Duran is an anomaly

Arcel started training Duran in 71'. He turned pro in 68'. He was with him for a decade and over 50 fights. Remember, Duran only had about 30 amateur fights. Arcel was a MAJOR reason for Duran's style and success.

 

To your point,

Arcel started training Duran in 71'. He turned pro in 68'. He was with him for a decade and over 50 fights. Remember, Duran only had about 30 amateur fights. Arcel was a MAJOR reason for Duran's style and success. Sure, Duran was a natural talent and likely would have been a champion without Arcel, but Arcel made him a complete fighter. Duran himself has said this.

 

Freddie Brown was the man in the gym, I’m not giving the credit to the guy who usually showed up a few weeks before the bout (that is) if I

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to pick between the two. Arcel was essential and likely knew just as much about boxing as Freddie, they were a team it’s just one of them did the majority of the work.

 

Duran, simply the best.

 

Agreed, can’t give so much credit to his amateur trainer that’s silly business IMO when we are discussing Brown and Arcel here people seem to think after you turn pro you stop learning or something? Bill Miller made Toney who he was not anyone before him IMO.

 

This is an interesting question, and I wish people asked more questions like this. Gym culture is one of those things that ought to get more study.

 

There’s this guy called Napoles who is pretty good too, not overly but somewhat.

 

Duran in 6

 

Great, great fighter.

Post Montreal people often view Duran as having trough periods with some stunners in between.

The way I see it, for as long as his career and and as many fights that he already had up to and including Montreal, Duran had every right to see a natural, one way downturn in his career.

As such, post Montreal, rather than being seen as erratic or necessarily ill motivated at times, I think he defied the rule several times to post exceptional performances - and we who were not real time witnesses to his incredible LW reign during the 70s we’re lucky to bear witness to the great man during the 80s.

One of my faves is Duran’s dust up against Cuevas in 1983. True, Pipino past his best also but what a terrific performance from Duran nonetheless imo - Cuevas could still hit and caught Roberto a few times - but what a chin Duran had also.

 

Bob Arum was the one who still believed in Duran post Benitez/ Laing. Going via memory his thoughts were that Duran had never taken any real beatings so probably still had something left if motivated. The man was bang on.

Regarding Duran - Cuevas, I'm not a Duran nuthugger but i often think the boys turned back the clock a bit, that night. Cuevas pretty much did nothing after Hearns but i think the identity of his opponent, and the superfight they missed against each other in the 70's, saw Pipino's in reasonable form even if he was considered shot at that time. There was enormous pride involved. We know now Duran was in fantastic form, taking in career stage. It was the Roberto that whooped Davey Moore, basically. That guy was a bit of a beast. Pipino landed some clean hooks and his hook was still a wrecking ball for sure (that night) IMO. Against all common sense i think this fight gave reasonable hints as to how it would have played out in 1980. Duran just too skilled and durable.

 

No disagreement here — that was a motivated Cuevas and even if slightly past sell-by date was the best version of him post-Hearns with the same fire he had as a champion even if the equipment was rusting a bit. And that left hook was still the Cuevas bone-breaker … and Duran took it without flinching.

I remember when this fight was announced and how excited I was. Real coin-flip as we didn’t know what Pipino could summon nor if Duran would ever reclaim his fire or if he was now just charred embers. So off-radar afaik it wasn’t available anywhere in the U.S. (at least not nationally) on TV much less PPV. Just one of those old-school ‘let’s get two big-time guys together on the Left Coast’ deals like Danny Lopez vs Bobby Chacon and other great tilts that seemed to happen out there.

Later, I learned that Daniel Zaragoza and Alfredo Escalera also appeared on the undercard.

Those were the days!

 

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one Pat. I sorta went out on a limb and did edit to tone it down just a little per how good Pipino was. Right after the fight experts were trying to decipher just how good or bad they'd been. It turns out they were pretty darn good that night.

I'm sorta surprised Zaragoza was on the card, i thought he'd come a bit later. Looking now it was actually his 18th fight.

They were the days. It was a top fight, both guys fought with a load of passion and put on a top show.

 

Duran vs Cuevas was very nice little barn burner and yes, the macho and competitive nature held by both men would’ve def. fuelled the quality therein.

Personally, I would’ve rooted for Duran as at the time but it was still sad to see a man of Cuevas’ pride ultimately lose. Two legends engaging, aside from being a bit late, - what more could a fan ask for?

Personally, I think Duran is a wonder to have provided those incredible performances post Montreal and can you believe the Moore fight had actually momentarily slipped my mind? Lol, log that one in also.

Finally, I’ll say but for Hearns and that one fight Roberto gave absolutely no indication of anyone ever being capable of doing that to him. Of course Tommy was special too.

What a freaking era that was.