Who had the greatest victory over Roberto Duran?

Hearns

A few others beat Duran but The Hitman absolutely massacred him. Nobody else accomplished that against Roberto.

 

Hi Quack.
Mmmm, had trouble following your thread and thought process ( 68 soon so... ) don't think their was any pointer to which Duran/DeJesus fight I was referencing in my post ? I was leaning towards the 1st by the way, but anyway moving on, you say "Leonard had his bubble burst, and was brutalized and out-classed " not the way I saw the fight matey, for me it was pretty much Rays finest hour, he proved the doubters wrong ( no heart, no chin, pretty boy fighter etc, ) by fighting Duran man-o man-o, in the trenches, dogfighting close quarter warfare, AND only lost by quarter point, one round, whatever... sort of got lost in all the " version v version " stuff to be honest. chat soon, keep well.

 

Really can't argue with this or their positioning.

 

Good choices, Hearns is clearly no. 1.
But SRL's win is not a proper one. Duran had to loose weight fast and had stomach cramps. SRL admitted that himself, that he knew Duran having to loose all that weight in a small time frame would affect him bigtime. That's almost like cheating in my eyes.
In order to prove myself, I'd want to beat the best version of my opponent, not a version with problems.

 

Given where Duran was in terms of his reputation at the time, I'm picking Leonard's win. Hearns's KO win was more emphatic but Duran was on the comeback trail.

Duran in 1980 was 72-1, unbeaten for 8 years and had beaten Leonard 5 months before. To make him quit was utterly inconceivable (thankfully the internet wasn't around then so no-one could pretend they predicted it). It was one of the most dramatic moments in boxing history (along with the likes of Ali beating Liston and Foreman, Douglas beating Tyson, Chavez stopping Taylor, etc, etc) and while no-one to this day, not even Duran, can say exactly why it happened, Leonard certainly made it happen.

 

DeJesus beat a prime Duran at his optimum weight.

 

That fight was at 140 a nontitle fight, Duran never lost at lightweight I've always been astonished that Duran's management picked Estaban DeJesus as a stay busy fight for Duran to keep him out of trouble. Talk about underestimating your opponent.

 

Gotta go with Hearns because of the total anilihation of Duran.

 

Totally Hearns ... no question ..

 

Both men weighed 138lbs,ie just 3 lbs over the light weight limit.
[url]Roberto Duran[/url] 138 lbs lost to [url]Esteban De Jesus[/url] 138 lbs by UD in round

I'm confident he was nearer prime and nearer his optimum weight for that fight than he was for Hearns or Leonard.Arcel said he could still make lightweight when he went up to welter but he didnt want to sacrifice that much.

 

12 years after losing to DeJesus when he was unbeaten and 16 lbs heavier?33 years old with now 5 defeats on his ledger? Competing 2 classes above his natural weight ? No way .Not in my book!

 

For me ,its when you beat them.

 

The win worth the most is Leonards- Followed by DeJesus and then Benitez for me.
The Hearns win did not impress me so much.

 

Duran had beaten Cuevas impressively, destroyed Davey Moore to win the 154 title and then shocked the world by fighting a very tough 15 round bout against one of the best fighters in the world, Marvin Hagler in Hagler's prime. Most thought maybe Hearn's wins a decision or maybe Duran stops him late. No one, absolutely noe one predicted that Hearn's would decimate the Duran that just went a very competitive 15 against Hagler. To this day it remains one of the all time great shocking KO's. In addition it was a superfight, showed over closeed circuit all over the country to a huge audience .. Everyone was absolutely shocked because no one had ever seem Duran crushed like that .. it was national news that crossed over to a non-boxing public and a worldwide audience .. in 1972 , a few months after beating Buchanan, Duran was still a relative unknown to all but hardcore boxing fans .. to see him decisioned by another young, excellent fighter his own size and weight when Duran was partying hard and taking everyone lightly is no where near the upset ..

 

There had been a crisis at work, but I resolved it pretty quick, so I was posting a lot. My apologies for any indecipherable ranting.

Ray was patently beaten by Duran. I don't care what you think about his performance. It was better than almost anyone else would have done, but it was a clear loss none the less. It's unimaginable that Ray would have ever defeated that Duran, but he refused to say die. He arrived to the rematch brimming over with confidence. So while I doubt he would ever beat the Duran of Montreal, that victory says a lot to me about Ray's character.

Duran lost to DeJesus because he had dialed it in. He wanted an easy pay day, and was surprised the DeJesus wanted to make a name for himself. Stevie was great in his own right, but Duran was marvelous. The subsequent matches showed a focused Duran was a much different man than the one DeJesus beat.