Leonard has a reach of 188 versus Duran who has 167. Leonard is one of the fastest WW's of all time, and also has decent pop. Loma has a reach of 166, doesn't punch nearly as hard as Leonard, and will need to get in Duran's punching range to land his shots. The issue with being in Duran's punching range, is it will allow Duran to do what he does best. Grapple and box, which is his speciality, taking away Loma's footwork and forcing him to fight Duran head on in the same manner Leonard fought Duran in the first fight. Duran's ATG power allows him to deliver monster shots even when he is using the other hand to hold the opponent in place. He is also very evasive on the inside. The choice of referees is the only way Loma will get any breathing room. If you think Duran lost because he can't cut off the ring, you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. Duran also boxed Leonard on the outside and had success on quite a few occasions. As for natural talent, imagine Loma goes up to welterweight to challenge Crawford and beats him. Then a slew of other top fighters, later in his career on his comeback fight, pudgy, out of shape and way above his weight limit he beats GGG nearly knocking him out at MW. Although I wouldn't rate Barkley on GGG's level, it's to give you an idea of Duran's natural talent and what he managed to achieve.
Yes! The Manny Steward part is so important in these hypothetical fights. He is literally a game changer imo, and HAVE to be taken into consideration when discussing “prime Lewis vs. prime Foreman” etc. Honestly, I don’t believe Hearns would have been so succesful without Manny. It was Steward who unveiled the hidden potential of the right hand, which may be the best p4p punch I have ever seen. There have been better fighters, but no punch have ever been so sweet, as a right hand from The Hitman.
People forget even a past prime Duran was such an animal that Marvin hagler refused to turn their fight into a war, kept it tactical and then said he earned his PHD in boxing in that fight. You don't go to war with duran especially not at 135. He has too much of everything plus ferociousness and footspeed. Loma gets bashed up, especially considering Duran had much stronger natural frame. I would also davor duran over everybody at 147 today. Hagler and Leonard dominate. Hearns could lose an upset jus because of his chin and stamina
Just Duran by himself beats all of the top LWs, all of the top welters and one or two of the top MWs.
IMO Saunders is still not tested, we still don't even know if he can see the final bell against GGG or even Canelo...
Duran would be King of the Lightweights. Leonard and Hearns would be the top 2 Welters, and Hagler would be the #1 peoples middleweight, but lose the decision to Canelo, after clearly winning the fight.
Like I said Billy is still not tested good enough, we don't even know if he can even hang with ggg the whole 12 rounds, So let's plz wait and see before saying ridiculous things like that.
Most unproven of the handful of very top middles perhaps, but easily the slickest (yes including BooBoo).
OK sure, you make some good points and obviously Duran at least has routes to victory and would probably be the bookies favourite. Duran can cut the ring for sure but if he forced Leonard into getting cornered in the first fight, what happened in the 2nd? Where was his effective pressure then? My take on it is that Loma is the alpha male in the fight. Unflusterable. I think Loma would prepare for Duran and find a game plan, Duran goes about it business as usual. You are underestimating the psychological element in this fight I think. This is bull vs matador. The weight jumping things is a misnomer really since Duran was ripped and a natural 135lber but Loma looks like a bodybuilder at the weight. I still think Loma makes Duran lose his rag and ultimately the fight. Duran likes to get in the mix and impose himself, intimidate and bully. Loma is exactly the kind of fighter who would not only have the technical acumen to suppress a lot of what Duran does but look cool doing it. I agree that Loma has pretty much f-all chance of KOing Duran which, ultimately means he loses some but Duran can get out-boxed and at least half the time he does in this hypothetical for me.
Duran cleans out 140lbs would've prevented Bud from being undisputed. Leonard and Hearns wipe the floor with the WW and end up avoiding each other because of promotion nonsense. Hagler outboxes Canelo and GGG. Both really good competitive fights.
GGG is far more skilled than Barkley and would have destroyed Benn at 160 and he would have beaten the two fighters that beat Benn at 160, different level.
Can't you read the final sentence, I didn't mention SRL being much better than Crawford, where as with Barkley I mentioned it because that's how big of a difference the gap is.
