Originally posted by Mr. Copeland
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He's also beaten the better fighters than any of them, fought a greater array of opposition, more HOF'ers, reigned longer, was a greater single weight champion than any.
One statistic that most don't know or think about: this alone puts him above most. Duran was beating HOFer and great 130 pound champion Ernesto Marcel and thirty years later and fifty pounds higher than where he started he was still beating the top fighters and champions of his time.
He fought legendary HOFers and top P4P fighters in nearly every weight class he was in. He was the same size as Pacquiao and was beating massive middleweight champions at nearly forty years old.
Best wins: Duran=Sugar Ray Leonard
Pacquiao=Barrera
Chavez=this one is debatable. Taylor, Rosario...maybe.
Duran takes the cake there pretty easily, especially considering it was in Leonard's peak years at his best weight and Duran's sixth weight class and had been fighting a decade longer.
As it stands right now I'd probably put Pacquiao and Chavez a very even second with Duran coming in first easily.
If you think just jumping weight classes equals greatness you are sorely mistaken. In today's weight class/title climate with pre fight day weight ins and five or so titles instead of just two, Duran would have held titles from SBW to SMW pretty easily. Understand the era, understand the fighters and most importantly, know who they fought and what their accomplishments were. Numbers are pretty meaningless when looked at properly. If having jumped weight classes meant everything then Pac is the GOAT and Oscar, and Mayweather are second and third ATG, then Hearns, Leonard, Duran, Jones, Toney etc come in after that.
Sadly for you, that's not how boxing works. Or does Ottke's 22 title defenses mean greatness?
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