Who punched harder: Roberto Duran or Alexis Arguello

Arguello was the bigger puncher but Duran was the better fighter though.

 

Arguello, and that's not because Duran is deficient in any way. He carried his whack up to a massive middle like Barkley.

But Arguello wad a viciousdestroyer to head and body. One of the hardest P4P punchers of all time IMO.

 

Alexis punched harder than Roberto.With more precision.

 

Duran.

 

Duran p4p & h2h

 

Alexis had legit one-punch power. Duran needed an accumulation generally.

 

Duran punched very hard at lightweight. I believe his record was 28-0 (26) when he faced Buchanan. I still say Arguello P4P but it's closer than being represented here.

 

Duran hit harder . Just not with a single punch

 

Arguello, though i think Duran's power is generally underrated.He wasn't a steady beat you down accumulative aggressor like a Chavez, his style of letting punches go was much more ebb and flow, and as such he could let fighters go a fair while without really having opened up too much...especially against movers who he had a penchant for taking whole rounds easy with, if they lacked the offense to be scoring consistent points on him.

So you get a lot of KOs circa 10th etc but when i watch his fights the thing i notice is how quickly he gets fighters going with just a few punches when he really cuts loose, or lands a heavy shot flush.He really was heavy handed and almost never needed to have been beating someone up steadily to finally have them badly hurt.

He carried as much fight changing power as Olivares or Gomez and scored similar kind of knockouts to both in terms of amount of punches it would take to get fighters going.Arguello was a notch above all three though imo.

 

I believe Duran is being underrated here... I feel he had just as much pop as Alexis did. I believe they are comparable.

 

Alexis had more punching power. He hurt some guys alright.

 

I think Arguello's power is being overrated a bit here. He did have a much harder hurting jab, but his true gift in producing knockouts to the head and body was with precision placement and timing. He seemed to have an innate understanding of the vulnerable points of human anatomy.

Nobody staggered SRL before his 1982 hiatus the way Duran did in Montreal. He dropped the iron chinned Palomino, and decked Barkley in what may have been The Blade's greatest career performance. Bronx Davey Moore was a tough kid. Monroe Brooks was dropped for the count with a hook to the body, the only time he was ever counted out. Vilomar Fernandez was also dumped for the count with a body blow.

He showed Paz what the floor felt like for the first time in Vinnie's career, not long after a post car crash bulked up Pazienza [who was likely legally given steroids in the hospital to recover, then probably continued on them] manhandled and mauled a fading Robbie Sims all over the ring. I think Cuevas was still a credible stoppage win for Duran in 1983. Pipino went ten the following year with Korean slugger Jun Suk-Hwang, and Hwang could hit.

Even in distance wins over opponents like Minchillo, his mastery of superior punching leverage could be a major difference maker for El Cholo.

Ramirez was pretty adamant after his loss to Rosario that Chapo was a harder puncher than Alexis.

Arguello could win a fight at any time with a single accurately placed blow from either hand, but he was definitely more of a sharpshooter. Duran didn't necessarily need that kind of precision to take somebody down.

Won't argue with those choosing Alexis, as it's a pretty good question.

 

The right hand that Duran landed on Estaban DeJesus in their 3rd fight in 1978 was one of those punches that you never forget. It was brutal and precise. DeJesus a tough and great fighter crawled to the ring apron and managed to climb to his feet to be executed by Hands of Stone.

How DeJesus got up I`ll never know.

Duran also drilled Davey Moore with more of a roundhouse right that almost made him swallow his mouthpiece or so it seemed. The kind of punch that stays etched in your memory.

Frightening power from Duran.