Is Roberto Duran the best lightweight of all time?

[Manos-de-Piedra]

i am the best

am am the strongest lightweight, i am more of a man

[Panamaniac]

Duran was an amazingly talented boxer, but his discipline and dedication were poor. He used to go up 50lbs between fights from eating and not working out properly.

Not while at the lightweight level (the weight-class in question here), it used to happen later, most notably between the first two Leonard fights...

[them_apples]

yeah no doubt. I'd edge him over whitaker at 135. too much of everything, I don't pick anyone over him in this weight class. Dude had a LHW chin and hit like a middleweight + speed and skills to boot.

[rightsideup]

he is with out a doubt, skills ,heart the only place he is lacking is training habits

[Daddy T]

i wouldn't back any lightweight ever over duran

[BennyST]

Hmmmm, lightweight is way too stacked to say with any certainty. B. Leonard, Joe Gans, Canzoneri, Ortiz, etc. There are so many great fighters there, but Duran did show some freakish once in a lifetime stuff. Brilliant boxing skill, speed, heart, power, defence...at lightweight, at his best, he absolutely had it all.

His true greatness and top ten P4P ranking comes from his move up from 118 to 147 beating all those guys on the way and culminating with what is unarguably one of the single greatest wins in boxing history over Leonard. From there on it was mixed but up to that point he would have been favourite over just about anyone up to 147.

Anyway, Duran, Leonard, Gans, Ortiz, Laguna, Whitaker, Canzoneri, Brown, Buchanan, are all top lightweights but I think the top three are pretty set with Ortiz sitting right on the edge. He still gets underrated. Ortiz arguably has the best resume of all along with Leonard.

[Optimistic]

Yeah, without a doubt imo.

[Boxing Bob]

as hands of stone pointed out, I don't know if Duran was the greatest LW of all time, but there's not one LW I would ever bet on against him!

[Mintcar923]

I love Duran and think he's great and all but Julio Cesar Chavez was just so consistent. He also seemed less hot and cold than Duran IMO when you look at the big picture. Also, I don't recall seeing him ever lose a fight at lightweight. But, then again I haven't seen many of Duran's early bouts being they were before my time...

[StarshipTrooper]

I love Duran and think he's great and all but Julio Cesar Chavez was just so consistent. He also seemed less hot and cold than Duran IMO when you look at the big picture. Also, I don't recall seeing him ever lose a fight at lightweight. But, then again I haven't seen many of Duran's early bouts being they were before my time...

Duran racked up a 62-1 record at Lightweight before moving up. His only loss, which he twice avenged by KO, was a decision to Esteban DeJesus who is considered a consensus ATG among boxing historians. Chavez was 61-0 at Lightweight before moving up but fought no ATG caliber fighters during that run. The closest he came was against Edwin Rosario and Jose Luis Ramirez who were near-greats rather than ATGs. Who's to say if Chavez had fought a three fight series against an ATG like DeJesus he wouldn't have dropped one on the cards to him?

Poet