Originally Posted by
Brussel Patepy
I never got the chance to reply to a post aimed towards me in the AJ vs Wlad thread due to the thread being deleted (because of me apparently :rolleyes:). The post insinuated that I was a casual for posting about Duran's skills/greatness before Tommy Hearns and a video was posted of the Hearns destruction of Duran like it proved a point :rolleyes:
Well there was a few factors to that loss. Factors outside the ring like Duran eating and partying too much and a poor training camp. After Duran made huge life changing money after beating Leonard in Montreal he started living like a king and didn't take boxing as seriously anymore. Durans poor condition was even mentioned During the fight by I think it was Leonard. Another factor was Duran being past his prime. When Duran fought in the fab four era he had already cemented his legacy in the 70's as the greatest lightweight of all time by dominating the division for nearly a decade beating the likes of hof Ken Buchanan and Esteban DeJesus x2. He also had fights at light welterweight beating the likes of hof Mexican Carlos Palomino. You need to understand Duran debuted as a bantamweight and beat the likes of the brilliant Ernesto Marcel at featherweight when he was 19 yo before he peaked as a lightweight so the other obvious factor is the physical advantages the other fab four held over Duran. They were all at their best weights and in their physical primes when Duran fought them. Duran a natural lightweight was only 5 foot 7 with a shortish reach. Leonard and especially Hearns and Hagler all held huge physical advantages over Duran. Duran fought Hearns at super welter and Hearns had a 4 or 5 inch hight advantage over Duran with a whopping 12 inch reach advantage. For Duran to have had any chance of beating Hearns he would have needed to have got himself into the kind of shape mentally and physically that he got himself into for the first Leonard fight in Montreal where he was phenomenally sharp and focussed, but unfortunately for him he didn't. Tommy also had tremendous skills with speed and freakish power to go with those huge physical advantages.
Duran might not have came out on top in all his fab four fights but he is considered the greatest fighter out of all them because of what he did before he fought Hearns, Hagler and Leonard, and by daring to be great by going up weights and challenging much bigger men, four of them being top tier all time greats if you include his points loss to the brilliant Wilred Benitez.
Durans win over Leonard is arguably the greatest win in history. He stepped up and beat the golden boy of the welterweight division who would go on to become the second greatest welterweight of all time behind Ray Robinson. Then came the 'No Mas' fight which is a huge stain on Duran's legacy. Duran spent the whole camp cutting weight and was in poor fighting condition. On the other side Leonard devised a hit and move strategy knowing this was going to be the case having seen fat Duran in a restaurant the night he signed for the fight. Leonard even admits Duran was not the animal he was in Montreal saying he was slower and physically less strong. The fight wasn't the schooling people make it out to be though. Leonard was only one or two rounds up. It makes the quit even more strange knowing Duran wasn't hurt once During the fight or even marked. His excuse was stomach cramps but in reality I think the clowning Leonard was doing was frustrating Duran and he knew he wasnt in the condition to do anything about it so he thought **** him and turned his back and quit in disgust. He never actually said "No Mas" to the ref. He said "I'm not fighting this clown"
Duran was superb against Marvin Hagler. Think he was up on the cards after 12 but gassed in the last 3 rounds. Duran was showing Marvin moves he'd never seen before in that fight. The greatest lightweight of all time way past his best gave arguably the greatest middleweight of all time all he could handle and was the first to take him 15 rounds in a title fight. Hagler went on to say he earned his PhD in the ring after he fought Duran. Duran basically hung with Hagler on skill and ring craft alone as he was physically way past prime and at a huge disadvantage physically.
Duran also beat the **** out of highly rated Davie Moore for the Light middleweight title and shocked the world when at 38 he out fought huge middleweight Iran Barkley who had just got off destroying Tommy Hearns. Barkley was huge for the weight. He went on to win a world light heavyweight title and compete at heavyweight. It's like 38 yo Mayweather Jr beating Kovalev, that's how big that win is.
Duran's issues outside the ring and fighting way past his prime meant he had loses to fighters he should never be losing against like Kirkland Laing and Robbie Sims but he also managed to shock the world after poor periods when it looked like he was done. He was robbed badly against Hector Camacho in 96 when he was 45 yo. That should have been another middleweight title he won against all the odds. Camacho would go on to stop Ray Leonard the next year.
To finish off my huge probably pointless post i'll add Hearns, Hagler and Leonard all state Duran is the greatest fighter they ever fought. Duran is one of few fighters to compete at the top in 5 different decades. He's a certified top ten all time great with Leonard usually ranked in there too. Some historians rank Duran top 5. Duran is Mike Tysons Idol and even the none praising Floyd Mayweather Jr has him as the greatest he's watched. Duran in his prime is arguably the most complete fighter we have on extensive footage with his great offence combined with his great defence blended together seamlessly. Duran ticked lots of boxes in the skillset department. He was a brutal whirlwind of craft, skills and athleticism.
Manos de Piedra :not worth
