Surprised this hasn't been done before. I slightly favour Duran on points in a great fight. Thoughts?
Rodriguez all day. He had such an impressive career in TWO weight classes. And he beats Napoles as well.
Good fight, Rodriguez SD15. Rodriguez's boxing skills by the 2nd Griffith fight were supreme, he could box patiently of the back foot and use counters and slick defence to confuse Durán like Leonard did in 'No Mas', but an aspect of Rodriguez's style was his infighting. He often traded inside with quick flurries and used a few slips and slides before going back to boxing. Giving Roberto Durán a chance to work on the inside is never a good idea. As Leonard and Buchanan found out. I think Rodriguez boxes well enough to win the fight whilst Durán having his moments and rounds by getting inside. Montréal Durán is not an easy fight for any welterweight in history. He was also good enough to force an infight, so with Rodriguez being open to it, I see it being very very close, but Rodriguez gets the decision.
This is an acutely close match-up. I'd not have dared to bet on it. But I think Rodriguez's movement, judge of distance, well-timed rights, as well as his body-flurries on the inside, could frustrate Duran enough to tip this in his favor. The one warning to LMR is that, apart from Duran having almost every available tool in the box, anyway, he was also quite able to find the tempo of rhythmic boxers, such as Rodriguez was; get in sync with his opponent and put together impressive combinations of his own, once he'd found the matching groove. Either way, it's a fascinating fantasy contest, which is truly a pick'em scenario.
Bump. I'll take Rodriguez to edge out Duran with his workrate, I think he'd be one of the few fighters that would be successful to fight inside with Duran.
