Did Roberto Duran avoid...

Duran should probably never have fought above 147 really,in fact his frame was such that even 140 may have been tops....His eating indiscipline really cost him and lead to many bad performances and fighting well over his frames limit.....On the other hand,we got to see him destroy moore,push peak hagler for 15,win a wonderful fight against peak barkley and the best of the lot,the unparalleled victory over ray leonard....
I think duran/ his management may have seen the money available at 147 as the first priority,and who could blame them? As has been said before,you dont duck cervantes/benitez to tackle leonard/palamino...
And do any think that cervantes/benitez would have beaten duran at 140? I think duran could have beaten anyone in history at 140,and would make him the favourite over any 140 er...

 

He carried 147 just fine when in shape, as the fights with Palomino and his first encounter with Leonard exhibited.

When in shape, even at 154 and 160 he was an excellent fighter. It was a rare thing though.

Bouts with Cervantes and Benitez were realistic options around 1974-1977. Duran moved up to welter around late 1978. It's not that Duran bypassed Cervantes and Benitez in order to fight Leonard and Palomino - that's an argument you can use for him bypassing Aaron Pryor, but not Benitez and Cervantes. Duran didn't pass them over when they were viable options. He sat on his lightweight throne and fought the likes of Mamby, Fernandez, Lampkin, Viruet and Bizarro instead.

As to whether Cervantes and Benitez could have beaten Duran at 140, I wouldn't favour them to, but at the same time, I wouldn't say that both were without a chance either. Both posed problems for Duran. A peak Cervantes was extremely strong and wouldn't allow himself to get bullied around by Duran. As for Benitez, we saw him all but shut Duran out at 154. That was a different Duran to the 70's Duran, but Duran was never the most comfortable with defensive specialists, even at his peak.

 

I agree he 'carried' 147 well,but that wasnt his best weight at all,thomas hearns carried 160 and 175 very well but was much better at 147/154,duran was far better at 135 than 147,i think he lost some speed,stamina,mobility and explosiveness at 147 as compared to 135...
Yes he was excellent at times at 154 and 160 but im talking of his very best condition...
My main point is duran could have stopped at welter maximum and tried to clean out the division with all the great fighters it had (leonard,hearns,cuevas,benitez.) .He also could have tried to clean out the 140 division first as well,but i think the money talked and the eating indiscipline was bad...
This myth of duran having trouble with movers or defensive specialists,well at 135/147 or in his prime who specifically did he have a problem with? Which of these defensive specialists came close to beating him?
Its only when he moved to 154 and lost even more mobility,stamina and speed where an atg like benitez could easily beat him...But that duran was thousands of miles different from 147 duran,and light years away from 135 duran...

 

He was better at 135, but not much better. The drop offs in speed, stamina, mobility and explosiveness were minimal imo if we're talking about the Duran that faced Leonard.

Had Duran gone up to 140 around 1975-6, he could have still had a tilt at 147 when he did. The money/risk ratio probably wasn't as enticing at 140 as it was at 147 though, and I think that probably played a part in his reluctance to move up to 140 and skipping to 147.

His first fight with Edwin Viruet for example, was rather close. I had that fight 6 rounds to 4 for Duran. I wouldn't exactly call Viruet a defensive specialist, but he was defensively adept, and did cause problems for Duran. The rematch was more one sided, but again, Viruet had some moments of success.

Other guys who caused problems were Lou Bizarro (who did **** all but Duran struggled to cut the ring off on him), Vilomar Fernandez (who was much smaller than Duran but still managed to hang in there and frustrate Duran in patches with his movement) and Esteban DeJesus (who did a good job of making Duran miss with subtle movements in their first encounter).

All these guys of course are different to Benitez, who is one of the more stationary defensive masters.

 

I've got a funny feeling Benitez would have posed big problems at any weight or stage. Even 140.

 

Benitez was just a kid at 140 and would have been thoroughly roughed up and manhandled by Duran.think the first Curry fight but much worse.

It's definitely the weight i give him the least chance of winning at.

His success against cervantes was because Antonio was methodical and slow, basically a very poor mans Monzon.


Stylistically i think Cervantes would have done much better.

 

Duran like everybody else ducked a few stinkers along the road. I don't remember him trying to get revenge against Kirkland Laing or Benitez after they beat him.

 

PRobably a bit of Risk\reward going on, John.

Duran's management were a lot more cautious than he was and kept him away from Gato Gonzalez early in his reign for instance.

Antonio didn't have the drawing power or megafight potential of Leonard who was already a superstar.

 

Thanks Mantequilla, i was thinking along similar lines. Tough style, tough fight, bugger all money. Yeah prolly right. Mike McCallum was in the same position with the fab 4.

 

I personally see the difference from duran at 154 to the one at 147 as being complete night and day,no comparison. And the 135 version just looked like a cross between the energiser bunny and hell on wheels...
No doubt guys like benitez and other greats give anybody something to think about with their skills,but i just cant get over the way duran fought and beat the highly skilled offensive/defensive/speed/power/durability mixture of ray leonard in montreal when 13 pounds over his natural and best weight... (not to mention his mugging of palamino at 147.)

 

Are you talking about Roberto Duran, the one that fought many years as a fully grown, mature 135 lb and later fought a three yr younger, natural middlewt ATG named Marvin Hagler?