Duran doesn't believe Mayweather would have dominated in his era

Duran is 1-5 against the Big 4/Beneitz. Floyd would have outperformed that. He'd have also beaten Vinny Paz.

 

Floyds acceptable risk level was only based on him having a 0 and wanting to preserve that at all costs. If Floyd got an early L theres no doubt in my mind he'd try running this whole guantlet in their primes.

 

Nobody could dominate that era.

Mayweather would be in there. Assuming we have a fictional version of him without hand problems, I’d even wager he’d have a winning record against the best of the era. He’d win more of the big ones the he’d lose, especially without the hand issues.

 

Okay.

Then tell me which fights.

But remember, in order to make this fair, he’d have been fighting the SPECIFIC versions of those guys who Duran fought.

So you tell me how he’d have out performed Duran.

Give me a quick breakdown with the outcomes.


Regarding Paz, Duran was 45, and he was at SMW.

So I’d have a rethink about that one too.

Floyd was fighting exhibitions at that stage.

 

If Duran was at 35 Floyd would stay at 130 as long as he had to. Why risk your health? Duran sent Ray Lampkin home from Panama in a wheelchair. Duran at lightweight you ran from him or got driven into the canvas. 11 out of 12 challengers knocked out 10 in a row a record for title fight KOs.

 

Not really hes just saying the truth he wouldnt dominate. Like Duran Floyd is also smaller than the other Kings.
I dont see a path for Floyd to do better than Duran did.
He is beating Leonard? Doubtful.
Hearns at '54? When Mayweather is 33 years old? Hed be in survival mode.
Hagler? Mayweather never even went to 160. Nothing to discuss there.
Benitez at '54. Maybe Floyd could eke out a decision. Being generous here.
Duran in Montreal form? His best weltereight form? Its a tough ask.
They were willing to fight each is the bigger point Duran was making. If Leonard who was prime at weltetweight didnt go undefeated Mayweather probably shouldnt think he would.

 

Nonsense look at all the big fights that didn't happen. Hearns alone missed out on
McCallum
Nunn
Jackson
Kalambay
If anything the era is more notable for all the big fights that didn't happen than those that did

 

He didn’t really miss them. Most of them weren’t viable. The guys were at different weights.

 

Fair enough, I get where you're coming from and yeah, not every big fight in the '80s got made, that's definitely true. McCallum, Nunn, Kalambay, Jackson, guys like that deserved bigger opportunities and a lot of the "Four Kings" generation didn't face every dangerous guy out there.

But even with that said, the pace and depth of the top-level fights were still way higher overall than in Floyd’s era. Leonard fought Duran twice, Hearns, Hagler, Benitez and even Norris later when he was past it. Duran fought Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Cuevas, Barkley, Benitez. Hearns fought Leonard twice, Hagler, Duran, Benitez, Andries, Hill. Benitez fought Leonard, Hearns, Duran and Cervantes before he was even 20.

Those fights happened in pretty short windows too, a lot of them back-to-back without years of "marination" or tune-ups. Whereas Floyd often fought once a year at his peak and only when it made maximum financial sense. He didn’t have to deal with back-to-back killers constantly.

Not saying the '80s was perfect, it wasn't. But the schedule was still way more dangerous and unforgiving compared to the modern “prizefight-first” mindset.

Floyd would still have been great, I think we all agree on that. But facing that kind of revolving door of top threats, with less negotiation control and more active schedules, would have tested even him in a way he never really had to deal with.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_t...retation of statistics, and how errors create

 

McCallum was not a big fight for Hearns when he was campaigning at Jr Middleweight.

McCallum was fighting the likes of Sean Mannion when Hearns was dismantling the likes of Duran.

All the other fighters you mentioned were at Middleweight and they came along when Hearns already moved up in weight.

You have to remember Hearns during mid to late 80s was fighting between Middleweight/Light Heavyweight until he made the permanent move in 1990.

There was only a very brief window for these fights to happen and realistically there's no way Hearns could've fought all of them in that time frame.

 

How do you come to that conclusion though ?

Do you think Mayweather beats a prime Leonard ? I don't.

Do you think Mayweather beats Hearns ? I don't.

Do you think Mayweather beats Hagler at Middleweight ? I don't.

I guess you could make a case for Mayweather over Benitez but again this would be at Jr Middleweight which was arguably Benitez best weight and with no catchweight clause BS there's absolutely no certainty Mayweather would win.

It's arguable that Mayweather could do worse than Duran it's very plausible he goes 0-5 against all those opponents with as I said the Benitez fight being the only one I'd make a case for Mayweather.

Mayweather has a very good resume but he never fought any prime opponent on the level of any of the fighters above.

 

I can’t wait his answer.

Also, he was 45 against Paz, and that was at SMW.

 

I'd pick him over Leonard, Beneitz can go either way, would narrowly favor Hagler and Hearns. But even if I picked everyone over Floyd he probably still gets to 2-4 or 3-3. Same reason I wouldn't expect him to go undefeated if I narrowly favored him in all these matchups. Hes got a chance to win all these fights, a better chance than Duran did IMO. He'd do better than Duran over those 6 fights.

These are all cointoss sort of matchups to me where the B side has over a 40% chance of winning.

Its plausible that Floyd could do worse than Duran. But I think its more likely he goes 6-0 than 0-6 here.