What is a major piece of alphabet crap? I cannot bring myself to rate dog crap over cat crap, it is all the same to me. Legitmate, should not be in the same sentence as WBA or WBC, without not or *******ized or alphabet crap or alphabet soup, etc there as well.
PLEASE, PLEASE.... stop talking about how light Duran was when he was 16 years old! That means nothing. HE WAS A KID! As I stated, once he reached the age of 24, he only fought 6 times at 135 after.... and clearly was maturing in his adult form that WAS NOT A 135 pounder.
Rarely (excluding Heavies obviously) is a fighter fighting at his proper weight. The most extreme form of that is in the Orient where it has been known that they train to their fighting weight, then lose a further 10%. Duran sometimes was alleged to of been walking around at 14 stone (196) in the later part of the 70s, but still got down to 135 when he had to.
It's very close but I would say Duran. I think he is the greatest light weight ever. There have been better welterwights than SRL.
Duran is way ahead of SRL as an ATG, Duran was a natural Lightweight and was almost unbeatable at 135. I give great credit to Esteban De Jesus for that win in 1972. In any other era De Jesus would be considered a great Lightweight champion but he was in the Duran era and is very underrated. Leonard never fought Pryor and had he done so and won i would be inclined to put him on a par with Duran. If Duran' career had ended after the first Leonard win he would still be regarded higher than SRL. He was over 30 when he moved up to the higher weights and in reality he was to small to be fighting Hagler at 160lb.
He also fought until he was 50 years old, does that make the weight he was fighting in then his natural weight? The fights were at Lightweight, regardless of whether he was slightly above the 135 pound limit, they were Lightweight fights. Don't try to turn this into some bull**** like that. Again, you're acting like he fought at another weight class. The fact that he didn't weigh in at exactly 135 or under doesn't mean it wasn't a Lightweight fight. Once again... That's because he had moved up by that time, winning over fighters such as Palomino. Watch him at 135, and watch him at other weights, and tell me which was his best weight. And yes, your best weight is considered your "natural" weight. That's because he was obviously unable to make the weight anymore. You're being ridiculous now.
Why would Leonard need to fight Pryor? I could say "Duran lost to every great he ever faced", and that "Leonard beat the greats Duran lost to" in rebuttal. Leonard didn't duck Pryor, this myth should be coming down by now.
i agree. considering leonard fought hearns, hagler etc.... who were much tougher fights than pryor, the ducking myth never carried any weight.
Sorry... maybe you are unaware of the facts. If you think that the FACT that I posted was wrong... please provide your facts to prove it so. Duran turned 24 years old in June of 1975. After that date, he only fought 6 times at the lightweight limit of 135. If you don't that is correct, obviously you need to do your homework.
Homework? That's called boxrec hunting. Those fights were at LW, regardless of whether or not Duran or his opponent were a few pounds above the limit.
Is that all you have? He was unable to make weight, BECAUSE 135 WAS NOT HIS NATURAL WEIGHT. He was still in his 20's... and he had to fight at Jr. Middleweight and above, because he couldn't make 135 anymore? C'mon. And no, they are not lightweight fights, when you are fight at the 140 lb weight class (above) half of the time. What the hell kind of sense does that make? If you weight over 135, then it becomes a light welterweight bout... unless of course you weigh MORE than the light welterweight bout, and then it becomes a welterweight bout, and so forth. This rule changes for Duran? You act like he moved up just for the challenges, when he obviously moved up because he was a growing man, and was maturing as human's due. Just because he was light as hell as a teenager, doesn't mean that he is naturally that small. Like I stated, during his mid-and late 20's he was clearly not a natural lightweight anymore. You can pretend that it was... but I won't. The fact that he looked better at lightweight was due to the obvious fact that he wasn't fight the same sort of comp that he was once he reached guys like Leonard, Hearns, Benitez, Hagler, ect....