Who looked more impressive: Montreal Duran or FOTC Frazier

Not sure how one goes about directly comparing these two great wins?

Frazier and Ali both entered the "Fight of the Century" at Madison Square Garden undefeated, and Frazier removed Ali's 0 in super impressive style.

Duran also removed Leonard's O in their clash in Quebec.

Interestingly of course both Frazier and Duran would go on to lose the rubbers against their respective nemesis' 1/2.

In answer to the question I'll go for Frazier ahead of Duran.

 

Frazier hands down because his victory was against a consolidated ATG, regardless the draft ban.

Not taking anything against Duran, but somehow I feel his victory in Montreal was against a still young ATG "in the works" who was still a little short of fully "maturing" his fighting style.

 

Frazier!

While both victories were probably each mans greatest career win, in the case of Duran I felt it was a close nod over a maturing Leonard as another poster had mentioned.

Frazier on the other hand erased any doubt or speculation by emphatically beating Ali.

Also Frazier virtually nullified movement from Ali...he forced Ali to fight his pace. While some could argue the same case for Duran-Leonard. I believe it was a case of Leonard obliging Duran, by choosing to wage war in the pocket, as opposed to boxing and using movement.

I have to go with the wider margin of victory in this case. Frazier.

 

Duran, no question he was pretty much perfect.

 

FOTC Frazier. What happened in the 15th round punctuated it.

 

What about Tokyo Douglas vs. November of '92 Bowe?

...but you all never got to see 17th Street (Ocean City, MD) 1994 Senior Week...... Hookie Affeldt!!!

That's right, I was a fighting machine. The seas were angry that night my friends... and so was I. 19 1/2 years old, 6'1" with a 75" reach and ripped at 175 Lbs. (probably could have made 168 on a day before weigh-in). My friend got singled out by some drunk frat boy because he (my friend) was the biggest guy around at the time and someone wanted to get credit for beating the big guy. A sucker punch wrecked my friends eye and I fvcking lost it. I broke one guys nose, crushed another guys clavicle, and knocked one guy the fvck out. I definitely would have taken on anyone at that moment.

Hey, this is said all in fun... but that is how I felt at that moment. Adrenaline is great!

 

Frazier. Though he took more punches than Duran, he was much less sloppy. Duran did a lot of mauling and sloppy infighting. Frazier was very clean and also managed to put his opponent on the deck.

 

Duran by a mile. Roberto was doing things in the ring Frazier never dreamed of.

Arcel actually taught Duran the Fitzsimmons shift and he used it to great effect especially early in the bout.

 

Duran bc he fought Leonard at his absolute prime.

Frazier fought 71' Ali which wasnt prime

 

Duran for me. Not only was he moving up in weight, but he also fought a sharper and fresher opponent in his prime.

 

Close call. I'm on the fence regarding this, but given the way Frazier beat Ali, I'd go with Frazier on this one. But in terms of who's a better fighter, Duran is unquestionably a better fighter.

 

Frazier because it was a better fight in my eyes. Lots of clean exchanges, give and take action, changes in momentum and Frazier punctuated a great performance with the KD.

Ive never rated Duran-Leonard all that highly as a fight from an aesthetic view point. It was a kind of mauling type if fight, that wasn't really that exciting to me despite the undoubted quality of both fighters, plus I think Frazier won more emphatically than Duran did.

 

Some of these post are a bit odd for me. For all the people saying Frazier, and citing SRL not quite being prime; odd how that seems less pertinent that Ali and his time away and the clearly different fighter he was than in his younger days. That seems much more detrimental, than the proverbial "he wasn't quite prime", which I would argue he was prime or damn close to it.

Further, Duran was moving up in weight to fight the undefeated SRL. Frazier wasn't moving up in weight to fight Ali, and as illustrated above, was fighting a little bit past his prime Ali.

Those factors seems to clearly point to Duran being the better achievement all things considered from a fight only standpoint. I would agree that the FOTC was a bigger spectacle, and more of a wow factor, while also causing people to be very opinionated on who they wanted to win for a variety of known reasons. From a fight perspective only though, Duran for me, and it's not all that close.

 

Frazier was 205 pounds to Ali's 215.
Duran and Leonard were the same weight.

It had been 2 1/2 years since Duran had made the 135 limit, and a year before defeating Leonard he'd defeated Carlos Palomino, a career welterweight and recently the champion of the world.

It's not like he was some tiny lightweight blown up for a welterweight debut against Leonard, he was already a genuine welter.
Leonard had only in the previous two years grown into a full 146 pound welter himself. He had debuted in 1977 weighing 141.