Which Roberto Duran fight showed his best performance?

deJesus II/III
Palomino
Leonard

Those are mine when I want to see Roberto's savage masterpiece.

 

Pre-Leonard:

DeJesus II
DeJesus III
Palomino
Buchanan
Lampkin
Marcel


Post-Leonard:

Cuevas
Moore
Hagler
Barkley
Castro II

 

My favorites to watch are Buchanan and Leonard I.

 

even though its after leonard, the demolition of davey moore was ****in brutal.

 

I personally enjoy watching the Barkley fight and how he stood in the pocket avoided punches, and/or took them, and fired back.

To me that was boxing poetry at it's best and in some ways is almost indescribable.

 

DeJesus III

 

Prior to Montreal, the two that stand out the most to me are Dejesus 3 and Palomino.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6aiWcYEOXM[/ame]

 

Dejesus II may well be his best pre-Leonard.

Hadnt quite rounded off into the technical sound and defensively smooth fighter he became a bit later. But you get to see a young, fierce fighter with a lot of fire in his belly.
He looked bullet proof that night, the same left hook that had him a bit wobbly in the first DeJesus fight bounced off him like it was nothing. He was decked but seemed completely unaffected and it just fired him up.

DeJesus III gets a lot of press...because many say this is where Duran had become the complete package. He boxed Esteban, he brawled him, he beat him everywhere.
But I think he went through to motions a bit in that fight and no way was it as good a version as the Dejesus he faced the second time. Who was younger, on a long winning streak and would have been brimming with confidence knowing he had bested Duran only 18 months before.

Some of his routine defences like Ortiz, Fernandez and Bizarro, he coasts and cruises a hell of a lot because he really is in no danger of losing the fight and his opponants are fighting very defensively. Not my favourite Duran fights,

The Lampkin fight is actually a really good one..Ray held his own for a long time before getting brutally dispatched. Made Duran look bad at some points, he came to win and eventually paid the price. Ray was a very, very good fighter.

The Thompson fight is a another good one..Duran had to deal with a stronger fighter who was very talented in his own right, which he wasnt used to. Good finish from a young Duran.

The Villa fight is often overlooked...He was an excellent fighter and not someone you expect to take on in a non-title keep busy fight.

 

After watching this video, the thought that crosses my mind,is that I honestly can't imagine how a fighter such as Mayweather could possibly deal with this kind of pressure.

 

Roberto in the ****ing zone!!!!!

I wonder if all the little intracacies of balance infighting etc years of dukein it out in sweaty Panama gyms can be appreciated by the goons around here who judge fighters based on how good they look throwing punches?

 

I've also heard that by 1978, Dejesus was already getting into heroin. I picked the third Dejesus fight because of how complete Duran looked, but the second fight was obviously very impressive too.

I personally didn't like the Lampkin fight other than the ending. I thought most of the fight was really ugly.

Bizzarro was a good performance for Duran but Lou was so much on his bike that it mostly made for an ugly fight other than when Duran was knocking him down. The ending was brutal and the ref let that **** go on too long.

 

Dejesus III
Palomino
Leonard

 

I didnt think he was any good at all compared to what he is capable in the Lampkin fight... nice KO tho.

 

I was on the Dejesus III bandwagon for ages...but just recently Ive been converted to Dejesus II being the superior performance . A couple of people on the site convinced me. I can the argument for both, as Ive been in both camps.

The Lampkin fight did have some unpleasant moments..But Duran didn't get into many eye pleasing wars because he was slippery and smart at crowding his opponent for room...and his opponents often were forced to be cautious. The Lampkin fight was a good tense fight for a while, with Ray's solid schooling and straight punching frustrating Roberto at times. I would have to agree a newish fan wouldnt digest it all that easy and probably wouldnt enjoy it that much...but given a lot of Duran's defences were so one sided, I did think this was a good one to watch if you want to see a prime Duran grind a very good fighter down. If anything to see the quality fighter Lampkin was.