Leonard's disgusting late eighties era

Duran weighed 155 in 1981 against Nino Gonzales. Hagler weighed 157 that year against Hamsho.

It's middleweight.

 

Facts are flailing?

Only a quarter of Duran's fights came at Lightweight.

Name the BEST wins of Duran's career.

* There was the first fight with Ray Leonard at welterweight.

* There was the fight at welterweight with Carlos Palomino.

* There was the fight with Davey Moore that was celebrated by his fans all over the world at junior middleweight.

* There was the knockout of Pipino Cuevas at junior middleweight.

* There was the win over Iran Barkley to win the WBC middleweight title.

How long does it take for you to get to a lightweight fight?

 

Duran's best wins took place between 147 and 160.

Not at lightweight.

 

His wins over Buchanon and Dejesus were better than the ones over Barkley, Moore, palamino or Cueves. The Leonard win is the only one you listed that trumps those and that sure as hell didn't take place at Jr. Middle or Middle. Some of his other achievements in those higher classes which you didn't mention were losing to kirkland Laing, Robbie Sims, Wilfred Benitez and getting blasted out by Hearns. With that said I agree with you that he shouldn't be classified as a "career lightweight" as he fought in numerous divisions both before and after lightweight. But he had already been boxing for ten years and about 65 fights before he finally fought for the first time at Welter. He certainly can't be classified as a legit middle or super middle.

 

To call this circular logic would be kind!

 

That's nonsense.

The competition at lightweight wasn't as good as the guy's he defended against at the higher weights.

He didn't defend against anyone as good as Sugar Ray Leonard at lightweight. He didn't defend against anyone as good as Thomas Hearns at lightweight.

If he'd defended against Randy Shields at welter and Luigi Minchillo at junior middleweight and Jorge Castro at middleweight he'd have likely had successful defenses there, too.

If you feast on a weaker division, that makes you a "career" fighter at that weight?

Does that make Michael Moorer a career light heavyweight? Or James Toney a career middleweight?

 

No they weren't. NOT on any planet.

Ask someone to name Duran's best win. You think KEN BUCHANAN is going to come out of their mouths before Palomino, Barkley, Moore or Cuevas?

Christ. Sorry. No.

And hell, most people thought he got away with a freaking foul in that fight.

And DeJesus, no. Duran wasn't supposed to lose to him to begin with.

Saoul Mamby was better than DeJesus. (And Duran beat Mamby above lightweight, too.)

The Koboyashi fight would be named by most before DeJesus. And that fight was above the lightweight limit, too.

 

Lol

 

The Moore and even Barkley wins are only so impressive because Duran was the smaller, older fighter who'd really only moved up in weight because of his lack of discipline. Buchanan is considered a much better fighter at lightweight than Barkley was at middleweight. DeJesus was a better regarded 135/140lber than the wildly overrated Moore was at 154.

 

Duran was a natural super middleweight who fought mostly between Bantam and Lightweight for a full decade. He was so good at 135 because in reality he was naturally 30+ pounds heavier than his undergunned opponents.

 

I don't buy this

Many fighters drop weight from their "walking around" weight to make lower divisions.

Maybe Duran walked around at 160 *lbs but he was no natural super middleweight. He was not fit when he balooned up.

Also, you're assuming all this 135 lb opponents walked around at 135 lbs.

 

Duran was an athlete who turned pro just as he turned 17-years-old, and fought from 119 to 176 pounds in his 33 year career.

Like most boxers who fight that long, his prime was probably right around the middle, in his late 20s and early 30s ...

Which was when he was fighting in the divisions spanning 147-160 ...

And not surprisingly it was also the time and in the divisions where he scored his best wins.

Claiming he was at his best in his early 20s when he was fighting some of the weakest competition overall in his career ... is ridiculous.

He wasn't his "prime" when he was 22. (And even then he fought a lot over the lightweight limit.) He fought six times in 1972 (when he turned 22). FOUR of the six were over the lightweight limit.

Enough of this crap that Duran was a "career" Lightweight.

He had trouble making the lightweight limit by the time he started getting a few hairs on his chest.

 

Do you know why no one mentions that? Because Duran clearly won the fight. There was nothing controversial about it. Its beyond a stretch to say Leonard won that night.