Humour me. Roberto Duran vs Stanley Ketchel 15 rounds

Providing it's the best middleweight version of Duran (1983) I see him outboxing Ketchel over 15. Roberto had the caginess and skill to negate Stanley's charges and ferocious punches.

 

I honestly think Duran would have made a fool out of him and knocked him out. I'm not denying Ketchel was a hard ### I just don't think he would be able to defend against Duran hence the KO

 

I'd bet the Duran who fought Barkley would defeat Ketchel. Nevertheless a prime Duran.

 

I'm a big Duran fan but I'm not certain about this one, I think Duran would easily outbox Ketchel and counter him with solid right hands and his defense would frustrate Stanley. The thing that gnaws at me is Ketchel's strength and power, with a lot of grappling , mauling and holding in a fast paced 15 round fight does Roberto wane in the later rounds? If Duran's power shots can do some damage to Ketchel in the first 10 rounds I think he'd manage a decision, but I just don't know if Duran could seriously hurt Ketchel , Duran could slow up as he did when he got tired against Hagler. And I think this would be a significantly more physical fight than he had with Hagler. There are a lot of historically good middleweights I think Duran could beat and I'd lean with the Manos De Piedra by decision in this one but with no confidence and I wouldn't bet on it.

 

Well that's the problem, there's no such thing as a prime middleweight Duran

 

If boxing truly evolved between the early 1900s and the following decades, you’d be hard pressed to find a better test case than this fight.

Yes, Duran could be fat and sloppy and he could be outboxed when he wasn’t on his game (and maybe when he was on his game too, but let’s leave that one aside) but I don’t think Ketchel has the style to trouble Duran in the ways that even a guy like Kirkland Laing did. Of course, Ketchel is greater than Kirkland Laing but there’s nothing in Ketchel that makes me think he would catch Duran out.

Physically, he would have the edge in power and possibly strength, but Duran was so good inside and would be comfortable in a clinch that I don’t see that physicality troubling him.

I think he’d use his smarts to outbox and outfox Ketchel and take a hard-fought decision.

 

I never understood the hype around Ketchel, other than his popularity for fighting Johnson, knocking him down and then getting KO'd. He had a few good wins versus Papke and O'Brien and Papke wasn't exactly a great fighter. Ketchel was a crude brawler who clinched excessively. Duran would have outclassed him in every way imaginable. I see an early round KO, with Duran's hands raised as the victor.

 

. Spot on, mate

 

Ketchel just looks horrible on film. I don't see how a ranked middleweight from just about any time in that past few decades doesn't clown him.

 

Ketchel, over 20 rnds...

 

20 rounds old rules favor Stanley as rough as Duran could be being he's smaller, weaker and far less powerful at this weight. His performance against Barkley was amazing but with the ref basically taking the night off and 20 rounds I got Stanley probably by stoppage.

 

Duran can not win the big win. He ties too easily. Ketchel roughs him up and takes a UD

 

Watch Ketchel on video, mate. You'll see what @Seamus, and anyone who uses their eyes rather than swallows the hyperbole of contemporary reports, sees. Ketchel was crap. I'm sorry if that seem so rude and dismissive but he just was. It's like watching Laurel and Hardy's film where Stanley boxes.

The trouble is that, in those days, fights were only seen by local reporters, really. No newspaper was going to pay their sports reporter to travel across the country to cover a fight so you would get reports from a local reporter which were gushing as the fighter they were bestowing praise on was the best of a small group they had actually seen.

Let's be realistic. Stanley Ketchel was only 24 when he died. He had spent a career drinking and carousing, hardly the lifestyle that creates greats. He had not benefitted from decades of the sport's evolution, nor had he travelled to enjoy different kinds of tutelage and sparring. Nothing in his lifestyle or training was conducive to an elite performer and that shows in the film we have of him which is so much more neutral and, therefore, accurate than the awestruck local reporter. And when you watch that footage, the thought of him being in there with a trained, experienced Duran - or anyone else elite - doesn't lead you to give him much of a chance.

PS: I wouldn't put too much store in the KD of Johnson as giving Ketchel the power to drop and hurt a HW. I would question the legitimacy of the knock down - Johnson seemed to be falling before the punch failed to land - but even if it did land, Johnson's subsequent immediate reaction shows how little he was hurt.