Ray Leonard v.s. Floyd Mayweather ...

That breakdown makes a lot of sense to me. But I'm less convinced that those are all really different versions of Duran. The Duran who fought Cuevas doesn't really look different than the one who fought Laing-- part of it is that he just had a different opponent with a different style in front of him.

 

That's one view of things and it's not necessarily wrong, since we're dealing with opinions, but during the Benitez fight, SRL would was one of the commentators said that Duran when he got on the inside of Benitez simply wasn't throwing combinations and was pushing his punches, he was just punching with single shots, something Duran really didn't do when he was on his game. SRL thought that perhaps Duran had over trained for the fight.

With Laing, Bernstein, who's not really a huge fan of Duran's was actually embarrassed for Duran, and said that this is probably his last fight and we should remember the 'real Duran' as we look back in history. And even the No Mas fight, prior to Duran quitting he was only down by at most two rounds, other judges had him only down by a single round, but either way even SRL acknowledged that Duran never had the strength or the power he had in their prior fight. Are these legit losses, sure they are.

So take this for what it's worth.

I think when a fighter is past prime and has 75+ fights under his belt he's probably seen every style there is, but that doesn't mean he can't have an off night. I'm sure if Mayweather sticks around for another 25-30 fights he too will have the odd off night.

And fwiw, I would certainly pick Mayweather to beat the version of Duran who fought Laing. Hell I might even pick Canelo.

 

This. I also agree that Mayweather would probably get the nod over a Benitez/Laing version of Duran.

Mayweather shuts down when the pressure is too much for him. This is why he was a sitting duck against Maidana's looping shots and aggression. Duran will rack up points on effective aggression, walk completely through Mayweather's best shots to brutally land his own. He'll force Mayweather to comprise his defensive shell by dismantling him on the inside.

It's just a terrible fight for Mayweather.

 

aye, I hear yeah :good

 

Hardly.

To be honest, before he and Pac fought we heard the same thing from a sizeable cpntingent.

Roberto was a great fighter but there are much lesser talents than Floyd that Duran didn't beat the **** out of.
For me it's a gross oversimplification.

 

I said Leonard would beat the **** out of Floyd. Prime Duran would to imo.

 

SRL is clearly the top dog in this fight. Everything Floyd has, SRL has it better, faster, stronger.

I can't imagine a realistic way for Wayweather to win. However, I don't think he get KOed neither. Floyd's amazing defensive skills will keep him alive until the very end, so he loses by UD in a very interesting fight.

The best version of Duran is all wrong for Floyd. Montreal Duran would demolish him handily.

 

Absolutely silly comparison. Such logic is almost embarassing. :roll:

Floyd trains and lives like a maniac. He is always in shape. He was on shape against Castillo twice. Yet, Castillo gave him twice all he could handle.

Duran was often not in proper shape and did not live the life of a fighter later in his career. He had much more fights. For his losses, Duran was not always in shape.

If Castillo gave an in shape Floyd so much trouble, it is easy to imagine what a prime version of Duran or Chavez SR would do to Floyd?

 

Ray is too big, strong, and vicious for him. lb. for lb. he is the best of my lifetime.

 

Ahh, I always forget that anytime Duran loses its because he was either not in shape or uninspired.

Did you watch the Castillo fights? Floyd injured himself in the first one and basically stopped throwing real punches. Castillo still wasn't able to accomplish much of anything--he won rounds by default. I don't remember the second one being all that competitive, tbh.

 

The 2nd fight was actually close : judges had it 115-113.

 

Although it may seem bogus to some, if you actually watched him fight throughout his career you can only conclude that strangely enough this pretty much true.

A focused in shape prime Duran, it probably the best fighter I've seen over the last 40 years.

BUT, this all happened after first going 72-1. Mayweather's 48-0 doesn't stack up to this record whether the losses are factored in or not.

 

Dundee also thinks the likes of slow lumbering Ernie Terrell was better than the Klitchkos.I wouldn't invest in what the old timers think unless they have trained the same fighters.Who wins/id say its a 50/50 fight but slightly lean towards Sr just b/c he seemed mentally tougher.

 

Can you reference this please because Dundee was very specific about why he thinks Duran would beat Mayweather, so I would like to hear his reasoning as to why he thinks Terrell would beat Klitschkos. For the most part, I don't believe trainings live in a time warp, I think they see specific flaws or attributes fighters have.

 

Leonard. There's nothing Mayweather does that Leonard doesn't do better, apart from cherrypicking.