Could WW Maywether have ever beaten Montreal Duran

This really isn't true though. I posted videos disproving your claims. Even the video YOU posted that you thought was proof, against Danny, I reposted it and showed he didn't fight like you claimed. He again fought like he always did, boxer puncher who circles some but likes to control the center of the ring. He likes to dictate the fight. He tried to do the same with Duran at first. Any lack of more movement after round 2 can be attributed to him going in survival mode and trying to meet fire with fire. Duran called him out, called out his toughness. At first SRL could be like meh, he's a little dude and what can he say or really do. Once he was hurt, well, that changed everything. To not see this or recognize this is very odd indeed.

 

Why do you not know I was talking about Corrales? Go take an English class.

 

I'm having a hard time understanding your (at times conflicting) narrative of the fight. You seem to acknowledge (unlike Foxy and some of the others) that Leonard came into the fight planning to stand up to Duran and to not move around much. But then you try to give Duran credit for preventing Leonard from moving. Doesn't make sense. If we know that Leonard planned to hold his ground, and he more or less did hold his ground before he was hurt, why on earth do we need this loopy theory about him wanting/trying to move later but not being able to because he was hurt? Seems silly and unnecessary to me. Also, I guess we can agree to disagree but in this context the idea that Leonard wouldn't/couldn't move because he was "stunned" for 5 rounds and instead either had to or chose to stay on the ropes where Duran could maul him on the inside is highly implausible, if not completely absurd on its face.

I've explained numerous times, with examples and specific clips, that your description of Leonard's "usual" fighting style as the one that he used in this fight is wrong. I've explained several times that he moved way more against other physical, aggressive fighters than he did against Duran. He backed up more, circled more, and worked to create more distance. He did the opposite against Duran. You can watch the fight and see that he is trying not to back up or circle as much as he did against other opponents. Not sure if Duran got in his head or if he was trying to get in Duran's or if he simply underestimated Duran physically but it was in hindsight a terrible strategy. Your attempts to deny this obvious fact aren't getting any more persuasive through repetition. You don't even have to understand boxing to recognize the difference-- all you have to do is watch the direction and distance of Leonard's movement around the ring in these fights.

 

Missed your videos. What were you trying to show me exactly? BTW, here are some more pre-Montreal examples of Leonard fighting his usual flatfooted, non-backpeddling style early in fights against various opponents:

https://streamable.com/2vbr (Geraldo)
https://streamable.com/araq (Mando Muniz)
https://streamable.com/spn4 (Gonzalez)

As these clips, in addition to the others I've posted, show, Leonard generally used a lot of foot movement early in his fights against guys who were trying to come forward. Didn't run non-stop but he backed up to avoid their aggression and covered a lot of ground in keeping distance and turning his opponents. He then often worked in ambush attacks off his movement and eventually overwhelmed them. How you could watch all of these fights and clips and fail to recognize immediately that that there is something unusual about Leonard's approach in Montreal is completely beyond me. Bewildering stuff.

 

That's the problem here, it was BOTH of those things. It has been shown without question that their strategy going into the fight was to not back up. You have Dundee verbally saying, Duran is a heel to toe fighter, and that works best against fighters who move away and back up. He absolutely didn't want SRL moving away. He unquestionably said, my guy is the bigger dude, the stronger guy, the faster guy, the taller guy with the longer reach and my guy hits harder.. Why would we back up. We'll knock him out. Why shouldn't they believe that. You seem to think SRL danced all around the ring in his fight. He did no such thing. He looked to knock people out, not dance around the ring like in fight no. 2. I specifically showed clips of this very thing, which you ignored. Point being, that is how he fought, and this was some wildly different strategy than he usual fought. I'll concede that he might not have backed away as much while circling as he did in other fights... but if that is what you've planned to do, and how you plan to fight this man, which you believe will take away his best style of moving and fighting... My question is why wouldn't you away less? Of course you would if you thought it was in your best interest.

THEN, once you get hurt, and you might want to change plans you can't. You have to survive some on the ropes and take some damage to the body. Bad damage, which would further dictate how much you'll move later, or lack there of. While your head is in a fog (which SRL has claimed) for 5 rounds, you're also not thinking clearly and not in your best frame of mine to evaluate what's going on and trying to change it. You've worked in training camp for months to fight a certain way, then you think it's so easy to go a totally different route WHILE you're hurt? I'd submit being hurt makes it harder to accomplish the change and to even see a change needed to be done.

So it's both reasons that he didn't move much. It was there plan, and then he got hurt and multiple times at that. Not exactly the best time to through your whole strategy out the door and figure out another. I'd also agree with you that they underestimated Duran's physicality and fire. I don't think they expected him to be that tough and that much of a bull. They figured he's smaller and we're better in almost every physical way, but they were wrong. So that also dictated their thinking and even them not changing strategy. Even if he had a clear head, they might likely go, okay well that was a bump in the road but eventually you'll get him out of there. We see it all the time... stick with the game plan.. stick with the game plan. Even when things aren't going great.

Lastly, the feints, they played a huge role there after. For the entire rest of the fight you can see SRL reacting to his feints and not being able to properly set himself. You can visibly see it. That surely has an affect on your offensive output and capability when you're constantly reacting to things cause you were badly hurt in round 2. Trust me, when you get hurt badly, and more hurt than you've ever been in a professional fight, ever... yeah you might be on edge when your foe feints right?