Roberto Duran at 135lbs

Mayweather's style is a bad match up for an agrisive boxer like Duran.

 

Not at all. His defense and aggression would be hell for Mayweather,who'd be backed against the ropes often(as he so often allows) and instead of finding easy countering opportunities, he'd be facing a more skilled inside fighter with great defense of his own. Floyd gets beaten up in this fight.

 

And then some.

 

I don't see it as a one sided match. If Mayweather fought like he did against Corrales he'd give Duran a lot of trouble. Yes, I know Corrales isn't in the same class as Duran. Differently styles, blah blah blah. But Mayweather's movement and extremely quick hands would give Duran problems. However, that was at 130lbs.

We need to look at Mayweather's performances at lightweight. You can throw the Castilio I fight out of the window as Mayweather had a torn rotator cuff and hardly used his right hand. A very viable excuse IMO. And just for the record, I thought Mayweather won the fight. And I would expect Mayweather to go to the ropes against Duran on the odd ocassion. Not a good idea of course. Thats one place where Whitaker never opted to go, but Mayweather did.

Looking at Mayweather's close decisions it was steady pressure which gave him problems. Castilio I and De La Hoya. The Duran of the late 70's who was seasoned, patient, resourceful, brilliant defensively, and accurate would be the version to topple Mayweather.

I think Hearns' style presents 'nightmare' problems for Mayweather (147lbs) where as Duran's problem is more of a 'headache'.

 

A migrain headache.

 

Agreed, on 1 hand Duran had the best pressure Mayweather would have been near, on the other Mayweather had the best defense and countering Duran would face. Duran would also have the best defense Mayweather faced. Mayweather possibly would be the best in fighter Duran would face the inverse is also true. Mayweather would be the best shot picker Duran faced and vice versa. Both have truly great footwork. Both are too of the fastest at the weight.

This is a match up for the ages and anyone who sees it 1 sided for either fighter frankly doesn't know the sport

 

Don't know about that. To me the difference isn't so much in the skill set, as the mentality. To me, Mayweather is a boxer, while Duran is a fighter. So Mayweather isn't going to be in a position to win a boxing match, he'd have to win a fight, and against Duran, I just don't see it happening. Basically, Duran would break him down over the course of the fight, mostly with bodyshots.

 

The people who pick Duran to murder Mayweather, a lot of them do know a lot about the sport. But the problem is they go on reputation with Duran being around at lightweight 30 years ago. It's just a little thing that fools people with Mayweather being a modern fighter who's still only 31 years old. They look at the times rather than the raw tools each fighters had when picking their winner.

And I disagree. Whitaker's defense was more varied and complexed than Mayweather's. While Mayweather was pretty good inside, he tended just to cover-up most of the time with the uppercut being his best weapon. And regarding jabs, Whitaker clearly has the edge over Mayweather.

IMO Whitaker was better at making opponents miss altogether. Mayweather was the kind of fighter who would invite fighters onto him at times, take parcially landed punches, and counter back. IMO I think Duran lands on Mayweather much more than he does on Whitaker.

 

Definitely, the main reason for that being Mayweather's willingness to fight off the ropes rather than off the backfoot(of which he's still not as good as Whitaker). Against a guy like Duran, who's not only the more powerful, fierce inside fighter, but the more skilled and versatile, Floyd isn't going to find many easy countering opportunities, and he's going to get tagged cleanly more than he ever has. I think he basically gets beaten up on the inside.

He would make it interesting in stints in the center of the ring, but I think Duran's craftiness even in the center of the ring(that overhand counter right is a doozy for anyone) would allow him to get to Floyd more often than not. He was so skilled at feinting that he'd cause Floyd to cover up often before getting within range and in his chest. Just a bad matchup for Floyd(and an overall better fighter), nothing to do with eras.

 

A quick question Sweat Pea how do you see a match up between Whitaker and Buchanan playing out at LW?

 

Would be an interesting boxing match, with Whitaker's defense giving him the edge. In a nutshell.

 

I was comparing Mayweather's defense to everyone Duran faced not to Whitaker. I agree Whitaker was a better mover and a better slipper (the best ever). But Floyd's defense is far more suttle and strategic I can't see Floyd getting put down by Roger Mayweather or Hurtado by the way

 

Boxing is like chess if you attack you leave yourself open to being attacked. If you take the iniative as Duran would you leave openings. So despite Duran's excellent defense when he unleashes his combinations he will leave himself somewhat open and thats when Mayweather gets counters off. Mayweather is 1 of the best counter punchers and shot pickers we have seen.

Mayweather is willing to goto the ropes and let his opponent have the initiave somewhat. But Mayweather is 1 of the best 'rope a dope' fighters ever. Just watch his fights with Delahoya, Hatton in slow motion and you will see how infrequently they land. Punches you thought landed the first time of viewing didn't actually land. Now Duran will land more than these 2 but he'll land far less than he did against other top opponents. When on the ropes Mayweather often turns his opponent so they have to.

It should also be noted Mayweather is 1 of the most adaptable fighters. If he can get his shots of first and get out, he does, if he can fight off the ropes he does, if he needs to turn his opponent and stay out of range he does. Mayweather power and strength are also pretty underrated especially at these lower weights. If his opponent is open to any punch he starts to work away at that punch.

I see Duran as an ever so slight favourate in a very close contest all the same but wouldn't be suprised to see it go the other way

 

If you'll watch the Mayweather/De La Hoya fight again, you'll also notice that A LOT of Floyd's punches didn't land cleanly, bouncing off Oscar's gloves far more often than not. I thought the punchstats were ludicrous.

Mayweather has excellent defense, he simply lacks the offense needed to beat someone like Duran, who is just as skilled defensively in close as Floyd is, but much moreso offensively.

 

I think you vastly underrate Mayweather in a fight against Duran. As good as Duran was from the outside, he wasn't quite the boxer that Mayweather was within that range. If you watch Duran against De Jesus in their third meeting and later against Hagler at middleweight his jab isn't a sharp scoring type. It's simply used as a 'feeler' aka a range finder. Mayweather's jab was used as an 'out and out' point scorer even though it's not quite a ramrod like Whitaker's. Yes, Duran wouldn't particularly be looking for an outside encounter, but when he's there I see him having more problems than Mayweather. Movement especially as Mayweather would be the matador when things were at arms length.

I do fully agree that Duran balances things out better inside than Mayweather. While he was extremely powerful, fierce, and let his hands go from both sides that equated to bunches of punches, he also was very aware what was coming his way at the same time. He slipped punches well while hunting inside. Mayweather tended to exclusively think defense, for the most part, and pick chip away with single punch counters. He's certainly not going to get away with this against perhaps the best inside fighter ever.