Barkley vs. Duran

Have you read this thread from the beginning? If so, you would probably realize that most people considered Duran to be overweight as a middleweight, so the fact he was overweight and fighting guys who were much bigger and in most cases younger and taller, doesn't make him a natural middleweight. Probably he should have been fighting at either 147 or 154 during this period of time. In fact he probably never should have fought above 154. As you age your metabolism slows down and it's harder not to gain weight. This is over and above a tendency to change your eating habits for the worse, and focus more on work and family and less on being in shape.

Hopkins is a huge exception to this rule, and Floyd and Wlad are pretty much in the same ball park.

But back to the fight, I find it hard not to give Duran tons of credit for this win. You'd pretty much have to be a hater of the sport not to appreciate what he did that night.

 

I had it Duran 115-112.

Duran did have a tendency in the 80s to get some real generous scorecards (the closeness of the official cards against Hagler and Benitez), and got one ridiculous scorecard here too, one judge having it 118-112.

But the decision was fair anyway IMO, even if the amounts he won by were insane.

 

Yes, but the flip side is he lost a couple of close fights that I thought he should have been awarded the win.

 

Which ones?

 

They both showed great chins the difference being in my view one guy Barkely was getting tagged clean while Duran was able to move his head better. Duran was walking him into clean counters. Duran took some clean shots too just not as many.

 

Probably Robbie Sims.

 

Definitely.

He also floor Paz in their first fight and lost a controversial decision. And in the first Camacho fight, the decision was so bad that SRL called it an early Christmas present.

 

True enough, Duran was a master and moving his head with the punches and taking something off them so he never got hit clean as many thought, but that said, Barkley hit him with some might good body punches throughout the fight, and that punch in the 8th that spun Duran around would have floored many, many fighters.

 

How did you score those fights?

 

Difference is that Barkley never really learned how to defend himself or punch with precision. Basically a slowish tough guy with solid power and a ton of heart.