How much individual credit do Laing and Benitez deserve for their Duran victories?

Benitez deserves heaps of credit. I'd never accept any excuses for Duran in this one because it was his first shot at redemption after the disgrace of No Mas.

Laing would have caught him napping but he was still a good talented fighter with the right attributes to give Duran a bit of curry. Laing had a couple of decent fights with Jones.

 

Wilfred all the way; he was developing more pop by that time (Hope, etc.) as well. My bud and I knew going in; we both bet $500 on Benitez. The only weird thing about that fight was one (highly medicated or just plain blind) judge scored the fight only 143-142 Benitez???

 

At the time the boxing press said Duran was finished ! The lang fight was seen as the confirmation .it turned out slightly different.

 

Duran had trouble with speedy fighter, and fighters with a big punch. That's why he lost to Benitez and Laing.

 

Duran was popular with judges. The Laing fight was also close on the judges' cards, but I don't remember it that way.

He was winning on the cards after 12 with Hagler, and one judge had him beating Barkley by 6 pts!!! and another by 4 pts. Nothing of this is reasonable to me.

But like many greats, Duran was smart and often rallied in the last 30 seconds or so of a round, and his legend probably carried weight with the judges.

 

1982 was probably the worst year of Duran's career. Half of what made Duran so great was the fire and intensity he brought into the ring. I don't really think it was there that year. The following year he got it back and had one of his most memorable years. I still think Benitez would have given Duran problems whatever Duran's mindset but I do think he was fighting a distracted/uninterested version in 82. Had it been the Duran of 83, Benitez would have had his work cut out to beat him. And Laing never would have won.

 

Wilfred gets a lot of credit. I don't believe Duran was in his best shape (SRL even commented that his fire didn't seem to be there in the second round), but he was in good enough shape imo. Laing, not so much, he really didn't get that motivated for this fight and paid for it.