What was Roberto Duran boxing style ?

[Tony Trick-Pony]

I'd say a swarmer- a hard-hitting, defensively genius, swarmer.

[billeau2]

Was he a pressure fighter or puncher ?

I hope you appreciate what a wonderful post crimsonfalcon made regarding your question!

With that said one theory about how to categorize a fighter is to take their dominant skill and look at all other skills as a sort of reinforcement. Then you get a kind of scale where a fighter is more, or less balanced. At the level of a Duran it does not really matter how balanced a fighter is, just who they can beat, the skills they have. Lets take the two fighters considered the best ATG's for many years... Robinson and Armstrong. Robinson was so good he could do everything well... its actually very hard to pick a dominant category though most would say boxer. Armstrong on the other hand was the very embodiment of a pressure fighter, and this was what made him great, far eclipsing other skill sets.

Duran was very balanced between a boxer and a puncher... almost 50 50 really... Keeping in mind that some skills go together, boxers usually have to throw all the punches, and punchers have to be able to pressure. I would say at his heart Duran was so well balanced that he changed at times during his career, between being a boxer and a puncher.

[billeau2]

Throughout most of his career; He was a considered a mid range boxer/puncher. The only time I ever recalled him being a pressure fighter was against Sugar Ray Leonard. He never pressured Ken Buchanan, Benitez, Hagler or Hearns. He fought them all while standing erect with no upper body movement at all..

Yeah... I mean a great puncher has to know how to apply pressure! Liston, Foreman... one quick linear movements, the other cutting the ring down respectively, but I would never think of Duran as a pressure fighter, or a swarmer, any more than I would characterize a fighter like Pit Bull Cruz, as anything BUT a bona fide pressure fighter.