Watched these puppies last night and find myself getting a little frustrated at Duran. The energy is lacking, the sharpness is not there and he has just not got his **** together, but then of course there is the equation of Leonard fighting to his pros and Benitez being Benitez. Duran had always been a savvy assassin, but he could fight real scrappy at times. Of course inactivity and weight hopping never helps. But what of Duran's vulnerability to classy boxers? Benitez, I know he was bigger, seemed to fight a perfect fight of offence and defence. I try to give the scenario a fair shake - yes Duran is not as sharp as a tack here, but how much of the undoing is inflicted by the opponent? Y'know. Really makes me wonder how Duran would have faired against Pernell.
I'd urge you to check out Lionel Rose's opinion in his Duran thread in General for a good balanced take on all things Duran.
Duran's second greatest criticism is his inconsistency after he reached 30. He was a passion fighter. As his testosterone waned, his performances were only as good as his motivation. There were only a handful of great fights after Montreal -which saw the ultimate Duran in my opinion. In that fight, all things converged. He may have been at his all time peak in 1978, but Leonard brought out the beast in the first engagement; Duran was close enough to peak but was demonically motivated. That version is among the most formidable fighters who ever lived and I'd compare him to anyone, ever in terms of "exceedingly tough to beat that night." Benitez presents serious problems for Duran in terms of style in my opinion. I think that Benitez was actually heavy-handed and I see that as the difference in that bout. Movement required Duran to use his legs and so would buy the opponent time, but young Duran could catch up eventually. As he aged it is obvious that Duran would have trouble catching movers. What old man doesn't? But he didn't respect movers. Think Malcolm X: "The only thing power respects ...is power." Therefore, I think that LW Shane Mosely would cause more problems for Duran than Whitaker. Whitaker simply didn't have the firepower to keep Duran off of him. Shane did.
To me the difference in the Benitez - Duran bout is the fact that Duran absolutely could not land his big right hand. Benitez just had a perfectly constituted game plan centered around not letting Duran land his big right.