that Bernstein had Duran behind, that pretty much says it all right there. And of course he should be shocked that anyone would have Duran up by more than a round or two, anything beyond that itsn't really justifiable.

 

It was a rather strange comment, and I took it to mean that he might of scored some of the earlier rounds for Barkley but they were close enough that the judges may have scored it differently. I don't know how else to interpret what is admittedly a strange comment.