I've scored it all three results at various points, a Barkley win, a Duran win, and a draw. I think my most frequent card is 115-114 Barkley. It's one of my very favourite fights. Either man could've won, but it's kind of a shame that this was probably the best we ever saw Barkley in a ring and it ended up being a loss for him.
I watched the documentary I am Duran and from what it showed it looked like Duran won by KO. Then I was watching by YouTube and was surprised as I had Barkley winning and was like wait is this actually going the distance ,
Underdogs, as per definition, always attract the support of a certain contingent of fans. Then you have a pre-existing sentimental favourite coming in as an underdog and that’s another thing again. Sometimes they might be improperly scored for their “relative” successes as opposed to their “absolute” successes (for one example, see the scorecard of Guerra for Hagler v Leonard, wtf?). In relative terms Roberto’s performance was stunning. In absolute terms as measured against Barkely’s performance, it made for a very close fight, certainly closer than one scorecard which favoured Roberto 118-112. Hello Sugar Ray!
I had Duran turning it on sweeping 9 through 12. I scored round 1 for Duran and between 2-8 there was another round for Duran. There were several barnburning rounds that could have went either way. Roberto certainly the stronger man at the end. His clean punching carried it. Where he got the energy at 37 to bring it late IDK. It was a fast fight from opening bell. "I did everything I was supposed to do. It was his heart, it just wouldn't go, it wouldn't go." Iran Barkely. Cool thing those guys are friends and respect is there especially from Barkley who though he was gonna pad his record.
This is how I had it when scoring it not that long ago and what I wrote: Iran Barkley v Roberto Duran Round 1: 10-9 Barkley Round 2: 10-9 Barkley Round 3: 10-10 Even Round 4: 10-9 Barkley Round 5: 10-9 Barkley Round 6: 10-9 Duran Round 7: 10-10 Even Round 8: 10-9 Barkley Round 9: 10-9 Duran Round 10: 10-9 Duran Round 11: 10-8 Duran (scores a knockdown) Round 12: 10-10 Even Total: 115-115 Draw (actual scores: 116-113 Barkley and 118-112, 116-112 both for Duran) This was soooo close. So many rounds fought at such a tight level. The first time I saw it live I felt Duran took the decision in a close fight, but today I recognize this fight as razor close and down to the absolute wire, but a damn good fight.
I remember Barkley hitting Duran with a flush left hook that spun him around. Duran staying on his feet after such a monster shot from a man who was always i thought a natural light-heavyweight, let alone recovering to put Barkley down a few rounds later, is testament to how great Duran is. Top 10 ATG P4P. I've scored the fight a close Duran win and a close Barkley win, it is just a shame one guy had to lose such a brilliant fight.
I remember watching the ESPN Friday night replay of this. Ray Mercer & Michael Carbajal were on the undercard. I just watched it for the first time in years. I had Duran win by 1 point. He was really exhausted in the middle rounds & got rocked in the 8th. Great fight by both. Man I loved boxing back then.
Had Barkley by a point. Hard to believe Duran took that left hook from this guy. Harder to belive than that was how in the world the former lightweight took some of those body shots. Barkley dug those things in there and what a devastating punch. He even landed a few to the liver!!! how did he take those shots and the accumulation? That is right up there with Ali climbing off the deck against Frazier in the 15th and Monzon beat to the punch by Valdez and bouncing right back up. Beyond incredible.