duran's loss to benitez...

[TheGreatA]

Funny how that works. He looked great in those fights, but that's not how fighters get rated when they move up in weight. Based on the William Joppy fight Trinidad looked like he was a great Middleweight. Caused him to go into the hopkins fight as a 4-1 favorite. Then of course Hopkins destroys him and he becomes labeled "an over blown WW" while Hopkins is labeled a "midget beater". Sadly this never happened to Hagler when he did the same damn thing...so, so, so sad. Clear bias for certain fighters impacting people's common sense.

Personally I think Trinidad was a big win for Hopkins. He took out Joppy, who was probably number 2 at the time, and thus was legitimately a top middleweight. He was more effective at 147 and 154 because physically he was huge at those weights, and in all fairness he never truly relied on polished boxing skills to win fights, but at 160 he was still a big puncher and a threat to Hopkins's reign. Hopkins then proceeded to take him apart in a brilliant showing.

I'd say that Hearns was a better middle though, and Duran probably a better middleweight than Oscar.

[Obama]

Hopkins pretty much fought Oscar at JMW. JMW Oscar > JMW Duran. That should be consistent with pretty much any ATG JMW list.

[TheGreatA]

Hopkins pretty much fought Oscar at JMW. JMW Oscar > JMW Duran. That should be consistent with pretty much any ATG JMW list.

Well, he was 168 lbs by fight time.

[Obama]

Well, he was 168 lbs by fight time.

And MW Pavlik was 178 against Martinez, what's your point?

[TheGreatA]

And and MW Pavlik was 178 against Martinez, what's your point?

That he wasn't a junior middleweight.

[gibo]

Duran would get beat by Benitez 9 times out of 10. Duran would beat dlj (at any weight) 10 times out of 10. Duran would PUNK hoja out before the bell sounds for the start of the first round.

[TBear]

I agree that Duran had fights he didn't get up for. I think if the Duran that fought Leonard in Montreal would have done great against Benitez. But Duran that challenged Benitez for the light middleweight title tried boxing with very little aggression. I remember Leonard saying during that fight that 154 lbs. was just too big for Duran. Funny that later he had many great fights with Davey Moore, Hagler, Iran Barkley and many others.

One thing overlooked about the Benitez-Duran match is also how terrific a boxer Benitez was. He was a master and is often underrated and overlooked as a wizard in the ring. He made the mistake of moving up too far in weight later in his career but in his prime he was a wonder to behold!

[Obama]

That he wasn't a junior middleweight.

Sounds like a JMW to me. Paul Williams and Joshua Clottey have weighed that much after scaling as a WW. Pavlik, a real MW, came in bigger than a LHW.

[Toney616]

Clear bias for certain fighters impacting people's common sense.

Hopkins makes it easy for people to dislike him, which would explain the bias

[King Ju-Ju]

Hopkins make it easy for people to dislike him, which would explain the bias

Exactly. Hagler was a humble guy that just wanted 2 get his respect. Hopkins was a ****ing racist. If a European or white American was 2 say "he would never 2 lose a black man", that person would have been looked at as such a racist bastard. He in ways got away with it like nothin ever happened.