is Duran overrated as a lightweight? quality of opposition?

That's the point. Because the era is 40 years past the anticipation of Durans bouts with his various top challengers is unknown to the younger generation. Thus the constant revisionism.

 

The vast expert opinion puts Duran ahead of most all past great lt weights aside from possibly B Leonard and perhaps Gans. That's the overwhelming opinion the past 30 plus years. With what Duran brought to the table on his best night no other lightweight beats him. His work rate of non stop punching, ability to fight a fast 15 rounds, speed, cleverness, KO power and killer instinct make him unbeatable. Just too many tools in the tool chest. I was lucky to watch most all of Durans bouts from the Buchanan bout onward live via either TV or closed circuit broadcast. To this day I've never seen a fighter with his level of both physical and technical dominance. Just a nightmare for any opponent at that weight. I also watched live his first bout with Leonard. Certainly this incredible technical performance cemented his all time greatness.

 

Outboxed him rather easily? Duran at 135? Jesus H Christ.

Remind me again what 135 ATG's or elites Whitaker beat?

He beat SRL at 147 for goodness sake, how hard do you think he'd be to beat at his peak weight and time 12 pounds under that?

 

You can argue around Duran, Gans and Benny Leonard for your top 3. I'd probably have Duran at 3. After this you can introduce Whitaker, Canzoneri, Williams, Welsh, Ortiz, McFarland and co.

 

It's like this, and it comes down to this for me. Duran resume at LW is Good, not great, but pretty good; in some ways it's comparable to Louis', and so is the analogy, even though Louis didn't have the great resume, and looked worse than Duran did at times, you could tell that was one offensive fighting force. The eye test tells me that, now imagine a fighter like Duran who at his best, had even less weakness of a Louis imo; What are you left with... You know that fighter at lightweight, would beat the ever living **** out of Ambers who you mentioned for example. It doesn't matter Who Ambers faced, my eyes can clearly and distinctly, tell me who was better. To extrapolate further, and building on the above, if we accept your premise that Duran lightweight competition was average; then we should logically deduce what I was proposing above, using the SRL fight as the basis. Duran, having been a pro for a decade already, moved up and beat a prime imo second best WW of all time. This means, what are eyes were already telling us, Duran at his best at LW, must of or is the best ever at that weight.

 

There's not a lightweight who ever lived that could beat Roberto Duran Easily!!! That is ridiculous! Pernell was a very good fighter, at lightweight Duran wears him down over 15 rounds

 

There is someone on Duran's resume at lightweight who compares with Mosley or Floyd or Pernell??

 

Ray knows deep down that if he fought Duran boxing, he would win everytime and rather easily. Fenech beat Azumah in the first fight, and look what happened in the second.

 

Duran was ultra prepared in Montreal and Ray was highly bothered by the Duran mystique. Duran had the fire of the Dempsey in Toledo or the Louis who fought Schmeling that night. That night he would not be denied.

 

had Ray boxed, he would have been denied, like he was with all the elites he ever fought like Hearns,Hagler,Benitez, Leonard

 

I'm not quite sure what relevance Fenech and Nelson have.

SRL vs Duran's initial encounter is debatable. Regardless it means very little when claiming Whitaker would beat Duran easily at 135. Preposterous.

 

not really. Wilfred beat him easily. Hearns beat him easily. Ray in the rematch and rubbermatch beat him easily. Elites beat him easily and Pernell is an elite. How is that really preposterous?

 

Title of thread is "is Duran overrated as a lightweight?" so none of those fights you mention have any relevance to Durans' all time ranking at lightweight.

 

ok then yes he is overrated as a lightweight.

 

I'm wasting my time here aren't i.

We'll agree to massively disagree.