Why is Roberto Duran so hated?

I always found it funny how Roberto Duran’s fans are always Sugar Ray Leonard haters ….not Hearns or Hagler or Benetiz …..just Ray lol

 

Well, when Ray makes the macho guy you vicariously identify with quit...

 

Ehhhhhhh?

 

Hey I'm a Duran fan and I like SRL. I'm a Hearns hater!

 

Thank goodness Boxed Ears is back to make sense of all this mess.

 

I know this is going to sound controversial, but I never really found his fights "entertaining". There was quite of bit mauling in his fights especially in the 1st SRL fight.

Don't get me wrong I loved Duran/Barkley and Duran vs DeJesus 3, but overall there isn't many fights in his career that I'd say "Yeah I really want to go back and watch that one"

I don't dislike him as a fighter, and I appreciate his skill. But I wouldn't say I'm really a fan of his fights honestly, I know it's an unpopular opinion.

 

He’s a bit like Napoles in that watching his fights is often more about what he does rather than the competitiveness of the contest. I tend to watch his lightweight and welterweight fights but only select fights from junior middleweight upwards.

I do think the wins over DeJesus in the second fight, SRL in the first fight and over Barkley were also great fights. But two of his most revered wins were over DeJesus in the rubber match and Carlos Palomino and those were great performances but not great fights.

 

I'm not new to the sport. I followed Duran in real time during his late lightweight title run through the end of his career.

The problem I have with people talking about how "great" Duran was is they tend to say "he was the greatest lightweight ever" and then tend to leave out the next 20 YEARS of his career.

They are the same people who tend to talk about how awesome Jimmy Young was ... and leave out that Jimmy Young was awesome for about three years out of a 20-year career. In the remaining 85 percent of his career, Young wasn't awesome at all. They also tend to be people who love to go on and on about pound-for-pound, fantasy talk which only seems to focus on the very best moments of someone's career.

Duran was so huge when I started following boxing. By the time he fought the rematch with Leonard, Duran was like 72-1. That is ridiculously good.

When he quit in that fight, it was like a bomb went off everywhere. He was even villified in his own country. I remember the government of Panama had given Duran tax-exempt status (like a religious organization) for years ... like he was his own religion. And his own government revoked it after he quit against Leonard.

And he fought for another 20 years ... and his record in that time was like 31-15. Not exactly "greatest of all time" stuff.

I tend to think people who go on and on about Duran ARE the new ones to the sport. Because I defy people to try to watch a fighter in real time for 20 years who, for the most part, sucked during that time. And then listen to people insist he was "the best ever."

I acknowledge how good he was the first decade of his career. But the bad part of his career lasted much longer than the great part did. As someone who sat through the whole bad part in real time, that's difficult to reconcile.

As a realist, there needs to be some balanace. To me, you have to consider how many years he was actually "great" with the years where he was mediocre ... the truly great moments with the truly awful ones - like quitting against Pat Lawlor - and figure Duran actually belongs somewhere in the middle there.

Because the WHOLE career is his, not just the first 10 years.

That's why I tend to hold guys in higher esteem who had great careers and then stopped before those bad performances started outnumbering the great ones.

 

As I said I appreciate his skills, I just never really found many of his fights "must watch fights" the style in his fights didn't really appeal to me, regarding ever wanting to rewatch his fights.

Like I said I know it's a controversial opinion, and I know many will think my opinion is baffling which is fair enough.

I recognize hes a great fighter, just not a fighter that I would revisit to watch many of his fights.

For example I much preferred Chavez's style, not really any mauling or smothered inside work. Just great pin point accurate clean power punching.

 

Sure is, pal.
The man's like the Joe Biden of classic.!

 

Duran is like marmite. There's no middle ground really. It's love him or hate him.
But to be honest that applies to most of the Greats.
Look at Ali.
As much as some love him, myself including, some can't stand him, pick out every negative and call him totally overrated.
But you can't get to the very top with out causing strong feelings from either side.

 

I didn't realize he was hated so much? Almost universally he's considered the greatest LW in history, and I've seen some call him the greatest ever period. I don't think anyone hated is gonna get that type of commendation.

 

I think you might enjoy this thread: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...n-floyd-mayweather-and-manny-pacquiao.683550/

 

I basically think he's a very strong candidate for third best resume since the mid seventies, behind Mayweather and Pacquiao, but people here think that's inflammatory.

 

Love this personal anecdote.

concise analogies go a long way dude