Who rates Higher All Time: Willie Pep or Roberto Duran?

Burt- Did you stop following boxing in about 1972?

 

Pep

 

S, I have been watching boxing since seeing David TKO Goliath with a slingshot right hand at the local Coloseum. It was an outdoor affair I recall...
The thread says "Who do you rate HIGHER All Time Willie Pep or Roberto Duran "?
I retorted that as a featherweight Willie Pep had TWO HUNDRED fights @ 126 pounds dominating greater FWs for many years then Roberto Duran DID as a lightweight, including superior featherweights in his long career. Duran's first lightweight bout at 134 or so was against a LW Lloyd Marshall in 1970. Following that bout Roberto had about 41 fights at the LW weight of 135 pounds until his defeat of Estaban De Jesus in 1978.
The best lightweights he beat at 135 lbs, were Estaban De Jesus, Eduard Viruet, Saoul Mamby, Ray Lampkin, and his controversial tko of his best opponent Ken Buchanan...All good fighters but
not HOF material... So my esteemed friend , I concluded that Willie Pep who had about 200 fights as a FEATHERWEIGHT
against some top 126 pound featherweights had a more impressive featherweight career than Duran had as a LW with about 41 or so bouts...
I also think that Duran who became a JR.welterweight in 1978
following the De Jesus fight and morphed into a WW and JR MW
had a great career ,but I maintain that the Willie Pep I saw ringside beating lightweights before his near fatal airplane crash
and who was almost impossible to hit and beat had a more
impressive record as a FW than Duran with about 41 bouts did as a LW .ciao...

 

to be fair to old men, it was mostly just bert sugar.

 

You don't think Ken Buchanan is HOF material?

Anyway, why are you restricting your assessment of Duran solely to his lightweight days? In rating him All Time, shouldn't we take into consideration that he had some of his best/most impressive wins (Palomino, Cuevas, Leonard, Barkley) at higher weights? It seems very strange only to judge him on his lightweight results, IMO.

 

When it come to skills... you've never seen anything like Pep! He was a master of the ring! This guy was better then Mayweather. Also his record was more consistent then Duran.

If anyone thinks Duran was better I wouldn't argue with them because it's close. I've got Pep in my top 5 p4p and Duran top 10

 

I don't think there's a right or wrong answer it's they're to close for that.

 

Ken Buchanan was a terrific boxer no doubt. Was he as good as Jackie Kid Berg ? I have my doubts...I said in my post I regarded Willie Pep as having a more impressive featherweight reign than the roster of 41 or so lightweights that Duran fought. Duran of course was a LW dynamo that morphed into a Jr WW , a WW, and MW, an accomplishment that Pep was never capable of doing...So, I still insist that Willie Pep with about 200 bouts as a great featherweight unbeaten for years until a very strong tough
LW Sammy Angott outmauled Pep for his sole defeat,was more
impressive in his FW reign than Roberto Duran was a a LW title
holder with but about $1 fights in the LW division. I also think that were Pep and Duran to have fought each other at catchweight, [130 lbs], I would pick Duran because of his strength...But Willie once outclassed a truly great lightweight I saw, Willie Joyce in 1944...Willie Joyce was a great rugged boxer who was "better" than any lightweight that Duran faced. Joyce was never kod in over 100 bouts against a great assortment of golden age lightweights...So to conclude : Pep had a more impressive FW reign than Duran had in a more shorter LW reign.
But Roberto was better suited to go up the ladder of heavier divisions...Willie was a "will of the wisp". Roberto was a "small version of Jack Dempsey, snarl and all".. Both immortals...

 

great wins:

pep v saddler 2
duran v leonard
duran v buchanan
pep v wright
duran v barkley

bad (non shot) losses:
duran v laing
duran v sims
duran leonard 2
duran v benitez (nothing too bad about losing to that version of benitez, the conclusive manner of the loss matters tho)

if moving up in weight matters a lot then obviously duran is the pick, and i would have him a bit higher(top 5 - top 10), but is fair to mention that pep supposedly wasn't the greatest trainer either and had the plane crash, which makes his fw career basically unparalleled by anyone in any division.

 

How was that a bad loss??? The guy had to go for a **** for god's sake!!!

 

I think highly of Duran but Willie Pep was so good he was like an alien or something, Pep must be close to top five all time but Duran can't be that high, sorry Duran lovers but Pep is close to GOAT