Prime Roberto Duran vs ...

I picked Duran to win but you make terrific points and observations (as always). I'm not as certain as I was before (as if anyone could be certain about choosing a victor in a matchup between 2 legitimate prime ATGs, lol). Cheers John and great insights!!

 

Cheers Clinton. It's a tight affair i think.

 

I haven't overstated Henry Armstrong at all.
I said he gets hit. Everyone gets hit when they face top opposition.

It's my failure to overstate Duran that's probably putting me out of line.

No, Duran didn't have better defensive abilities. He didn't have better "Ring IQ". He didn't have better body punching.
Duran hit hard but Armstrong faced several hard punchers.

I don't see why you insist Armstrong's going to get hit more than Duran would. Armstrong generally threw and landed more punches.

Duran was a great, great lightweight but the legend of LW Duran has taken on almost ridiculous proportions in recent years. He thoroughly deserves to be regarded as one of the all-time great LWs but it's really gone too far when he's automatically regarded as favourite over anyone and undisputed all-time #1. Against some fellow legends at 135 who frankly had better records/resumes.

 

You're 100% overstating Henry if you think Duran didn't have better defense than him. We could certainly do a comparison with videos illustrating their defensive abilities. To even say Armstrong was as good as Duran in this area is comical. I also don't agree on your other thoughts, but why talk about those any further when you'll tell me Armstrong was as good defensively as Duran. For Christ's sake, all I need to do is show Duran feinting and parrying punches vastly better than Armstrong ever dreamed of doing, let along vastly better head and body movement defensively. So yeah, we are clearly seeing things way different with these two fighters.