Imagine if Mother Nature had made Roberto Duran a welterweight from the off. Envisage him,with all the attributes,pound for pound that he had at the time of the third Esteban de Jesus fight taking on a 1980/81 Sugar Ray Leonard. Then use the same hypothesis with a 1983 hagler at middleweight,and the 1984 Thomas Hearns at 154 lb. I can see him coming from behind to stop the Hitman,and getting a unanimous points verdict over Hagler. I'm torn over the Leonard scenario. Thoughts ?
He beats Leonard and Hearns up. He beats Hagler. He loses a close decision to Michael Spinks. Drops down a weight and beats Nigel Benn at 168.
Gets decisioned in a dull 15 rounder by Hugo Corro due to inability to handle movement and boxers, before retiring a broken man.
Imagine if Duran hadn't doubled up on the Jalapeno peppers with that steak burrito right before the Leonard rematch.
Duran was an in shape welterweight against Leonard anyway, are you saying what if Duran came along in the late 70s and was naturally taller/rangier? It would give him advantages against Hearns but against Leonard he would lose some of his stockyness/strength
This is a step too far in the hypothetical stakes for my liking to be honest. It's OK to imagine fighters who could conceivably have fought each other (size-wise) fighting h2h, but it's difficult to the point of meaningless to try and guess how good someone would be and how he would fare against other specific fighters if you changed him physically. I don't see any real value in this discussion. A better question would be: how would the superfit supermotivated Duran of the Brawl In Montreal have done against the possibly slightly weight-drained Hearns who fought Leonard at welter?
