Whitaker and it wouldn't be close. We'd see the diffrance between good defense and great defense. Duran isn't going to walk through Whitaker's punches. He's going to get lit up by them.
I've heard many times that Whitaker doesn't have the power to keep Duran off him. But he wouldn't need power, as he's got the style and defense to make Duran more hesitant than he normally would be. Duran would have to resort to thinking more, and that means a lower, thrown/connect, punch ratio. Whitaker liked to fight in the pocket at times, yes. But he'd be nimble and quick enough on his feet to use the full ring, as he did against Nelson. Duran isn't knocking Whitaker out with a single punch. And, he'd need accumulation. However, he'd never get enough of that accumulation to stop Whitaker. Whitaker W12. 7 rounds to 5 or 8 rounds 4.
Whitaker does have power. That's a misnomer because of his low KO rate. He doesn't take chances when he's clearly leading, and that happened throughout his career. When he needed a KO to beat Hurtado, he came out smokin' [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfhLQ2QALW8[/ame] Ronnie Shields @ 5:42 " You need a knock out to win the fight" Exactly what Pea did.
Probabily my all time favourite fantasy match-up. One of the toughest to call i think of. Duran is probabily the only one i may pick against Pete at lightweight.
Hurtado had a poor chin though.He was hurt loads throughout his career by all levels of puncher and considered pretty fragile. Not that i'd agree that Pea had no power at all, but this fight gets brought up a lot to represent that he could bang, rarely mentioning Hurtado's rep.The more impressive and important thing it showed was Whitaker's willingness to go for it when losing and not in form.That an average\ bit below average puncher like Whitaker could take out a fighter of Hurtado's level and weaknesses late on was hardly a revelation at the time.
I'm starting to like Whittaker at LW more and more (no homo). Is there any footage of benny leonard where he looks anywhere as good as these two?
Have you seen the thirty minutes long version on Leonard-Tendler I? The first round of Mclarnin-Leonard shows a little of the old Benny too.
I'd pick Whitaker to spoil and frustrate Duran to win a decision. He's defensive enough (understatement) and counters and moves well enough to stack up points on the way to the finish line.
This couldn't be settled with one fight. I think Duran is the more complete fighter overall and would probably win more often than not, but definitely not by KO. Whitaker will frustrate him.