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

[Walt Liquor]

Time to have some milk and go to bed.

Kindergarten homework, learn more about both fighters and learn more about the sport.

Let me know when Floyd fights someone near an ATG in their prime in their weight class. Then let me know when he fights a killer like Duran was at 135.
Then I will take the time to write a longer post and do a full analysis. struggling with Victoriano Sosa and making a career out of ducking your toughest fights does not constitute a challenge to a real ATG fighter.

[Vasyl’s dad]

If JLC was able to take Floyd to the limit and win in some observers eyes,

Duran would demolish him.

[Pullcounter]

If JLC was able to take Floyd to the limit and win in some observers eyes,

Duran would demolish him.

does that mean floyd has to fight duran w/ a torn rotator cuff too? cause I'd pick duran in a second if so.

[rocky_balboa23]

Floyd would be KOed by Duran..too much pressure from the Panamanian..Even the old Oscar was able to put too much pressure on Floyd..i even thought Oscar won against Floyd when I watched it the first time..But of course, watching the replay, Floyd definitely beat Oscar but not that much..

[Walt Liquor]

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.

How about Duran's power compared to Castillo inside, a very important element that you are leaving out. That's why I see Floyd getting stopped and that he has no heart.
There were some excellent infighters/pressure fighters that Floyd could have fought. Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Margarito. Stop with the era stuff. He is a ducker, he straight skipped over Tszyu. Floyd could have a resume like Shane Mosely, (who also skipped Tszyu) who fought pretty much everyone and in their prime.. He could have fought Vernon, Winky etc. All of this leads to my opinion that Floyd knows he doesn't have the heart to win against his real competition. If he was so great he could have a resume like a real ATG.

[Vasyl’s dad]

How about Duran's power compared to Castillo inside, a very important element that you are leaving out. That's why I see Floyd getting stopped and that he has no heart.
There were some excellent infighters/pressure fighters that Floyd could have fought. Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Margarito. Stop with the era stuff. He is a ducker, he straight skipped over Tszyu. Floyd could have a resume like Shane Mosely, (who also skipped Tszyu) who fought pretty much everyone and in their prime.. He could have fought Vernon, Winky etc. All of this leads to my opinion that Floyd knows he doesn't have the heart to win against his real competition. If he was so great he could have a resume like a real ATG.

Well, in this era, getting by on talent and saying it a million times is enough for his fans.

Its why they rank Marciano, Calzaghe, Ottke, Papp, Chavez Jr. and Lopez at or above his level.


Undefeated

[Pullcounter]

How about Duran's power compared to Castillo inside, a very important element that you are leaving out. That's why I see Floyd getting stopped and that he has no heart.
There were some excellent infighters/pressure fighters that Floyd could have fought. Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Margarito. Stop with the era stuff. He is a ducker, he straight skipped over Tszyu. Floyd could have a resume like Shane Mosely, (who also skipped Tszyu) who fought pretty much everyone and in their prime.. He could have fought Vernon, Winky etc. All of this leads to my opinion that Floyd knows he doesn't have the heart to win against his real competition. If he was so great he could have a resume like a real ATG.

I think floyd has the heart to compete w/ SRL, Duran and other ATGs, but I'm pretty sure he'd lose a few against ATGs.

[wmute]

How about Duran's power compared to Castillo inside, a very important element that you are leaving out. That's why I see Floyd getting stopped and that he has no heart.
There were some excellent infighters/pressure fighters that Floyd could have fought. Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Margarito. Stop with the era stuff. He is a ducker, he straight skipped over Tszyu. Floyd could have a resume like Shane Mosely, (who also skipped Tszyu) who fought pretty much everyone and in their prime.. He could have fought Vernon, Winky etc. All of this leads to my opinion that Floyd knows he doesn't have the heart to win against his real competition. If he was so great he could have a resume like a real ATG.

a) I picked Duran to win.

b) I claim that you don't know boxing, and you can barely put 2 and 2 together. I will now procede to prove my claim for everyone.

That's why I see Floyd getting stopped and that he has no heart.

You have nothing to base your statement that Mayweather has not heart. The ****er fought against Castillo with an injured shoulder and half fight against Famoso with a damaged hand. Beyond that he trains like a madman. In general say that any professional fighter has no heart makes you a ***** by default. Saying it about somoeone who fought through injuries makes you also look ******.

There were some excellent infighters/pressure fighters that Floyd could have fought. Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Margarito. Stop with the era stuff.

Mosley, Cotto and Margarito are not excellent in-fighters. Inside fighting is not just throwing punches, it's also wrestling, slippin, positioning, holding, using your elbows, forearms, head and so on. You don't know much about this sport, otherwise you would have noted how pathetic is the level of inside fighting these days compared to say the 50s. The only excellent inside fighters coming to my mind of the last 10 years at 135 and above are Castillo, Mayweather Jr, Toney and Hopkins.

He is a ducker, he straight skipped over Tszyu. Floyd could have a resume like Shane Mosely, (who also skipped Tszyu) who fought pretty much everyone and in their prime.. He could have fought Vernon, Winky etc. All of this leads to my opinion that Floyd knows he doesn't have the heart to win against his real competition. If he was so great he could have a resume like a real ATG.

You again show little knowledge of this sport, by picking the wrongest ppl to make duck claims. You would have been better off by picking some Arum fighters (cotto or margarito) or some showtime fighters (casamayor or freitas). At least you could have argue that the reason for the fights not happening was Mayweather's ducking instead of arum/mayweather or showtime/hbo.

Instead you pick on fights which just could not realistically take place, due to time/weight classes, mutual non interest, etc.

When where those fights supposed to happen? Enlighten us. Really curious.

I guess Duran being troubled by Lou Bizarro's movement should take him instantly off any ATG list.

You are dismissed. You can go back to do your homework now.

[wmute]

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...

BTW I picked Duran by close decision, so I mostly agree with you. I just have no qualms with someone picking Mayweather or Benny Leonard to beat Duran.

[Miburo]

Those hyperbolically choosing Duran need to reevaluate. Mayweather would fight in a similar manner to Leonard in the second fight. He definitely would have the ability to frustrate Duran by boxing from the outside the entire fight. Depending on the night this one could go either way.