ESPN: "I think Pacquiao is better than Duran"

Pac lost to Rustico Torrecampo and Medgoen Singsurat, both by brutal KO, and that was when he was young and at his prime weight. Duran was over 30 and fighting 20 lbs above his prime weight division when he lost to Laing.

Pac's losses are easily more embarrassing than Duran's.

 

Say what you will about Pacquiao being greater, if you think that he is on the basis of each man's achievements, but you're not telling me that Pacquiao is better than Roberto Duran. Better? A better fighter? At their respective bests? It's madness.

Watch them, it's not difficult to understand. The skill differential is big, and if you're going to start talking about selective fights of Pacquiao's wherein he has 'improved', then I can be selective as well, and just talk about Roberto Duran beating Sugar Ray Leonard, which is a strong contender for the single greatest win of all time.

And here's where people talk about Duran having more skill but Pacquiao being more effective with his natural gifts. Don't make me laugh, Duran's physical strength was immense. You know your skills are on another ****in level when your strength is immense and nobody notices because they're all talking about how good your skills are.

This **** has gone too far, I'm the first person round here that gives Pacquiao and Mayweather props, but knock it on the head now.

This is the classic anyway

 

This HAS to be some sort of a joke. Duran >> Pacquiao, obviously, but to say Pac was at his prime weights as a malnourished teenager is a JOKE.

 

I think he was playing Devil's advocate. The likes of MAG etc always talk on here about Duran's losses that occurred past prime.

 

I always was and will be a Leonard fan, but that "Leonard fought like an idiot" in the first fight is kind of lame. Not as lame as Duran quitting in the second and stealing Leonard's glory, but lame nonetheless. Leonard fought a fight he thought he could win and also Duran maybe forced him in to that fight. I like to give each fighter credit for their win and leave it at that.

Pac is a great offensive force, but he's not as great all around as Duran. If he were to beat Mayweather convincingly, I think he's in the discussion. He's not a great defensive fighter, but if he were to be Floyd, it might suggest that his skills were so overwhelming as to nullify his weaknesses. Kind of like Ali. Yeah Ali dropped his hands, and pulled his head back, and didn't bodypunch, etc. because he didn't have to.

I generally see Duran around 5 or 6 in most pound for pound lists. I'm not ready to put Pac there. I think he needs to beat Mayweather and lets allow some time to pass to gain some perspective.

I've seen the "Pac beats the **** out of bigger, slower fighter thing". Great show. Impressive. But he needs a different sort of challenge: Mayweather or maybe the last man standing out of the current 140 group (although a win over Martinez would be impressive but I don't see the fight being made and I would personally favor Martinez).

 

The thing about 'Leonard fighting the wrong fight' has been discussed countless times before August 2010, so much in fact that it pains me to have to go through it all again, look up all the posting history of all the regular classic posters who have been around since 2007 and earlier. I strongly disagree anyway.

 

If Pac wins these fights, he might be in the top 6 or so. That would put him near Duran level imo.

Who is better is any one's guess imo.

 

problem is the better fighters he fought was past his prime then. He did not fight guys at lightweight to put him p4p top 5 or so, so what gets him there? It has to be what he did after, and after is what we are talking about Hearns,Leonard,Benitez,Hagler.

 

People rate him at the top because they feel he is one of the best fighters ever, that's their opinion, only opinion can source such a claim. They then back it up with his claim to potentially the greatest win ever, the context of the win being he moved up from 135 to beat easily one of the finest 147 men that ever breathed once, he then lost to him, once, before moving up and compiling notable achievements against larger men when clearly past his best. At lightweight he beat one of the best lightweight pure boxers of the last half decade, and went on to defend his championship, not tiltle, a record number of times.

But anyway, that's not usually the reason people rate him so highly, it's usually because they are inspired by how good he looks on film.