Inspired by Janitor's Marvin Hagler thread. How would the late seventies/eighties boxing scene have played out? Would the Hearns/Benitez fight have come about one year earlier? Roberto Duran would always have been dangerous. Would Marvin Hagler have retired as Middleweight Champ?
With Tommy Hearns immediately jumping up to 160 post Leonard 1 he was likely not long for 147 in any event so I guess Roberto Duran runs utterly roughshod over 147 in a bloody reign of terror and there are some talks of Aaron Pryor jumping up to face Duran like there were talks of jumping up to face Leonard. Duran probably crushes Pryor in a legendary war.
Hearns beats Cuevas. Benitez beats Duran. Hearns beats Wilfredo, defends against Duran, then moves up to junior middle/middle. Duran beats Cuevas for a vacant belt but Donald Curry steps onto the scene soon after and outpoints Roberto.
I might disagree. Benitez didn't have the same arsenal and punching power he had at light middle, Duran has a chance of cracking a SD vs him. It's possible Hearns could beat Duran,but if the Hitman gets rocked for a second,he'll be finished. I'm not sure how Curry will outbox Duran because Leonard got problems from a no mas Duran adjusting for some time before quitting. I think I might be glazing Duran's power a little bit,but you can just see how complete he was in the Montreal brawl.
I don’t rate Duran as a big puncher at welter. Apart from Davey Moore (green, debilitated early by thumb to the eye) and a shot Pipino, Roberto has basically no stoppage wins above 135 against world-class opposition when stepping up from lightweight (even when he was testing the waters between title defenses). The Viruets and Jimmy Heairs and Saoul Mambys of the world took all he had. There was a KO of Monroe Brooks but there’s a bit of an asterisk given Duran weighed a full 147 and Monroe was more of a super welter. Thomas Hearns and Wilfred Benitez are not Wellington Wheatley and Josef Nsbuga. Heck, even Zeferino Gonzalez cruised to the final bell against Roberto. So I don’t see him as a threat to Thomas Hearns nor Wilfred, who was far from a shrinking violet in this period. The Leonard stoppage was debatable at best, bogus at worst, and we saw how easily Benitez handled Duran’s style when they did meet. As for Hearns, what you said about if Roberto hurts him is 1,000 times more true for Duran vs Hearns — if Thomas hurts him, it’s over and decisively so. Part of my thinking is this — Montreal Duran is a one-off. He was supremely motivated for Leonard, who was to him a symbol of the ‘easy American’ poster boy gifted everything (not true given Ray’s resume before and after Roberto, but to Duran he was absolutely seen this way) while he toiled for relative peanuts. It was a mission and the only time Duran really, truly ever put it all together with skill and conditioning and savagery above 135. (He was brilliant vs Palomino but he wasn’t savage and if people thought he looked soft vs Leonard the second time, I think he’s in just about the same shape here.) So I think Wilfred neutralizes him and Hearns blitzkriegs him (as happened when they fought at junior middle). I think the best Curry is just a bit much for a Roberto who’s even a shade below Montreal form, and have no belief that he reaches that peak in this scenario. Let’s keep in mind that Roberto was flummoxed by Kirkland Laing. I’m looking at this scenario as how it would play out, not a dream version of the mythical ‘Montreal Duran’ appearing time and again. He was wildly inconsistent, even at times at lightweight when he seemed to coast. If the very best version of Duran shows up along this road, I think it likely against Pipino where his Latin machismo would be aroused to show he ws the better south-of-the-border guy on the block. If Benitez didn’t raise similar motivation when they did fight, why would it here? (And I think El Radar is just all wrong for Roberto anyway.)
