Most skilled: Jose Napoles, Roberto Duran, or Pernell Whitaker?

Loaded question. Of course it is Duran. We just love his name I think. Duran, Duran, Draun, Daurn, Druan....etc.

He has better defense. although Whitaker was beautiful he not as effective at turning his defensive to offense a la De La Hoya. Duran would have slipped those same punches and pounded Oscar in the dirt.

 

doo ran

 

What Duran had, more than any fighter I've ever seen, was the ability to go from offensive to defense and vice versa in a split second.

 

Duran, simply by virtue of longevity enabling him to acquire and apply knowledge of experience the others didn't last long enough to obtain. After watching his former charge defeat Barkley, Ray Arcel commented, "I think he may know more about boxing than I do!" His final multi round stoppage wins [all on youtube] in the mid 1990s are clinics in efficiency.

He's generally considered to have gotten the better of both Paz and Camacho in their first pairings. Vinnie and Hector were on good streaks going in, and still had a few big wins left in them at that stage. He won his rematch with Castro before Jorge turned 30.