Floyd Mayweather vs. prime Roberto Duran at lightweight: who wins?

[Ishy Aytan]

Duran had semi weak comp at 135? What about Floyd's?

This fight isn't even close. Duran destroys inside of 5 rds.

When has Floyd ever been close to losing to a stoppage, never mind ever been close to being stopped inside 5 rounds for you to come out with this judgement.?

[Brandish]

It's absolutely comical how Duran's skill set is comparable to Hatton's, but Floyd is a supreme mix of Leonard, Whitaker, Toney, Taylor, and Jones with just a DASH of Sugar Ray Robinson sprinkled on top. Quite a distorted take on things

duran got beat by worse fighters then hatton. I have seen duran get his ass whipped plenty of times by mediocre fighters..so kill that duran is unbeatable crap. he was unbeatable against c level fighters

[Brandish]

When has Floyd ever faced an elite fighter in his prime?

Prime Duran was better than anybody Mayweather's ever fought.

duran got beat up and knocked down in his prime by esteban de jesus arte you trying to say :

genaro hernandez
diego corrales
jose luiis castillo
zab judah
ricky hatton
oscar de la hoya

were not better than esteban de jesus

[Da Hammer]

Duran's power would have mayweather running like a *****! Seriously floyd has never fought anyone that has anywhere near the power that duran had plus the great speed! duran would have floyd backing up all night not even giving him a chance to counter him. He would work the body nonstop wearing down mayweather finishing him off with a late KO! Duran is so underappreciated by some fans its ******!!!!!!

[pbftxrs316]

I have a quick question on the first part. aren't you basically saying something like Duran was not techincal because he was mostly doing the same things that you call "technical skills", but on the front foot? Because every single thing you mentioned, including the defense part, Duran did.

I can't believe I am even talking about this, but it seems to me you are saying that Sosa was more adapt to beating Mayweather than Duran because he fought more conventional. Is that right?

you see, when i say technical i mean text book boxing. duran did have a jab and used it, but so did fighters like gatti mayorga and mickey ward. they also had straight right hands they had the ability to move, but their style was brawling at best. that was my point. i know duran had a jab, straight right, cross. and all of the other things i listed, but their primary style was brawling, and it worked for them and didn't work for them. duran is obviously a greater fighter than they are by far, but he brawled at best, so my point was this, coz i'm a little tired of talking about this, sosa fought more conventionally than duran did, and that style is much more equipped when fighting floyd. i've always said the best way to beat a boxer with so many skills as floyd has is to be a better boxer than him, not pressure like many people believed. castillo pressured him, and it was effective, but he mainly boxed him, and floyd had an injury also, and we have to take that into account. floyd was injured in that fight and still rose to occassion. i'm strictly going off of styles, not resume when talking about sosa and duran. people took so far out of context here, saying who did sosa beat, why are you even comparing sosa to duran? all that other bull****, without reading the whole post. that's what this forum lacks a lot, decent arguing, and it's been like this for a while.

styles styles styles people. i'm going off of styles. sosa is nowhere near greater than duran or even on his level and i believe duran would have beaten sosa, but styles makes fights. duran would not, i repeat would not beat floyd, period.

there you go wmute. how you been man?

[BattlingNelson]

you see, when i say technical i mean text book boxing. duran did have a jab and used it, but so did fighters like gatti mayorga and mickey ward. they also had straight right hands they had the ability to move, but their style was brawling at best. that was my point. i know duran had a jab, straight right, cross. and all of the other things i listed, but their primary style was brawling, and it worked for them and didn't work for them. duran is obviously a greater fighter than they are by far, but he brawled at best, so my point was this, coz i'm a little tired of talking about this, sosa fought more conventionally than duran did, and that style is much more equipped when fighting floyd. i've always said the best way to beat a boxer with so many skills as floyd has is to be a better boxer than him, not pressure like many people believed.

floyd kills cotto and has more skill than leonard ever did, period. floyd is the most technically fluent fighter there ever was possibly...

So noone has ever been a better boxer than Floyd and you have to be a better boxer to beat him.

This equals that in your opinion Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the GOAT.

Thanks.

[Alec900]

Duran breaks Floyd down,stops him late

[wmute]

you see, when i say technical i mean text book boxing. duran did have a jab and used it, but so did fighters like gatti mayorga and mickey ward. they also had straight right hands they had the ability to move, but their style was brawling at best. that was my point. i know duran had a jab, straight right, cross. and all of the other things i listed, but their primary style was brawling, and it worked for them and didn't work for them. duran is obviously a greater fighter than they are by far, but he brawled at best, so my point was this, coz i'm a little tired of talking about this, sosa fought more conventionally than duran did, and that style is much more equipped when fighting floyd. i've always said the best way to beat a boxer with so many skills as floyd has is to be a better boxer than him, not pressure like many people believed. castillo pressured him, and it was effective, but he mainly boxed him, and floyd had an injury also, and we have to take that into account. floyd was injured in that fight and still rose to occassion. i'm strictly going off of styles, not resume when talking about sosa and duran. people took so far out of context here, saying who did sosa beat, why are you even comparing sosa to duran? all that other bull****, without reading the whole post. that's what this forum lacks a lot, decent arguing, and it's been like this for a while.

styles styles styles people. i'm going off of styles. sosa is nowhere near greater than duran or even on his level and i believe duran would have beaten sosa, but styles makes fights. duran would not, i repeat would not beat floyd, period.

there you go wmute. how you been man?

doing great here. sup with you?

My point (and I am wondering if you don't see it or just discount it) is that Duran was not foolishly offensive at all. He was very calculated and like Mayweather he would mix up defense with offense. The only difference, which is quite obvious of course, is that Duran's game was more based on offense than defense.

Look at the 3rd De Jesus fight, which I (and many will agree) consider Duran's absolute peak and his best performance at 135. Do you see a brawler? I see very aggressive fighter, but I see a boxer, who is effective at midrange, inside and outside. Look at how he pressures De Jesus and then circles. Look at him standing on the inside roughing him up and sonly econds later counterpunching in an almost 'sweet' way. In all of this look at the head movement, the rolling with punches, slipping, parrying, holding and clinching at the right times. I agree that is not textbook, but I don't understand why this matters, and I would certainly not call it brawling. Look at the punch that knocks De Jesus down in the 12th round: a short right timed while on the move, which De Jesus was being set up for ... a thing of beauty, nothing wild at all

Now the only thing that I see clearly that would provide a weakness, is Duran's propensity to fight on the front foot no matter what he is doing. That provides a certain lack of balance in his attack which someone with great footspeed and immense ring generalship can exploit. Those would be Mayweather and Benny Leonard, more than anyone else in the history of the sport IMO. Take the Castillo fight (although I would say Castillo, while being certianly inferior to than Duran, has a more balanced attack in the sense I pointed to earlier, so stylewise he is better equipped to deal with movement). For whatever reason Mayweather stood a lot more in the pocket in the 1st fight. Fine. I know about the injury, but injury or not, he did choose to move in the 2nd fight. And that's exactly what he should (and I believe would) do with Duran.

I don't think that anyone of the other sensible people (don't mind hte other idiots) you are discussing with here (oldgringo, manchine, imdazed, battling nelson, me and others I am certainly forgetting) would see Mayweather getting torn up on the inside. But that's not where he has his best chance of winning the fight, because not only Duran was a montruous offensive machine, but he certainly knew his fair share of tricks to fight a long fight on the inside. Mayweather is a great at inside fighting, but when it comes to inside fighting, he fought in a very weak era (something that is only going to get worse with time IMO), and when facing Castillo (which had the best inside attack in the lighter weights in a long time IMO, and an amazing chin), he chose to move.

Anyway that's my long ass 2 cents. Peace.

[NakiFan]

Now this is a decent question, much better than "Floyd Mayweather vs Battling Bumboy" from earlier.

I think Duran would probably stop PBF fairly late on, however It could go either way.

60/40 fight in favour of duran.

[klipsch speaker]

doing great here. sup with you?

My point (and I am wondering if you don't see it or just discount it) is that Duran was not foolishly offensive at all. He was very calculated and like Mayweather he would mix up defense with offense. The only difference, which is quite obvious of course, is that Duran's game was more based on offense than defense.

Look at the 3rd De Jesus fight, which I (and many will agree) consider Duran's absolute peak and his best performance at 135. Do you see a brawler? I see very aggressive fighter, but I see a boxer, who is effective at midrange, inside and outside. Look at how he pressures De Jesus and then circles. Look at him standing on the inside roughing him up and seconds later, and only seconds counterpunching in an almost 'sweet' way. In all of this look at the head movement, the rolling with punches, slipping, parrying, holding and clinching at the right times. I agree that is not textbook, but I don't understand why this matters, and I would certainly not call it brawling.

Now the only thing that I see clearly that would provide a weakness, is Duran's propensity to fight on the front foot no matter what he is doing. That provides a certain lack of balance in his attack which someone with great footspeed and immense ring generalship can exploit. Those would be Mayweather and Benny Leonard, more than anyone else in the history of the sport IMO. Take the Castillo fight (although I would say Castillo, while being certianly inferior to than Duran, has a more balanced attack in the sense I pointed to earlier, so stylewise he is better equipped to deal with movement). For whatever reason Mayweather stood a lot more in the pocket in the 1st fight. Fine. I know about the injury, but injury or not, he did choose to move in the 2nd fight. And that's exactly what he should do with Duran.

I don't think that anyone of the other sensible people discussing here (oldgringo, manchine, imdazed, battling nelson, me and others I am certainly forgetting) would see Mayweather getting torn up on the inside. But that's not where he has his best chance of winning the fight, because not only Duran was a montruous offensive machine, but he certainly knew his fair share of tricks to fight a long fight on the inside. Mayweather is a great at inside fighting, but when it comes to inside fighting, he fought in a very weak era (something that is only going to get worse with time IMO), and when facing Castillo (which had the best offensive attack in the lighter weights in a long time IMO, and an amazing chin), he chose to move.

Anyway that's my long ass 2 cents. Peace.

what a great post wmute...

Well, im not saying Villomar Fernandez and Lou Bizarro are in the level of Benny Leonard or Floyd Mayweather jr... But these people used a lot of movement and crafty potshotting on Duran and both gave Manos de Piedra a lot of problems...

Duran eventually caught these two and was KOed badly...

Mayweather, for all his safety first approach will likely rely on potshotting, movement and his God given athleticism to fight and box Duran...

I will see PBF do this, all night long but Duran for all his patience and ATG poise (specially at 135), will eventually get to him... And if this fight is to have 15 rounds, I see Duran's chances getting bigger... I cant see him letting PBF dictate to him "how this fight should be fought"...

... And oh yes by the way, I dont think PBF's shoulder roll, and fighting on the ropes would work against Duran...

The Panamanian at lightweight had all the strength, skill, mindset and poise to beat PBF...

My 2 cents likewise...