I've just been inspired by Anubis' post on the "Duran top 10 atg?" thread to ask this question. Imagine if, instead of leapfrogging 140 to go to 147, Duran stops off along the way to fight Pambele...how does the fight pan out? What are the likely scenarios, and ultimately, who wins?
I have Duran by late tko. As good as Cervantes was,Duran was virtually unbeatable at this weight range circa 1978-80.
Duran by late stoppage for me too. Roberto's foot speed enables him to close distance and smother. I think in that time frame, Duran beats him inside and outside.
Keep in mind that, between 1970, when he was decked by Rodolfo Gonzalez and 1980 when he was dropped by Aaron Pryor, Cervantes never tasted canvas. He had a damn good set of whiskers. I see this as a distance fight over 15 and IMO it is not beyond the realm of Cervantes taking the decision. He had a lot of range on Duran and knew how to use the ring and counter. This would be a real tight fight and a pity for the fans that we missed out on it.
Cervantes at least equaled and often bettered Duran's results vs common opponents. Just throwing that out there.
Cervantes was an ATG however my thoughts are if Pryor whom I also consider a fantastic fighter could stop him in 4 rounds Duran would also do it. Duran was a much more skilled fighter than the frenetic Pryor and probably hit harder as he proved as he moved up in weight. Cervantes style was too laid back for a Duran who was similar to Pryor in energy but more destructive.
And I agree with you. If Duran was fighting the old-timer that Pryor was in with, he too would have won by KO. But let's be fair and back up the clock a bit. This fight was discussed several years earlier than that. And it's not like Cervantes never saw styles like this, he just wasn't able to cope with it anymore. Indeed, DeJesus was an explosive counter-puncher, Gimenez was a buzzsaw and Thompson was in his face with that solid jab and body shots continuosly. Also, if you want a frenetic style, watch Cervantes' fight with Kadota (I think it's on youtube). Cervantes plays counter-puncher to the kamikaze style and makes Kadota pay every time. I think he was down about 8 times total. Of course, kadota didn't have the chin or skill that Duran had, but you get my point. And remember, even old-timer Cervantes still had Pryor down as well. Every mistake was paid for. Again, I see this as a distance fight and a very close one.
At that time Duran would win by late round stoppage Two or three years earlier, Cervantes wins a clsoe decsion.
Cervantes is great to watch and outstanding in his own right, but he's a bit "conventional" to beat Duran. Duran has too many guns, delivered too many ways.
As one coach said, the problem with Duran is that he didn't really have any weaknesses in his game. Cil Glancy figured that the best was to beat Duran was to try and out box him, or if that didn't work try and survive into the later rounds. But as Duran demonstrated, neither plan worked. About the only way to beat Duran in his prime was to hope that he didn't train for the fight, cause if he did, he would go into the ring in killer mode and nothing short of a knock out was going to stop him. Funny thing is, Duran probably could have picked up a few more titles if he had wanted to. He fought Buchanan at 133 and probably could have lost 3lbs and fought for the 130lb title, and he certainly could have fought for the 140lb title.
