Passionate and aggressive, yet controlled. Like the roaring fires over the Himalayas on a cool Summer night.........:?
I mean what kind of style would you describe him as. Slugger, brawler, swarmer, boxer/puncher? He almost seems like a slugger at first glance but then you notice all the subtle boxing skills and intelligence. Great in-fighter, and a good counter-puncher too. Definitely a unique style.
Passionate and aggressive, yet controlled. Like the roaring fires over the Himalayas on a cool Summer night......... Yeah, I'm not too good at the whole "prose" thing.
I'm just gonna stop attempting joke posts on this computer. My brand of humour loses its luster when my posts are being duplicated without my knowledge due to my rage-inducing internet connection. Especially when the latter post is edited so it actually looks like I took the time and effort to come up with such small-time material. I'm no Boxed Ears.
That's the beauty of it! Just like Duran! Impossible to fathom. That's what I was trying to convey all along. Anyways, I'll do a serious post at a later time. If I feel like it.
Good question. He's arguably the most versatile fighter on film so it's hard to label his style. He had everything but 1 punch ko power but he did spark some guys and I'd take his high skill level over brute power all of the time. Dejesus 1 and before he was very aggressive but you still saw great skills as in his fight with Kobayashi and also he showed some skills against Marcel. Dejesus 2 and beyond you really see his skills displayed even when he's being lazy(for ex, against Laing he looked awful but was still timing him beautifully at times with the right hand). His skills are what got him through the rest of his career at such an advanced age. I still am blown away that Hearns was able to take him out like that what an accomplishment. Duran was a very skilled fighter and I think many make him out to be a brawler but he was not purely that at all, he was technically skilled too.
He was one of the most technically skilled fighters of all time, straight up. One of the guys who mastered the more advanced fundamentals (ex. feinting, angling, clinch-fighting, balance on the inside, etc.) and blended them all together seamlessly. He's considered a brawler by green-horns because they misconstrue his passionate aggression for reckless abandon. He was actually very calculating in his approach once he hit his prime, even in his more fired up performances like Leonard, Palomino, etc. He had a loathing for his opponents once inside the ring. Legitimately wanted to hurt them. He knew, however, that he was in the ring with professional fighters, dangerous men who he couldn't afford to be reckless against. He really evolved as a fighter during his Lightweight reign. He was a natural fighter from the day he stepped into a ring. That was pure passion, athleticism, and his innate sense of awareness (likely built up through hard times growing up in the slums of Panama) being used to overwhelm the opposition. When he came under the helm of Arcel, he began to slowly assimilate these new techniques into his own brand of fighting. He became more controlled; more complete; all the while never wavering from his killer mentality. In the rubber match with De Jesus you saw the finished product (before then, actually, but as far as high-profile fights go...). Just a perfect blend of the mental, physical and technical elements that make a great fighter. However, his best performance still must be the first Leonard fight. Not only did he show all of the technical acumen that he'd ever accumulated, but that was Duran at his most fired up and ready for battle. He knew what he wanted to do and he went out there and did it. By comparison he was far more relaxed against De Jesus in their third fight, which actually made for one of the most, if not the most aesthetically pleasing performances of his career. He was a cold, calculating assassin in that one. I personally preferred him when he entered the ring snarling at his opponent as if they'd insulted his mother. The Leonard fight brought out all of the best elements of Duran. After that you only saw glimpses of the real Duran, as it became rarer and rarer to see him fight with that passion that was with him throughout his days as a Lightweight. Without it, he wasn't the same. Add to that his deteriorating physical capabilities due to a combination of the constant weight loss and weight gain he was enduring in between fights and the wear and tear his body had accumulated over such a long, arduous career and it's not difficult to see why the latter half of Duran's career went as it did. The fact that he still managed to achieve what he did during that period just speaks volumes about his technical skills, among his many other attributes. He was never going to be anything more than an erratic performer again (especially given the level of opposition he was still facing on a pretty consistent basis), but when his head and heart were in the right place, you could catch a glimpse of what he was in his heyday, and why he's so highly thought of even among the pantheon of greats this sport has produced.
He's an intelligent agresive boxer. Good speed and good defense but a bit overrated. He has boxing skills but should be confused for a great back foot style boxer. I think for a boxer of his style he is about as good as we are going to see. Although I think Henry Armstrong was much better.
