Is Roberto Duran the best lightweight of all time?

[McGoorty]

1. Leonard
2. Gans
3. Ortiz (Shout out to IronDan.)
4. Duran
5. Whitaker

Whittaker ?.... I acknowledge his great talent,.. but this is the LW division.... in terms of greatness, I have Canzoneri, Wolgast, Nelson, Armstrong, McLarnin, Welsh, and a couple of others ahead of him........ but of course I have him ahead of JCC.

[McGoorty]

Putting my neck out on this one, but I rank Whitaker as the #1 LW of all time.

Oh, you got that in just before mine....... I can't believe anyone can have sweet pea at #1, He couldn't live 20 rounds with Nelson or Wolgast and Benny Leonard would outpoint him and maybe knock Pernell out in anything from a 6 rounder to a 20 rounder... you have to take in a lot of things into consideration........ Like strength of opposition, and guys who had 150 fights or more and could go 40 rounds if they had to. These are things to think about....... Going 20 rounds is a far sterner test of how good a fighter really is.

[Barn]

Whittaker ?.... I acknowledge his great talent,.. but this is the LW division.... in terms of greatness, I have Canzoneri, Wolgast, Nelson, Armstrong, McLarnin, Welsh, and a couple of others ahead of him........ but of course I have him ahead of JCC.

I could see Welsh ahead but, that's all out of that list.

[Barn]

Oh, you got that in just before mine....... I can't believe anyone can have sweet pea at #1, He couldn't live 20 rounds with Nelson or Wolgast and Benny Leonard would outpoint him and maybe knock Pernell out in anything from a 6 rounder to a 20 rounder... you have to take in a lot of things into consideration........ Like strength of opposition, and guys who had 150 fights or more and could go 40 rounds if they had to. These are things to think about....... Going 20 rounds is a far sterner test of how good a fighter really is.

Lets not pretend they fought at the same pace as a 12 round fight for 20 rounds.

[McGoorty]

Lets not pretend they fought at the same pace as a 12 round fight for 20 rounds.

What they were doing was fighting at a pace that I couldn't believe at the 23rd than I've seen Lw's doing in the 12th today,..... they simply never stop going at each other, and they are way quicker than anyone today gives them credit....... in action they punch very fast,.... they both had great handspeed...... their footwork was'nt dancing, and they were feinting a lot,...... there was a lot of deception displayed by Wolgast he'd make Nelson react as if to avoid a left and he's running into real short, quick right crosses...... I have to rate what they did over their careers and their ferocity over Whittakers and I think they faced much hotter competition than Pernell http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=460446

[Forza]

1. whitaker
2. duran
3. leonard
4. canzanori
5. gans


*I put duran over leonard because I believe at LW he has a superior resume and would beat leonard 9/10 as LW was duran's natural weight class

[IronDanHamza]

1. Leonard
2. Gans
3. Ortiz (Shout out to IronDan.)
4. Duran
5. Whitaker

Love that Barn!!

That is identical to my personal Top 5 Lightweight list.

[New England]

in my opinion he is the best LW to ever live.


just a perfect storm of a fighter at LW

skills. physical talents.
chin.
titanic punching power
palpable will to destroy


LW duran is up there with prime louis, WW robinson, 60's ali, and very few others for the perfect fighter contest.



in my estimation duran is the best LW i have ever seen.

[NChristo]

1. whitaker
2. duran
3. leonard
4. canzanori
5. gans


*I put duran over leonard because I believe at LW he has a superior resume and would beat leonard 9/10 as LW was duran's natural weight class

Duran's LW resume superior to Leonard's ?, interesting.
I thought there was no question about who had the superior resume with the big 3 LWs (usually Gans, Leonard and Duran) and it was Duran's and Gan's title reign and dominance that could argue putting them over Leonard's superior names.
I mean Leonard has Freddie Welsh, Jack Britton and Lew Tendler on his LW resume, who has Duran got that can match them 3 names alone ?, 3 HOF right off the bat then you can add Rocky Kansas, Johnny Kilbane, Johnny Dundee (Another HOF) etc, the LW division was stacked back then and Leonard ruled the bunch.

[IronDanHamza]

Duran's LW resume superior to Leonard's ?, interesting.
I thought there was no question about who had the superior resume with the big 3 LWs (usually Gans, Leonard and Duran) and it was Duran's and Gan's title reign and dominance that could argue putting them over Leonard's superior names.
I mean Leonard has Freddie Welsh, Jack Britton and Lew Tendler on his LW resume, who has Duran got that can match them 3 names alone ?, 3 HOF right off the bat then you can add Rocky Kansas, Johnny Kilbane, Johnny Dundee (Another HOF) etc, the LW division was stacked back then and Leonard ruled the bunch.

Rocky Kansas and Johnny Kilbane are HOF'ers aswell don't forget.

Along wth Willie Ritchie aswell to add to the names you mentioned.

For me, the greatest Lightweight of all time has to be Benny Leonard.

His resume is in a league of it's own.