Duran was coming off his 15 round war with Hagler, and some speculated that Tommy was no longer as devastating as he was when a welterweight, and he hadn't produced anything resembling the Cuevas massacre since moving up in weight. (Does anybody truly believe Geraldo did not take a dive for Tom?) Unlike Hearns, Duran got hit with Cuevas's heavy artillery, and had no difficulty walking through it. There was nothing in Duran's history, or Tommy's recent performances, to indicate that another blow-out was in the offing. Tiger had faced very respectable punchers, but none quite like Foster. He had also been floored by Griffith, not recognized as a particularly devastating puncher. He was still an outstanding performer, but he was pushing 39. I'll say Hearns/Duran is more impressive, but it's a close one.
Hearns-Duran was very impressive and really made Hearns look like a destroyer, but nothing is cleaner or more decisive than that left hook from outer space that Foster used to ko Tiger. That was a clean, classic 1 punch ko of a super-tough man in Dick Tiger.
Tiger was well past it, in the most terrible personal turmoil imaginable (literally) and in a division for which he was not tall enough when Foster KO'd him. For what it's worth.
His ethnic minority (I won't attempt a spelling) was being clensed in Nigeria. It was pretty much all out war. Tiger debated long and hard before getting involved politcally. But he did. Most of his interviews int he run up to this fight were anti-Nigerian (he had been a staunch patriot before this trouble began) and detailed the situation back home. His remit was basically to keep what was becoming a nasty and secretive war in the public eye. Couldn't have been easy.
Minimal. Peole just didn't care about African conflict in that decade as much as they do now. He was shoveling sand with a thimble really. Well the initial decision, sure. Ali's decision was taken for him. But it was probably more corageouos of Ali to stick to his guns in the way he did when he was bullied in that way.
Standing up against genocide seems to carry weight more than Ali refusing to basically entertain the troops... Hurm.
Tiger was pushing 39,a former middle ,past his best ,5 7 fighting a man 6 3 ,in his prime at his best weight.Duran was also physically outmatched but younger and closer to his prime imo.
Tiger was diagnosed with liver cancer in '71 and, although I'm not a doctor, he might have already been weakening from the impending sickness around the time of the Foster/DePaula fights. People close to him have commented on seeing subtle changes in his physique back in '68, premature aging and the like. Just a thought.
