Iran Barkley: ''Making weight was sheer torture for me. Man that was tough. I used to have to come down from like 235-240 and then eat like a horse nonstop after the weigh in to put it all back on. I weighed 226 for the Duran fight.'' P4P it has to be Duran even if Mayweathers was more “clean” or dominant as apparently he has a win over a HW, though maybe the people who bang on about Holyfield should put a * next to Durans wins when he moved up… RD unlike Holyfield admitted to PED’s.
Barkley is lying his ass off, he was NOT 226 lbs in there, he was 230 lbs against Coetzee and he looked twice as thick as he was against Duran. To answer the question, Mayweather had a better performance but what Duran did was far more impressive with the age and size factored in.
Duran vs Barkley because Corrales was only 2.5 inches taller than Floyd and Floyd had a 2 inch reach advantage over Corrales.
The point is that Duran when toe to toe with a far bigger guy who had a far longer reach, no other lightweight could have done that.
I think this is a misunderstanding. He says that right after talking about how he’d have to come down from 235-240 to make middle. I think he means he came down from 226, not that he weighed that in the ring. It’s not humanly possible to weight 160 and then the next day/night weigh 226.
Duran vs Barkley is the more impressive win given the circumstances. Duran was 37, 4 divisions above his prime weight, facing a legitimate world class fighter that was 6 inches taller and with an 8 inch reach advantage. Barkley's fframe would lead him to fight at Heavyweight, like c'mon. But Floyd's performance vs Corrales was better. We're comparing Floyd in the fight where he absolutely peaked, against an overweight and old Duran. Floyd was faster, more elusive, had the better feet, was more explosive with his shots and combinations, had stamina for days etc. Duran was the smarter fighter and still a menace on the inside, but he didn't have youth on his side anymore. And it's not as if Floyd was lacking in ring IQ back in those days either, he showed some pretty neat tricks vs Corrales. TLDR, Duran's performance was more impressive given the circumstances, but Floyd's is the objectively better performance.