Roberto Duran vs Mike McCallum @ 154 in 1983

If you watch Duran vs Laing, Benitez, Nino Gonzalez, Minchillio, Hearns consecutively you will start to realize that Duran was not a very good fighter at 154.

Cuevas was a Welterweight and Moore was an inxperienced fighter.

 

Cuevas was a brutal Welterweight champion & it took the likes of a tommy hearns 2 do him & allthough in this day & age you'd consider Moore inexpearenced but back in the day there was only 2 gov bodies WBC/WBA & you had too be good to win one & defend it, unlike today where anyone can make their own belt & Moore was being hailed as the next Leonard.

I've tried too explain more than a few times about Duran's attitude, he did'nt give a **** period, he fought for pay & back then 32yrs old was VERY OLD, Duran only wanted big title fights so he always just did what he thought was enough in a 10 rounder & against Laing the only training he did was at the Bar.

If he was'nt a very good fighter at 154 then he must have been better at the 160 limit yeh, look at the way he fought against Hagler!!!

Duran would only get up 4 a fight when it really mattered as in Cuavas & Moore + Hagler, oh, you forgot the walkout fight against Jimmy Batten at 154.:smoke

 

McCallum is too good to give weight/size away to and win. BUT he was not more skilled than Duran. And I'm a big fan of Mike. I also think he'd have beaten Hearns and Leonard at this weight.

 

No offence :good but no matter which way you look at it Cuevas was not a Light middleweight and Duran did actually lose to Hagler when all said and done. Moore was an inexperienced fighter.

I take what your saying and i agree that Duran's lack of conditioning made his fights with Nino, Minchillo harder and although he got knocked out by Hearns and outboxed Laing, Benitez. I do believe he was past his best then but the bottom line, for me at least, is that Duran did not belong at 154, well he did not have good career there anyway, imo.

However he was such a great fighter that inshape he could always pull off one last great performance (Like all great champions tend to do) but you have to temper that with the fact that maybe Hagler, Barkley looked at Duran's lack of success in his recent fights and underestimated him to.

Duran was an okay/decent Light middleweight but i would not consider him great or good based on his record and performances there.

 

mccallum by ud ,if duran is motivated i would still mccallum but in a much closer fight

 

So Duran couldnt get up for Benitez who he hated either? Or Hearns, yes it was Hearns but that was a poor performance. Duran is a great fighter but at 154 he just isnt the same fighter and he isnt nearly as good as McCallum at the weight. Its no coincidence Durans best wins at 154-160 are against relatively unskilled opponents while he came up short against more skilled opponents

McCallum has all the physical advantages, height, reach, strength, stamina, speed. He has an excellent jab, technical ability, defense, counter skills and body attack.

Duran gets worked over by a McCallum looking to make a name for himself

 

Didn't know this either. Just recently watched an old interview segment that strongly implied that Steward sold McCallum out to make more money with his pride & joy, Hearns.

 

Sounds about right to me.

 

Duran by ko, what about Duran vs holyfield? I go with Duran by decision

 

Me too.

 

:shock:

 

Yes...that interview is available. McCallum was just the "odd man" out. McCallum thinks Hagler also figured out a way to not to fight him too.

Too bad Hagler just didn't say: "Ok Mike, I have an open date here, let's settle your complaints once and for all".

 

Mike was a great fighter but is full of ****. There was never any buzz concerning a Hagler McCallum fight, never any talk of it, no mandatories, etc, etc, nothing. In Hagler's penultimate fight, he fought undefeated Mugabi, who has obviously proven to be a lesser fighter than Mike in the grand scheme of things, but was ranked at middleweight and considered a killer at that time due to his perfect ko record. Mike didn't even move up to middleweight until after Hags retired, and even lost to Kalambay when he did. Great fighter, but bull**** artist.

 

Yup.

McCallum was Duran's mandatory but he wanted to fight Hearns. Duran wanted an exemption from the mandatory so he could fight Hearns first but had no luck. McCallum whined about ES putting Hearns interest ahead of his but Duran wanted to fight Hearns. Why would he not, the money was superb. McCallum got his shot thru all this for Duran's then vacant title. He sulked about not being able to fight Duran but McCallum was not where the money or prestige was.