Best middleweight Duran could beat?

How do you think he would do against Zale and Cerdan out of interest?

 

I see some discussions about Duran vs Hagler and Barkley here's my scorecards for the fights.

Marvin Hagler vs Roberto Duran

1 Duran
2 Hagler
3 Duran
4 Duran
5 Hagler
6 Hagler
7 Hagler
8 Hagler
9 Hagler
10 Hagler
11 Duran
12 Duran
13 Duran
14 Hagler
15 Hagler

144-141 Hagler

Roberto Duran vs Iran Barkley

1 Duran
2 Barkley
3 Duran
4 Duran
5 Barkley
6 Barkley
7 Barkley
8 Barkley
9 Duran
10 Duran
11 Duran 10-8 knockdown
12 Duran

115-112 Duran

 

83 duran could win a SD vs 87 hagler imo.

 

He fought Barkley 6 years after fighting Hagler.

 

Iḿ about the same on Duran vs Barkley, I thought the Hagler fight was a draw, definitely needed a rematch.

 

I think he beats the faded version of Zale that lost to Graziano. Cerdan? Be a rough fight, I'll have to think on that one first.

 

Hagler was on another level to Barkley.

 

As a guest television commentator during the early 1960's, Carlos Ortiz was emphatic about the difference between viewing a bout on television and watching it live from ringside. (The bout with his commentary's on YouTube, but I'm not sure which, as it has been years.

KO Magazine's Steve Farhood had Michael Spinks the winner over Eddie Davis from ringside, but when he rescored their bout a week later off the footage, he had Eddie winning their bout and wrote about the difference he viewed.

Whatever is the case, the fact remains that Duran was competitive, and nobody else ever took MMH the Championship Distance in a title challenge, let alone a peak Marv. What if Duran was 28 or 29 instead of 32 or 33? Mickey Walker as WW Champion gave LHW Champion Mike McTigue hell in a bout with a clip on YouTube. Give El Cholo the conditioning for Montreal without having to meet the weight limit of 147, what does he do against the peak Hagler he actually took the Championship Distance.

The question posed concerned the best middleweight Duran could beat, and an extremely powerful argument can be made that Roberto answered that question in the ring. Then, it's about what middleweights were superior to the best MMH. The Nonpareil, Fitz, Ketchel, Langford (who we do have peak footage of at 165 against Jim Flynn), 1919 Greb, Burley, LaMotta, the SRR of Olson I (which would have been Joe "johngarfield" Rein's choice according to what he told me - we do have the complete footage of Robby's very next bout over Bobby D ykes), Moore at 160 (both he and Burley were at their athletic peaks with 72 confirmed bouts apiece when they squared off on April 21, 1944 in Hollywood), the rest of Murderer's Row, etc, etc...are some of the MW suspects who may have been superior to the MMH of the Duran defense. (Of course to beat Hagler meant winning a decision. Nobody ever even came close to buckling Marv's knees. Like Toney, he probably had a legitimate world class heavyweight chin. That Hagler's neurology remained so completely intact for him to learn perfect Italian AFTER his retirement considering the head shots he absorbed is insane.)