Myth: Roberto Duran has a better resume than Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

Any thoughts on my point between De La Hoya or Canelo?

 

Duran has a pretty insane resume and Mayweather does not come close. Manny approaches it but falls short.

Dejesus and Marcel are incredible wins for anybody. Now throw in Buchanan a prime Leonard and Palamino. Then sprinkle in Cuevas, Moore and Barkley.

If Mayweather and Pac say challenged Hopkins at middleweight both would have gotten stopped. Duran challenged Hagler at middleweight and made it a pretty close fight.

I am not so sure Pac would be able to get by Marcel honestly and Duran fought Marcel in either his 2 or 3 year as a pro which was a bold thing to do considering how good Marcel was.

 

The fight wasn't at superfeatherweight. It was a non-title fight contested at no weight limit. Marcel was 129lbs for the fight. Duran was 128lbs. Both men were 6 months away from being ranked top 10 at featherweight. Marcel wasn't quite yet at his peak but close to it. He should have been the WBC champion against Shibata which was about an year away from his fight with Duran. Duran wasn't either, for that matter (he was 18 ffs) and Marcel was pretty much halfway through his pro career. It's a great win.

EDIT: *3 months away from being ranked top 10. Weirdly I remembered this fight being in January 1970, instead of May that year.

 

Non-title fights weren't fights at a higher weight class. And Marcel didn't move up to fight him. They both were around featherweight at the time and Marcel was heavier of his own accord. They were both unknown, except in Panama. That doesn't suddenly make them less skilled or less good. Anyway, Whatever floats your boat.

I don't discredit Floyd for beating Canelo btw. It was a great win. But just until last year you would always hear that Canelo is the most improved fighter with every fight. Some of that is true. His footwork against Floyd and Lara looked amateurish at best. It is wrong to call him prime against Floyd, and it's got nothing to do with age.

 

They had c.6-8 hours from weigh in to the fight, rather than c.30-32 hours.

When day before weigh ins were 1st introduced, fighters didn't drain to the same extent as they have over the last decade or so.

 

It's strange how NoNeck feels so strongly about Mayweather beating Canelo, but dismissive of Duran beating Marcel. Especially given that, it's clear he's never seen Marcel fight. He might not have won a title until however many fights later, but the following year after the Duran fight, he faced one of the finest featherweight technicians ever in Shibata, and completely outclassed him. That draw is one of the most egregious I've ever seen.

Given Canelo's performances immediately before and after the Mayweather fight, I'd put good money on that a fighter who struggles with Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara is not quite on par with arguably the best featherweight ever.

 

Marcel had ATG ability. It's so clear and obvious once you watch him. His resume might not be the thickest but the manner in which he beat Arguello, Shibata and Gomez spells H2H monster. He retired aged 25, he could have gone on to be a Great quite easily.

 

I think he was supposed to fight Ruben Olivares in a unification prior to retiring. That'd be another great, great win.

He also beat Samuel Serrano and Spider Nemoto, two fighters who'd go on to have decent careers of their own. Serrano especially.

 

He had already announced his retirement prior to the arguello fight irrespective of the result. His mother did not want him to continue.

Agreed, it would have been a technical showpiece. Although I like what we got instead as well. Arguello reaching the featherweight summit.

 

Yes, however I believe the idea was proposed towards Ruben if his retirement wasn't as imminent as he claimed.

In all selfishness, I really don't like Marcel's decision to retire. Of course, I understand why he did and respect that choice, but as a fan, I always wished he'd have stuck around for longer, and had got the fights with Olivares, Hafey, Castillo, Laporte, Jofre, and Pedroza the line, maybe even Sanchez. Of course, I'm just being selfish here, but I'd have probably picked him to win all of them.

 

He didn't really have any holes in his game. An outboxer, he could outslug and rough them up as well as anyone on the inside. Insane stamina (he threw nearly 1000 punches against Antonio Gomez) and a Granite chin. Big power was the only thing he lacked. Shibata was very thankful of that in his Ring magazine interview given how many times Marcel tagged him.