Roberto Duran at 135

They were around 2 or 3 levels below Philip Ndou

 

No they weren't. N'Dou was ****ing ****.

 

better than them though

 

No he wasn't. PP's talking out of his arse as usual when it comes to anything remotely connected with Mayweather. (Not that I'm surprised, considering he saw fit to favour Mayweather over Duran...)

Thompson certainly was a good solid fighter. Not an ATG by any means, but he was an intelligent fighter, solid defensively and a good ring general. He'd probably out-point N'Dou quite comfortably if I had to make a pick, especially taking N'Dou's enormous technical deficiencies into consideration against a guy who knew how to counter.

I can't remember what Lampkin looked like against Duran. Might sit down and watch that one if I get a chance later.

 

The Duran/Lampkin fight isn't on YouTube by the looks of it. I might stick it up there at some point.

 

Yeah that's a good book.

Some nice information about the Hector Thompson fight in there as well!

 

Duran's period of time as champion didn't have the extensive depth that the era's of Leonard (Benny), Ortiz, Ross, Canzoneri, Gans et al did. But it was still a solid if unspectacular time in the division's history IMO. At a quick rundown....

Kobayashi and particularly Marcel were very good wins for Duran prior to him beating Buchanan (who is an all time great in my eyes) and DeJesus (a near great). Ishimatsu - good, unorthodox fighter and one-time belt holder; Hector Thompson - a physical monster and good all-round fighter; Mamby - future light welter champ; Ortiz, Lampkin, Viruet, Bizzarro, Robertson - all solid, proven contenders; Fernandez - one time defeater of Arguello.

The one problem I have with Duran's reign is that he never gave a rematch to Buchanan, who more than deserved one in light of the first fight.

So like I said, a solid if not spectacular era more notable for Duran's outright dominance rather than the number of all time great fighters.

 

I'm only on the wind up on this thread, but Ndou is a tad better than given credit for, very rangy, good jab, big puncher

 

Lampkin was doing well up to about 12 rounds.

After Lampkin got sent to the hospital, Duran said
next time he would send him to the morque.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeiGkriA48o&feature=related[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIbOTrbIT48"][/ame]

 

I thought he had been asked if he'd hit Lampkin with his best shot, and that he replied that he would have been in the morgue if he had had.

 

No worries bud. There's a good bit of footage on youtube of Ishimatsu, Marcel, Kobayashi (in losing efforts usually), Mamby, Thompson and others as well as Buchanan and Dejesus. The Buchanan-Ishimatsu fight from 75 looks to be quite a recent addition.

 

Duran said something along the lines of "If i'd trained for this fight" i'd have sent him to the morgue. all similar.