Roy Jones Jr and Marvin Hagler would both beat Carlos Monzon Sergio Martinez's knees didn't let him down, the left hook of Cotto followed by his superior skills beat him. Cotto always beats Martinez. JMM was never "robbed" in his losses to Pac, Bradley, John. If he were "robbed" then so did MAB. I don't consider Pernell Whitaker a defensive fighter but more as a versatile all-rounder fighter.
GGG is/was a bit overrated and would most likely have been beaten by top contenders that were around 5-7 years ago at SMW had he moved up. Joe Louis is not top 3 h2h
After re-watching the fight, I wouldn't say Duran coasted in the 13th and 14th. Those rounds were bitterly contested. Still give Leonard both of them, though he did have to close strong and shake Duran in the 13th to win that particular frame. Anyway, there were a lot of close rounds, reflected by the fact that one judge called 10 rounds even. If you award Leonard a 6-4 split (and I think you can), he overtakes Duran on that particular card...and gets the same scorecard that I did the last time I watched it.
While Lewis and Holyfield beat an diminished Tyson, they both still beat him PRIME VS PRIME. Floyd has been doing Lance Armstrong style blood doping his whole career. Not that I care because 95% of these dudes are on PEDs, but I called him out specifically because he was talking about "cleaning up the sport" and accusing others of taking PEDs when he's on them himself.
G-man should have fought better for the rest of that bout also, he was pretty bad in his clash with Benn, I don`t know if that`s an unpopular opinion also.
He unquestionably took his foot off the gas some in the final few rounds. This is readily apparent. I'm not sure what you mean by... "I wouldn't say", well then what would you say.... did Duran look as aggressive and pushing the action as much as previously? There were very clear rounds there were Duran took his foot off the gas some to get his second wind... and other times where it just looked like he felt like he already had it in the bag. Look at the 15th... he basically tried to give that away by showboating and coasting at the end.... he certainly didn't feel like he needed that round. While SRL the last half of the fight looked like a fighter who had been beaten but was still trying to close to show. The look and acted worlds apart at the end of the fight. Further, just listen to how you sound..... IF you give SRL 6-4 on those "even" rounds on one judges scorecard.... you could get to a SRL victory. The thing is, YOU'RE not even sure you'd give him 6 of those 4 rounds, yet that is what would be necessary to even get to a card where SRL wins. Do you see all the things needed to TRY and find a way to give SRL that fight. While Duran on the other hand.... aggressively and distinctly put a hurting on SRL and won the rounds he did dominantly with no ambiguity and coasted at the end. For SRL, the best you could do is, well there was some close rounds there, rounds he might have won, and if you give him those and put your SRL glasses on some others... you COULD get to a SRL victory. Those are worlds apart in practice and function. Duran simply won that fight decisively for me, and many others feel the same. Nobody is saying it was one sided domination and Duran pitched a shutout. What we are saying is, it was competitive more than it was really close. That wasn't a really close fight in my eyes.
I would say that Duran fought the 13th and 14th with just as much intensity, if not more, than he did in the first half of the fight. Leonard was trying to storm back into the contest (and, imo, was actually doing so), while Duran was fighting furiously in those two frames to stop him from doing so. To say otherwise is to ignore what actually took place in the fight. The only round he clearly took off and fought with markedly less intensity was the final round. As for me...I'm saying that after watching both fighters closely and scoring the fight, I came up with an 8-7 score card in favor of Leonard. There were definitely some Leonard rounds that could be scored for Duran, and since I'm not so arrogant as to believe my scorecard is the only one that matters, I'm not going to excoriate anyone who scored it for Duran. But, I didn't...and while that may be an unpopular opinion...that is the whole point of this particular thread.
George Foreman was nasty piece of work in the 1970s and he was still the same when he came back but hid it well and managed to make a fortune out of conning everyone with his Oscar winning act.
You're of the Larry Holmes school of thought on this subject, then? Speaking of Holmes, here's an unpopular opinion: he lost the Carl Williams fight. Quite close, not a highway job...But I think he lost it all the same. Most people would probably disagree with that. On the other hand, a majority (albeit not a landslide one) of fans seem to think Witherspoon beat him, whereas every time I've scored that I've had Larry hanging on to his title by a couple of rounds or so.
I agree with your conclusions. I also had him losing to Norton and Mercer, which I think will prove to be even more controversial. The latter was akin to Barkley-Duran and Hill-Hearns for me: it made for a fantastic ATG argument given his age, but he didn’t really escape with the win. In saying that, I am not actually satisfied with my scorecard for the fight, and I suspect I may be way off.
On the subject of scorecards, I’ve got more than a few headscratchers. The cherry on the cake if I were looking to really bowl someone over would be Whitaker-Trinidad.
Cheers guys. I found where McGrain scored it even but I've also seen him score it for Leonard by a point - pretty sure of it. I can't say I've scored it forever but i agree the feeling is that Duran won for sure. I'd normally scoff at anyone scoring it a draw or for Leonard but McGrain and Drew are great minds and cards from guys like these two make me pause a little and think maybe it was a touch closer than i thought technically. Maybe i will score it again some day. I'd be shocked if i had it extremely close.
