How good was Duran - P4P GOAT?

Thats good if you disagree with my choices, ring magazine agrees with most of them and all 7 men have accomplished more and beat better fighters than duran did.

 

I would definitely place him in the top 10 P4P fighters of all time, and a strong case can be made for him belonging in the top 5. Duran was a complete fighter who was capable of dissecting any style opponent, and was underrated defensively.

 

top 5 to 7 for me. the arguments I have read in this thread are spurious at best. i can argue the same and worse for any "great" you bring into the fray. There is a reason that every great trainer of the last 40 years heralds Duran. And those guys- not just Arcel- did it for a living.

 

Stonehands

"Duran didn't do more because he got tired. Duran fought him inside the perimeter and Hagler was like heavy timber in there. It wears you out tangling with that. No one disputes that Duran won that I know of. But Hagler would have destroyed Whitaker because there would have been no need to worry about anything incoming. Anyone who argues otherwise is guilty of base "nuthuggery."

Nodody disputes Hagler won you mean?.

Duran fooled Hagler with his cute defensive tactics, as he was expecting a "rush in" job before the first bell rang. I think everyone had a knockout defeat written in stone for Duran prior to the first bell ringing.

Question: How do you think Hagler would have done against Whitaker, if he fought similarly to the way he did against Duran?.

Realistically, Hagler would have steamed towards Whitaker. He would not be looking into the eyes of a fighter who had previously beaten two opponents convincingly inside schedule, as Duran did with Cuevas and Moore.

I'll use the highest weight Whitaker fought at as a gauge here, as he only fought as high as jr middleweight against Vasquez. Lets say he he comes in at 156lbs.

 

Duran lost -no doubt about that.

Hagler would have been a complete dunce to fight like that against Whitaker. Whitaker had no guns that Hagler would need to respect. Any great can lose against anyone if they fought stupid... but they don't -or don't often- and that is why they are great.

Duran didn't just beat them -he stopped them. Whitaker would have stopped neither of them on his best day.

If Hagler had fought Whitaker he would have stopped him late -and that is only because of Whitaker's sublime defense. Defense alone can't do it and again, Whitaker's best shots on Hagler's whiskers would probably tickle Hagler.

 

Agreed. However, I think Whitaker would lose on points. If Hagler stood off hesitantly against Whitaker like he did against Duran he would be asking for a very competitive fight. I feel Whitaker would be able to show equally as good defense, if not better. And his jab would score on a regular basis as well. Not too sure how Whitaker's chin would have withstood Hagler's bombs during the late rounds. He chin stood up well to Trinidad's shots, so taking Hagler the distance aint out of the question.

Note: The above is only based on Hagler standing off Whitaker like he did against Duran.

I'm looking at Whitaker's performance against Vasquez as a gauge. Not too sure if you have seen the fight, but its one of the most underrated performances of his career. Vasquez was a physically imposing full blown light-middleweight, and one of the divisions best during the 90's.

Stonehands. If Hagler fought Whitaker the way he would have, and we both know thats an all guns blazing job, he stops him inside 8 rounds.

 

Fair enough.

 

Duran’s resume qualifies him as one of the top five historically greatest fighters. He won belts in four weight classes, no gimmicks involved. After running up a record of 72-1 as a lightweight, and having avenged that lone loss by KO, he challenged and beat fellow great Sugar Ray Leonard, to take the welter crown at age 29.

He later won titles at light middle and middleweight at ages 32 and 37(!) His last crown was won more than 20 years after his pro debut, against a naturally bigger man, with 90 fights under his well-worn belt. He fought his first fight at 119 pounds, yet was able to knock down future heavyweight Iran Barkely to win his final title.

In comparison, Sugar Ray Robinson dominated two divisions, welter and middleweight. Henry Armstrong went from being a fledgling 120-pounder to simultaneously being the champion of three weight divisions: featherweight, lightweight and welterweight, in the process beating the powerful future middleweight champion Ceferino García, among many, many others.

Harry Greb, a natural middleweight, defeated heavyweights Gene Tunney, Tommy Gibbons and Gunboat Smith during his amazingly prolific tooth-and-nail career.

Middleweight champion Bob Fitzsimmons became the lightest heavyweight champion in history when, at 167 pounds, he definitively stopped 184-lb titlist James Corbett. He later gave none other than 200-pounder James Jeffries everything he could handle in two extraordinary losing efforts, with Fitz’s title at stake. He later came down and won the light heavyweight crown, as well.

Sam Langford began as a featherweight and fought his way through the categories, to eventually give arrogant great heavyweight champ Jack Johnson a good scare. Had racial discrimination not limited his opportunities, he most probably would have been a multiple champion as well. For instance, he decisioned peak lightweight champ Joe Gans in a non-title bout in 1903.

Sugar Ray Leonard was a tremendous fighter, no doubt, but it would seem his relatively brief career was contrived towards collecting belts, pouncing in and out of boxing at just the right time to garishly become a “five”-category champ. Plus, he was never really outweighed in any of his bouts.

Thomas Hearns won titles in six(!) categories, from welterweight to cruiserweight, over a 29-year career, a testament to the heart of a man who kept coming back, even after crushing defeats, to regroup and conquer the next summit.

Thus, as far as scope of success throughout the weight categories in boxing, Roberto Duran is right up there with the best of all time.