Roberto Duran vs Herol Graham

Duran. IMO people underrate him in 154 and 160. He very nearly beat Hagler for the undisputed middleweight title in a classic with his right hand injured, beat Barkley in a war when he was even older. Those people are no Marvelous ones like Marvin. Marvin boxed, which was a bad plan, and nearly lost. But if he went for broke to KO his eight challenger, he would have gassed out and he would have lost a decision.

The fight: It starts with Graham outboxing his man while moving and hitting him with the jab. This would continue on like this for about 3 or 4 rounds. Duran would do a good job of slipping, though. Duran knows he cannot hurt him with headshots. Then, he starts getting in there, eating or slipping that jab, thumbing and dirty tactics like that, and landing body punches. Don't forget, even though Duran had lost some KO power in those fists, he could still stagger and hurt you bad. He still hit crazy hard with those Hands of Stone.
Duran will stagger him numerous times, and maybe even knocking him down once or maybe even twice and he would win a majority decision.

 

Graham by decision. Duran didnt have enough power at MW to really bother Graham. Graham was a very good boxer. He lost close fights vs. Kalambay x2 and McCallum who were both very good boxers. He stopped Lindell Holmes, decisioned Sanderline Williams, stopped Ayube Kalule, stopped Chris Johnson, and decisioned Vinny Pazienza.

I think it would be close but I think Graham could win by decision, maybe SD.

 

Well duran did have big power, he had Hagler moving litterally! He would win by close majority decision

 

Duran. Herol never won the big one, never would win a big one ... very overrated on this forum.

 

I sure don't see Duran bothering to get himself 100% for this type of opponent. These are the type guys he showed up flat for and he'd be flat for this guy. So I think it's a Laing or Benetiz version that shows up and goes through the motions and drops the decision.

Get him motivated for a Tony Ayala type guy--and a much easier defense to solve--and he prepares himself much better. But this, to me anyway, is a B version of Roberto.