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What would his legacy have been?
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Top 5 lock -
Honestly all depends on the aftermath.. It's hard to judge a career based on 1 fight..
If Duran beats hagler, then he still gets ko'd by hearns, and then hearns gets stopped by hagler, and he still fights Leonard and Mugabi, I think Duran is top 5 lock..
But say that hagler just retires over the loss, then I don't think the win over hagler would be considered as great, as haglers overall legacy would be diminished without the hearns and Mugabi, and the stardom that came with the Leonard fight,,Comment
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You'd have some people arguing for him being top 3 atg and you'd have a consensus that he is top 5 atg.Comment
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Duran at his best was a lightweight and that's where he rates highest.
He is a top ten lightweight who could compete and win in all era's.
What he did after the first Leonard fight was to cash in on his fame as a great lightweight and it worked for him. Sometimes he was in good shape and did well and other times he wasn't there physically or mentally and took the punches and the money and ran.
He was no different than any other great fighter who collected all the pennies he could. His craftiness and experience got him over most times after lightweight bouts and occasionally he fought hard.
Theres no doubt he is a gifted boxer who could box and fight at a high level, world class!
Ray.Comment
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Your counter-factual does show the difficulties in placing so much value on individual fights, with your alternative history it is plausible that Duran would have received less credit from defeating Hagler than he has actually received in losing. It is so easy to dismiss the defeated fighter as not having been so good unless he bounces back from it strongly.Originally posted by Sugar Adam Ali View Post
Duran is one of the absolute greats so if he had defeated Hagler then it would have only been more evidence of his greatness regardless of how Hagler reacted to the defeat. Although if Hagler had bounced back to defeat Roldan, Hamsho, Hearns and Mugabi then the evidence would be clearer than if he had retired.Comment
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That one victory would've made little difference to the whole package (career). It's like adding a single diamond to a multi-diamond ring - it remains an impressive ring, not more so...Comment
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Might have moved up a couple of notches, but I would fear for him, for there were several middleweights around who chould have taken him.Originally posted by rightsideup View PostComment
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Better Losing than Winning!
I agree if he wins, he either gives Hagler a quick rematch and then Hagler annihilates him to make sure he wins, or Hearns Ko's him.
Hagler gave Duran too much respect, he thought he would outbox him to show everyone he could do it, he did not try to kill him.
Point is, if he had gone after him and hated him and wanted to destroy him as he did Hearns, he would have blown Duran out, he might have lasted a little longer than Hearns due to a better Chin and better defense, but either way, Hagler Ko's him, but he did not, because he respected him and did not hate him and wanted to prove his boxing skills over Duran, he made comments in interviews before the fight to back that point up.
He was also friends with leonard, having dinner with Leonard and family before the fight with him, he thought no way Leonard beats him, he really believed he could box the way he did against Duran, not hurt or kill him and win a decision as alway, but it didnt happen, that's why he quit, he was just discusted about it, but I think he most likely did lose that fight, some agree with Hagler he won, i saw it when it happened, and many times since, and Leonard won the decision on my cards, but Hagler clearly just wanted to outbox him and win a decision and that was a huge Mistake.Comment
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