Duran on the Hearns fight

It was an exercise in pure grit getting all the way through his autobiography. The losses he doesn't make an excuse for he talks about as if they didn't happen.

Of course it's essentially a truism that after Montreal we never had any idea what Duran was going to show up. The intermittent reappearances of his brilliance just made it all the more infuriating when the next Duran we saw was hung over, pudgy, and lackadaisical. Especially against Tommy Effing Hearns!

And then came the excuses . . .

It always strikes me as a bit odd how much attention his post-Montreal career gets. I presume that's because he was in the mix with celebrity fighters Leonard, Hagler and Hearns -- none of whom did he beat (after Montreal). IMHO, pound-for-pound and best-vs-best, the Duran we saw at lightweight bests all the men who beat him at middleweight. Some by a lot.

Looking at it that way makes it little easier for me to bracket my disgust with the Duran sh**-show.

 

Just a tidbit thought - given the young age he started and the number of fights already under his belt and contesting beyond his best weight when he beat Ray in Montreal, his pinnacle triumph, were expectations of Duran a bit high thereafter - the start of a mental and physical downturn thereafter far more likely than not?

Perhaps the exceptions (great performances) were the literal exceptions to the normal boxing rule - not necessarily to be expected, more the pleasant surprise and additional proof of Roberto’s greatness.

 

Yes. I see everything that Duran accomplished above lightweight -- especially the most improbable -- as further evidence of the depth of this greatness at lightweight and thus pound-for-pound. Although there are plenty of credible candidates, the only fighter I can always confidently rank above him P4P, after carefully reviewing his fights at 135, is Robinson.

In that regard, although I keep seeing things here about fighters who are "stylistic nightmares" for Duran who would "school" him, I don't see any of that P4P. Where he lost to "slick boxers" fighting at 10-20% or so above his natural weight and five or so years beyond his best it was hardly a matter of his not knowing what to do or how to do it but simply no longer being physically (and in some instances mentally) capable of doing it. No one is "schooling" the Duran of the 70s. That's a laugh.

I always pick Robinson because he was either nearly as good, as good, or better than Duran at everything and could hit freaking hard.

 

Hard to go past Ray - at least for me I got to see “nearly” the best ever P4P fighter in my own, actual life time - but I’ll admit, besides my Dads absolute rave on him (as a Lightweight), my being fully cognisant of Roberto was only as at his jump to Welter and and his huge win in Montreal and thereafter.

Hell of a career even if Roberto had capped and sealed it with the win over Ray Leonard - but Roberto’s latter career efforts definitely gave him exposure to a broader boxing fan base, though serious fans were already well and truly aware and appreciative of his greatness.