Roberto Duran calls today's fighters mediocre at best!

atsch Why the bitterness towards Duran? Not pretty enough for your tastes?

 

I love this ****.:rofl Look at these morons trying to prove a point about Duran by talking about Wlad. Is it not completely obvious that these guys no absolutely nothing about boxing other than what they say in a couple documentaries, and how they hate the Klitschkos?:yep

 

So basically it wasnt what Calzaghe said that was out of order, but becuse he isnt a top 10 ATG and comes from the modern Era he cant comment?. Doesnt bode well for future boxers and their comments.

A lot of Good Boxers are gonna have to keep there ****in mouth shut unless they wanna feel the wrath of Fat Dan and the E-warriors.

 

I think that any fighter from the past, who feels a need to bash fighters of the present is completely pathetic.

 

yeah I am aware of that. I am also aware that he lost the rematch and quit not just because he was being outclassed, but also because Ray was starting to land punches to the head and body in round 8. When Duran turns his back on Ray , Ray is landing a bodyshot. Then at 29 years old with 21 more years to fight, he losses to Benitez.. outboxed for 15 rounds. He makes an excuse he is out of shape. Ok then he beats Davey Moore and everyone says he is back and a great fighter yet Davey had 11 fights. I will not mention Davey's oral surgery that week. So he fights Hagler months later and Marvin fights a boxers fight expecting an aggressive Duran. and Duran goes 15 but losses a decision. Then he gets demolished by Hearns 7 months later moving down to the weight class he is champion at (WBA Jr. Middleweight champ). Duran was champ at this weight and Hearns beat him, and Duran was only 32. Unification fight had they not stripped Duran for fighting Hearns. So, what did Duran say after Hearns? Same excuse as Benitez. He didn't train. And that is the same excuse for the second Leonard fight. Duran was great at excuses. I always call him Excusas de Piedras.

 

I agree about the excuses, but Duran was nothing but a Lightweight. I don't favor any other 135lb fighter in history to move up and beat prime Leonard.

 

People have to remember that Duran started out life down at featherweight, and fought ATG's at Lightweight, Welterweight, and Middleweight.

He is arguably the greatest lightweight ever, yet some people seem to judge his career from the 'no mas' fight onwards. By that point of his career he had already had more than 70 fights, with one loss which he avenged emphatically on two occassions.

 

I never said it was. I am just saying his lightweight reign was mediocre to be honest. Virgil Hill who had probably a similar reign is seen as not having a great reign, Yet Virgil is 24-5 in title fight record and Duran is something like 15-7. Say what you want about Virgil Hill. The man was great also. When Duran started fighting better guys it coincided with him fighting greater fighters like Leonard/Hearns/Benitez. Yet Duran fans choose to say it was because he moved up and not because he was fighting better guys. Had he kept fighting the quality he defended his title against in the 1970s, his record would not have been much different. He fought at 154 as far back as 1978 by the way.

 

Calling them mediocre is bashing them? Besides, it's not like what he said doesn't have some merit.

The HW division is horrible, American boxing is on the decline, purses are getting ridiculously out of hand, TOO many PPV's, terrible cards, and politics and ego are keeping or kept too many necessary fights from happening.

And all you can do is call him a bitter old man?

 

when he fought Leonard and post Leonard, that is when started fighting ATG fighters. Buchanan is HOF but not ATG. Dejesus was great somewhat, but he lost to Cervantes and was not a really solid great. Then Duran fights Leonard,Benitez,Hearns,Hagler who are solid greats and losses and he lost because he moved up in weight? I just do not buy it. Never did. I watched those fights at the time and he could not deal with the skill of those guys. I know he blamed size which was convenient. Hearns moved up 30 pounds and beat Virgil Hill in 1991 at 32, the same age Duran was when Hearns knocked him out. Blame the weight all you want. Great lightweight yeah. The opposition at lightweight was not really that stellar.

 

How is twelve defences over seven years including wins against fellow ATG's like Buchanan and De Jesus mediocre?? Only Benny Leonard and Pernell Whitaker get close to Duran at Lightweight.

 

To me that's a prettdumb statement because Sugar Ray Leonard only fought 40 times. Does that mean that he is not as good as people think because he hasn't enough fights? That would imply that Duran too is not as good as people think since he represent Duran's biggest win. He also beat Duran in the rematch.

 

i really didn't have a big problem with calzaghe slagging the state of boxing because he did have some points (tho i don't remeber exactly all that he said). but calzaghe also implied (if i remeber right) that he was 'better than that', and that's a little much seeing how he became huge after a steady diet of more than a few picked opponents (yes i do realize the divsion was weak and he's not solely the blame for some fights occuring and he has certainly stepped it up in the past couple of years). Where was calzaghe's complaints when he was defending his belt so many times versus weak opposition? It's a little self serving to bring all this up when he's apparently retiring and saying he doesn't need dawson for instance (which he might not, but certainly that fight would be good for boxing). It's more that IMO Duran has more right to criticize because things for him truly were different.

 

He does talk some ****, no doubt.

Anyway it's a thread about Roberto so i'll bow out here, there's more than enough Calzaghe threads about the Comments.

 

Duran wasn't just some blown up lightweight. The man started boxing VERY young. His body filled out as he matured. Look at his weights... the man had been weighing in above Lightweight for YEARS.