greeter fighter - Duran or Ali

Great post mate. I was waiting for someone to surmise it like this this and you didn’t disappoint.

Two absolute legends and both fricken fantastic fighters though different. Love both men.

 

I did write skilled, right? Was the best of Ali's competition
as SKILLED as the best of Duran's. Were they as talented
pound for pound if I need to break it down for you.

 

“Pound for pound” means absolutely nothing for heavyweights. Heavyweights are already fighting the best on earth. Going down and fighting inferior competition would make no sense. Becoming a multi division champion makes zero sense for heavyweights because they’ve already reached the summit. The clear truth is that 5’10 Frazier was just a much better boxer than 6’1 Hearns. For all of Hearn's flash, Frazier, the smaller man, reached the top, and Hearns didn’t. That’s all there is to it.

 

You have no idea of what you're writing about. Haglers "Flashs? Frazier the "Smaller man".?
Hagler was 6'1"? Hagler didn't reach "The Top"? If you actually watched more than 1 hour of
boxing I'd be shocked.......

 

Who's a better fighter? It's Roberto Duran , and I don't think it's close. You never saw Ali slip punches and counter, he just leaned his head back and used reflexes. When those faded he got nailed, Duran had it all. At 135 Duran was a complete beast , power, defense, body attack, aggression, a master at infighting and feinting the only other fighter comparable to him was Robinson at 147. Roberto moved up 25 pounds and fought some of the best fighters who ever lived past his prime. How do you think Ali would have fared if he came into the ring 25 pounds heavier in his thirties weighing around 240 -245 ? And he wouldn't be fighting men that had as much as 5 inches in height and as much as a foot in reach. Ali is the greatest heavyweight of all time, but pound for pound no. Watch Ali against Liston in the first fight, Liston did get to him more than was realized. Now imagine a six foot two 215 pound Roberto Duran, that would be a nightmare for Ali , that would make Frazier look like an easy win.

 

Ali didn't have to fight larger men who also happened to be obscenely skilled like Hearns, Leonard and Hagler.
These three alone are better than anyone Ali ever fought. The ultimate murderer's row. And he has a victory over one of them who maybe was the best of them. As a naturally smaller man coming up, having dominated his own division.

Duran at 37 (or was that 38?) toppled a big, aggressive, confident Iran Barkley in a war. Ali never did anything like that.

Ali was always either the bigger man or as big as his opponents, and faster. He always held some kind of physical advantage.

In terms of pure raw ability and skill, Duran is easily more accomplished.

 

No, Duran`s defense was far better, he came foward and slipped shots, Ray was shocked Duran`s head movement, no way could Ali have gone toe to toe with a heavyweight as quick as Ray and slipped all those shots and Ali was suseptible to hooks.

 

Hagler was 5`9 but had a 75 inch reach, Duran had a 66 inch reach and Ali had a 78 inch reach.

 

I meant to say Hearns, not Haggler, of course. My bad, I'll edit it.

 

Heavyweights as fast as Leonard don't and can't exist. This point is obscenely stupid, because it's like saying "If Duran fought a welterweight with punches as hard as Foreman". Yeah, he'd be knocked out, but that doesn't matter, it's impossible.

 

The top in boxing is heavyweight, that's all there is to it. I have absolutely zero tendency to tolerate the larps of smaller guys pretending like 6'1 Hearns was a better fighter than 5'10 Frazier because he fought MUCH weaker fighters like Duran and Leonard. Frazier would have killed those guys easily. He didn't need to be 6'1 to beat objectibely better fighters.

 

Ali was a greater fighter historically. Duran was more skilled & better P4P (slightly).

 

Very unfair question. Both elite, top of the tree fighters. Personally i think it would be doing the other an injustice and inadvertently diminish their achievements if i were to pick one over the other. But thats just my opinion

 

Both extremely skilled and two of the toughest fighters who ever lived. I give Ali the edge as he beat ALL of the greatest fighters of his generation.

 

Duran is a bit overrated here. I have to admit he was very skilled, more than Ali and beat men bigger than him, but he lost all of his big fights. Despite having a very good win over Ray Leonard, that isn't enough to place him above Ali P4P.