Ray Leonard v.s. Floyd Mayweather ...

A bit convenient for my taste. When other fighters turn in as many uninspiring performances as Duran (above lightweight) it raises questions about their mental and psychological makeup; with Duran, fans just chalk it up to his eating and drinking months prior. Even Tyson, whose wild partying-drinking-drugging-fighting outside the ring lifestyle was dare I say more notorious than Duran's never gets these excuses.

 

Like I said, you can chuck the excuses out the window and Duran still is a better fighter and has a better record then Floyd. But as to the validity of the excuses I don't think it actually hurts to watch a fighters career to assess the validity of them.

As for Tyson, that was pretty much the exact excuse used to justify his loss to Douglas.

But like I said, I'm fine with chucking excuses out the window because I don't really think it much matters why someone lost, they lost. End of story.

 

A better fighter with a better record at lightweight, sure. After that, it gets pretty tricky unless you rely on the excuses.

 

I don't think so, he gave Hagler all he could handle, can't imagine Floyd doing the same. At 147 he's the only fighter who beat SRL in his prime, and about 75-80% of the people on this thread think SRL would beat Mayweather, and most have said Duran was all wrong for Mayweather.

And he also beat Barkley who was a huge, huge middleweight who had just KO'd Hearns, and along the way he demolished Moore and Cuevas.

But if you exclude all that, then yes, you're correct.

 

I've seen plenty of Duran--enough to doubt strongly that his inconsistent performances were due to him being physically compromised by excess drinking and eating prior to training. I think he's flat-out overrated above lightweight for a pretty small percentage of his fights. The fights where he looked truly dominant at or above welterweight were exceptions, not the rule. And physically, he doesn't look much different to me in the Cuevas fight, for example, than he did in some of his less successful fights--Cuevas was just a more obliging opponent.

 

His reasoning was to protect Alis image when asked how Klitchko would do against Ali,being Ali defeated Terrell,easy to dismiss the likes of Wlad however reality is another matter.He picked the tallest guy that ali defeated but ignored they are on different skill levels.

 

There's a flipside to that coin. He lost to Kirkland Laing. He looked hopelessly outclassed against Wilfred Benitez. He quit against Leonard. He lost to Robbie Sims. He got starched by Hearns in less than 2 rounds.

Very hard to imagine those things happening to Mayweather.

 

What's your definition of a small % of fights?

He had 119 fights 103 of which he won and 16 of which he lost, and of those losses more of them occurred when he was over 40. So you're pointing to what exactly 3-4 losses out of 80 fights to justify your opinion?

Let's wait until Mayweather rakes up another 30 fights and see where he stands. Either way, the vast majority here think that the Montreal version of Duran beats any version of Mayweather.

 

I'm confused by your math. I said that he's overrated above lightweight for a small percentage of performances (above lightweight). Am I missing something?

 

Yeah, it's long been known that Duran binged out after his fights. But for which fights was he in shape physically and for which wasn't he? And how do you know?

 

My mistake, he was 71-1 at lightweight but still fought another 47 fights afterwards. But I think the time period you're referring to I assume is between the ages of 30-40.

 

Yes, I think his highs were higher and his lows are lower than Mayweather that's not in dispute.

 

Yes it is hard to imagine Mayweather losing to guys he'd never go near if they were actually around in his era. Someone who disappears for a month when Winky Wright comes calling isn't fighting Tommy Hearns or Sugar Ray Leonard.

Duran turned pro as a featherweight in an era of same day weigh-ins and peaked at 135. All these fights you're bringing up were at 147 and above when he was well past his best.

 

Because if you've actually watched Duran's fights you know when he's fired up and in shape. It's a simple ****ysis really.