Tough Dec. For Me I Cant Really Decide It Depends Whos Fight It Is I Think Durans Better Insidefghter A Smaller Dempsey Is How He Was Often Described But If Oscar Keeps The Distance Its Prob. His Fight---help Me Out
Duran would win via decision or late stoppage. I'd probably say a decision. Here is how I rate both "pound for pound" in each category. This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected
What makes you think Duran had a better chin? Obviously De La Hoya never fought a puncher like Hearns at welterweight, but he fought some big hitters and was never close to being knocked out.
Duran was a 15 round fighter. Oscar was a marginal 12 round fighter. The last 3 rounds might get kinda ugly.
When combining being close to their peak as possible with the quality of opponent and power, I have to give the edge to Duran. He lasted 15 rounds with Hagler, also 12 rounds with Barkley. Those were very tough opponents who were naturals at the weight. Barkley eventually moved up a few divisions. Duran was stopped by Hearns at jr middleweight. And IMO that peak version of Hearns at that weight punched even harder than a middleweight Hopkins, who stopped De La Hoya with a bodyshot. We can forget Duran being stopped by Joppy as he just about hitting 50.
Brief, to the point, and on the money. Oscar would look half decent early on and may even seem to be taming Duran with that jab and that left hook that was a bane to Duran. Duran, though, would adjust and then get ferocious after round 8 and stop Oscar after round 12. I would not count on Oscar's being able to deal with the hell that Duran would bring. Leonard, to his everlasting credit, was and even took the last two rounds in the first bout, but Oscar just isn't made of whatever Leonard was made of. He's just pretty like Ray.
And I just realised it's Duran v De La Hoya at welterweight over 15 rounds. Ridiculous and unrealistic when having to making a solid, constructive, prediction for obvious reasons. Without the first bell even ringing, it's Duran's fight down the stretch. He went 15 rounds on a number of occassions, De La Hoya didn't. I'm amazed at the amount of respected posters on here who either start threads with these match-ups over 15 rounds or give a follow-up prediction. It's simply uneven....beyond dispute. Unknown territory for De La Hoya. Predictions are guess work as it is, but these uknown three rounds for fighters of the last 20 years or so makes the guess work even more guessy. 15 round fighters are getting massive leverage.
Why so adamant that modern fighters could not be counted on to go 15 rounds. If you consider how good their conditioning is on average over 12 you can surmise how well they could make the adjustment. Do you have any doubt that a Hopkins or a Pacquaio could go 15...?
I love rating concepts as hard as they are to do. I'd definitely raise Duran's score in these three. Duran hurt SRL on more than one occasion, quite heavily at least once from memory. Leonard has a superb chin at 147 and i think Duran making such an impact definitely raises his score above 7.5. Duran's defence might rate a 9, tho this one is harder to debate due to his style. He does however anticipate and roll brilliantly. Intelligence wise Duran had near seen it all by the time he hit 147. He was the finished goods. Speaking strictly inside the ring i think i'd raise him here too.
Duran was a different level of fighter, even at WW. Clear, sizeable UD or late stoppage. Over 15 it'd definitely be the latter, over 12 Oscar has a shot at lasting the distance.
If Duran takes this fight seriously at all, (in other words, actually trains even slightly and comes in ready to fight) he annihilates De La Hoya after Oscar takes the first few rounds on boxing and staying away. People talk about Duran's eyes gleaming with hatred for Sugar Ray before their first fight for any number of reasons: because Ray was good looking, because he got rich easily, because he got acclaim and attention easily, etc. When he brings that same sort of angry intensity into this match he's going to be way too much for Oscar. ****, I've never liked Oscar and always rooted against him and I'm kinda worried about what would happen to him if he took on a prime Duran. :scaredas:
Are you ****ING KIDDING? ARE YOU HIGH????!!! Crystal Meth is ****ing up your brain, boy. You had better stop making that **** in your mom's spare bedroom, you are gonna blow up the ****ing house, you dumb ass Methhead. Duran is on a different ****ing level than that ridiculous crossdresser fighting in 7 days. At WW???? Wow. Duran, the one that fought a Leonard that was Superior to Oscar in every way, was a master at defense. LIGHTNING fast reflexes. Head movement like Sugar Ray Robinson, a weird, strange "radar" for knowing when a punch was coming. Johnny Tapia had it, as did Pernel and Willie Pep and Benny Leonard. Ali as well, at least the CC version. He used head movement and bobbing and weaving, and dodging and parrying/blocking punches like a master fencer at the Olympics. Hand and Footspeed like no one has ever ****ing seen. What other fighter in history could stick his chin out to a PRIMED OUT LEONARD and make him miss and laugh at his ass? Watch the Brawl at Montreal. Duran and Leonard went to WAR. If this had been 54 AD, they would have used short swords and spears to try to off the other in a Coliseum. Duran was easily the Greatest Lightweight in History, and check any and all ATG or GOAT lists, and you will find the names Robinson, Ali and Duran near or at the top of all the lists. Duran offensively was a monster. Hands of Stone was more than a nickname, ask Iran Barkley, Davey Moore, or Ken Buchanan. At age 44, he knocked Vinny Paz on his ass with an average shot. He made Marvin Hagler fight cautiously, and the crazy MOFO didnt think twice about trading bombs with Tommy Hearns. He fought until age 50, only a traffic accident forced his retirement. Oscar de la Hoya on the other hand, ran like a ***** against Trinidad, I imagine against Hearns, he would have sprouted wings and flew around the ring. He looked great in 1996 against an ancient Chavez, but that version of DLH, against a WW Duran? Wow. Let me think a minute of a good analogy. Remember the scene in "JAWS" where Chrissy goes out for a moonlight swim? Imagine Oscar de la Hoya skinny dipping at night, and a Panamanian Great White Shark, 27 feet long rising from the depths, and ripping him in half with the first bite, as Oscar screams and grabs his exposed pelvic bones, and the shark turns and drags him under as he screams underwater for Millie.
Stonehands. Ok, if thats the case. Then why should a prediction be any different from De La Hoya going 12 with Duran compared to 15? People's predictions will obviously differ, depending on who's matched against who of course. You're the one who seems confident that fighters like Hopkins and Pacquaio could go 15 rounds against greats from 30 years ago, etc, am I right? It's simply too much asking a 12 rounder fighter to go the extra three, for reasons plain to everyone. It's too much when it comes to a sensible prediction. The fighters in question, De La Hoya, Hopkins, and Pacquaio, never went 15 rounds. They are being matched against fighters over 15 rounds who had been there before and done it. It's as good as unargueable when it comes to the balance of fairness combined with a realistic opinion on the outcome. BEYOND DISPUTE. :good
August of 1998. I was 5th row ringside, Vinny Paz and Al Bernstein and Michael Dokes were in the house, the undercard was Hopkins-Allen I, Mills Lane accidentally threw Driving Miss Daisy out of the ring, I got to drunkenly schmooze with Vinny and Al before the fight, and I fullfilled a LIFELONG dream of chanting DOO-RAN DOO-RAN!!! at ringside for a Duran Title match. The ending was horrible, I literally walked out and landed up at some nightclub where I drank JD by myself all night, and toasted the Legend of Duran.