who was better in his era?! pac or duran?!

Duran had a whole 12 years - 7 of them as the reigning lightweight champion of the world - before stepping up in weight to fight the other members of the Fab 4. The 80's were to him what the 90's were to the other 3. Go ahead and check to see what Leonard, Hagler, and Hearns did in that decade.

His resume, career accomplishments, and sheer fighting ability are all considerably more impressive than Pacquiao's, and I love Manny.

 

Is it fair to ask this questions?

If we flipped resumes.....who would come out better? If we left it at the divisions both have fought in.

 

Unless Mayweather becomes part of the fab clan Duran clearly

 

It's really difficult to think Duran in terms of his war against the noted "fab four" of his era only as far as presence in the boxing world is concerned.

And also, Pac was not yet on his prime when he fought EM, JMM and MAB.

Lots of intagibles here really.

But then again, we are talking of a cotemporary fighter versus a legend here, very difficult to not side with the legend if you ask me.

 

Weightlifting and more divisions has turned everything upside down. Boxers did not lift then, the few who did did it very lightly. Now guys go up, back down, and have divisions in between that did not exist back in 70's, plus more titles like wbo, and all ones that were not around then.

Hagler would go to 168 easy, Duran would have moved up to 140 then 147, even 154, no problem, and would have done so BEFORE 1980.

If Pacquino was around in 1970's, he stays lightweight most of career. Same for others around past 15 years. No big money at 140, or 154. 168 pounds did not exist. Changes everything if you flip it

 

Duran. Even now when we get the hypothetical Hearns vs Pac/May its important to remember they were much bigger and stronger.

Duran taking Leonards 0 was just the icing on the cake. Taking Mayweathers 0 would bring him closer though.

 

Pac lost to a past prime Morales, then beat him twice when he was still past prime.

Pac beat Barerra twice. (solid win)

Pac drew with marquez and questionably beat him a 2nd time.

Duran win over Leonard trumps all these victories put together.

 

Duran's era was the 70's where he reigned as the top LW for most of the decade with only 1 loss he avenged twice, so.....

 

I think Durans win over leonard skyrockets his legacy, if he had lost that fight in montreal then he would just be an atg lightweight that fought way to long and picked up a few belts past prime. it would still be great but not as impressive as defeating prime leonard.
Duran usually wins these type of threads because his win over leonard is better than any of the other guys wins, Pacquiao's legacy will grow on people in the future im sure of that, but I would say he needs to beat floyd to seriously compete with Duran otherwise the leonard win keeps making it a clear diference.
Its not fair to say he needs to fight at middle and be succesfull, pac isnt a lightweight like duran. He is a former flyweight although he probably would be a natural super bantam fighter if he wasnt malnourished.
Pacquiao is probably one of the greatest weight jumpers in boxing history along with guys like armstrong,jones and hearns. But he never dominated a divisionlike duran did or has a win over a top 20 atg.

 

interesting comparison. Duran only beat one great fighter, and Pacman has beaten a few, but Duran fought much better greats than Pacman did, and his era was tough even if you handpick it was not going to be easy. Hard to say who was better in their era. Duran fought top guys and that is why he might be remembered better for longer since the guys he fought will be remembered for a long time also. The guys Pacman beat are good but not as memorable. Hard to answer. Pacman has shown more versatility than Duran when moving up and fighting better guys. I don't think beating Leonard when Ray was green and inexperienced was as great a win as people think. Had Duran beaten Ray in 1982 that would have been quite an accomplishment. Sort of like Khan. How much better is Khan now than when he was knockedout by Prescott. I am not comparing him to Leonard totally, but that first loss was necessary for him to be great.

 

I don't think one win over Ray when Ray was fighting Duran's fight and Ray was in his second fight in his first title defenses trumps those other fights. That is a simplistic way for Duran to be rated high without doing much. Had Duran beaten Ray in the rematch to prove he was better and then won Benitez 154 pound title, that would have trumped what Pac did above, but Duran was 2 wins away from that.

 

I don't buy this Ray was fighting Duran fight, Ray went into the ring and did what he did and came up short, no excuses what so ever. Yes Ray beat Duran in the rematch, that goes to show how good Ray really is not how bad Duran is.

The fact that Duran could even beat a prime undefeated WBC WW champ Sugar Ray Leonard having come up in weight is unbelievable accomplishment.

Pac hasn't done nothing of the sort to even compare, controversial wins over Marquez and a loss and wins against a past prime morales don't cut it at this level, yes you can throw in barrera which is a solid win but it is not even in the same league as going up and beating the man sugar ray leonard.

 

Ray was not prime. I am not sure why people say that after the fact. He was on his second defense of his first title reign. It was a good win, but not great. Ray even said I tried to fight that man at his own fight and I almost won. Duran gets credit for things which he should not. The fight he won against Ray is overrated and the losses to Ray discounted, and Duran gets credit for losing to Hagler. People turn that one into a win, when a year and a half before that fight it is ignored Duran was outclassed by Benitez at 154.

 

Palomino/Benitez/Barkley/SRL/Hearns/Hagler are just a few + he was still fighting solid guys in the 90's when he was way past his prime...reigned in the 15RND era and NO catchweight BS

**DURAN**

 

It was a great win, Ray was undefeated and had knocked out his last 4 opponents leading up to the fight, ray can say what he likes, he lost the fight.

That's like mayweather going to fight pac and standing toe to toe and losing and then people turning round and say oh we can't rate that as a great win because mayweather stood in front of pac, it only a good win.

Ray is a grown ass man he opted to fight in away which he thought would win the fight that night, and he was clearly wrong.