Better Resume Sugar Ray Leonard or Roberto Duran?

[Godsfly]

Haggler fight with Duran was close, nobody can change that. Will say this Leonard waited until Hagler got old, Duran fought him inhis prime.

no it wasn't close............

in that case half of haglers wins were close.

if you actually sit down and score the fight you will see that duran was awarded many rounds for just show boating (while hagler was hitting him) hagler had a history of getting shafted by the judges if he didn't beat his opponent to a pulp or score the ko.......i don't even think that leonard beat him. i thought leonard lost a close but clear decision...........

[Body_Snatcher]

it's pretty close but I just went with Leonard

[boxingfeind]

It's a hard one. Duran's overall resume and achievements are pretty damn mind boggling. Starting at 118 (too many people still think he started at 135), and finishing up at 175, beating great champions from 1969 to 1998. Find another fighter in the history of the sport who has been able to beat champions over forty pounds apart across thirty years! It's simply incredible.

Most fighters don't even have a career spanning close to thirty years and yet Duran was beating champions over more weight divisions and across more years than most have any type of career.

A classic example: Pac has been fighting now for 15 years and beating champions for ten of those. Ten years after Duran beat his first great champion, he had moved up from 118 to 147, beat legendary HOF great Ray Leonard (which is certainly a much greater equivalent to beating Mayweather). Another ten years later he was winning the middleweight championship off Iran Barkley (himself a three division champion) and another ten years later was beating Jorge Castro, who had just come off title wins over Reggie Johnson, John David Jackson etc.

Ray Leonard is just as amazing. Those four great wins of his....Prime Tommy Hearns, prime Wilfred Benitez, nearly prime Duran and nearly prime Hagler. Whatever you say about Hagler's prime though is canceled by the fact that Leonard had been out of boxing for four years and only had one fight in six years! Imagine if, instead of Mayweather coming back after one year to beat Marquez, he came back after six to beat Hopkins at middleweight (if Hopkins was still at 160 as champ. We're pretending after all)? Obviously the size difference is much greater but I'm talking in terms of career similarity. Long time undisputed MW champ without a loss in over a decade vs a multi-division champ coming up to 160 and off a very long layoff.

That whole era was different though. Instead of just two really good fighters, Pac and Mayweather, you had a whole slew of them and they all fought each other over a decade. ****, these two guys can't even get one fight going. If only it was still like that today. Ahhh well, we can dream can't we? As to the resume question.... I don't know. It's a hard one. Duran has more wins over consistently better opposition in general, but then Leonard makes up for it with those wins over Hearns, Benitez and Hagler. Duran has the big win when both were in their prime, more or less, over Leonard himself who was quite a bit bigger and fresher. His only prime loss. Then he quit in the rematch?! Dunno.

And if you really think Duran beating Leonard is much greater equivalent then anybody beating Floyd then you are an idiot.Leonard had nowhere near the skill level of Floyd jnr.And floyd is a 8 time champ in 5 weight classes and beat numerous HOF`ers.


Floyd and Pacquiao are not the only 2 really good fighters of this era,Juan Manuel Marquez,Andre Ward,Bernard Hopkins and Oscar Dela Hoya(who retired 5 years ago) is of this era and are great.

[New England]

That's a great response,,, thank you for explaining your choice,,,,

I still favor SRL just because of his greatest wins, trumps durans greatest wins....

Beating Benitez when he was a legit p4p 1 or 2 and beating the monster of undefeated hearns,,,, Those are 2 of the greatest wins ever,,,

I do respect your opinion,, it was well-laid out,,,

i guess we will just agree to disagree,,,

sounds good, homie.

[New England]

And if you really think Duran beating Leonard is much greater equivalent then anybody beating Floyd then you are an idiot.Leonard had nowhere near the skill level of Floyd jnr.And floyd is a 8 time champ in 5 weight classes and beat numerous HOF`ers.


Floyd and Pacquiao are not the only 2 really good fighters of this era,Juan Manuel Marquez,Andre Ward,Bernard Hopkins and Oscar Dela Hoya(who retired 5 years ago) is of this era and are great.

i can assure you that benny is not an idiot, and duran beating leonard is greater than beating floyd or manny would have been. both floyd and manny topped out at 147. leonard was a robust 147 lber with punching power. he was a WW from the very beginning of his career.

ray leonard is without a doubt one of the top five WW of all time. a lot of people [with opinions that matter] have him behind only robinson and armstrong. floyd and manny are not even close to that level. roberto duran beat leonard at his absolute zenith.

[Russian Crushin]

And if you really think Duran beating Leonard is much greater equivalent then anybody beating Floyd then you are an idiot.Leonard had nowhere near the skill level of Floyd jnr.And floyd is a 8 time champ in 5 weight classes and beat numerous HOF`ers.


Floyd and Pacquiao are not the only 2 really good fighters of this era,Juan Manuel Marquez,Andre Ward,Bernard Hopkins and Oscar Dela Hoya(who retired 5 years ago) is of this era and are great.

You're a complete moron, is this a joke? Duran's win over an absolute prime Leonard is one of the greatest wins in boxing history. Leonard's win over Benitez eclipses anything Floyd has done in his career and that his 4th best win

[BennyST]

And if you really think Duran beating Leonard is much greater equivalent then anybody beating Floyd then you are an idiot.Leonard had nowhere near the skill level of Floyd jnr.And floyd is a 8 time champ in 5 weight classes and beat numerous HOF`ers.


Floyd and Pacquiao are not the only 2 really good fighters of this era,Juan Manuel Marquez,Andre Ward,Bernard Hopkins and Oscar Dela Hoya(who retired 5 years ago) is of this era and are great.

Thanks for playing. You lose.

[LeG00N]

And if you really think Duran beating Leonard is much greater equivalent then anybody beating Floyd then you are an idiot.Leonard had nowhere near the skill level of Floyd jnr.And floyd is a 8 time champ in 5 weight classes and beat numerous HOF`ers.

Jesus christ

[J The UnBiased]

i can assure you that benny is not an idiot, and duran beating leonard is greater than beating floyd or manny would have been. both floyd and manny topped out at 147. leonard was a robust 147 lber with punching power. he was a WW from the very beginning of his career.

ray leonard is without a doubt one of the top five WW of all time. a lot of people [with opinions that matter] have him behind only robinson and armstrong. floyd and manny are not even close to that level. roberto duran beat leonard at his absolute zenith.

Screw that lol, Ray Leonard is the greatest Welter of all time. But outside of resumes and judging off of pure talent in the ring, Mayweather and Pacquiao are definitely top 5 in that division. It's only about 3 fighters in that division that can beat a prime Manny and a Prime Floyd.

[BennyST]

One thing so many boxing fans of today miss are Duran's many underrated wins.

They'll know Leonard, Palomino, DeJesus, Buchanan, Barkley...all HOFers...though Barkley is 3 division world champ, he's not in the Hall.

However, people will never mention, or even know of, wins like Ernesto Marcel. Lineal, undefeated as champ, wins over guys like Alexis Arguello among many others and Duran was the only guy to ever stop him. Better than anyone on Leonard's résumé by a country mile apart from the big four.

Marcel is in the World Boxing HOF and was nominated into the IBHOF a few years ago too. Just one of many great, underrated wins.

Still, its tricky. I'm not sure who I'd choose. Duran has the best single win. Leonard has the greater top heavy wins, but Duran has more excellent wins of really good champions.

Leonard has the greater amount of epic wins, so maybe him. I dunno.

Got to throw a shout out to the guy before that talked about Floyd being a greater win than Leonard by a mile. Just an awesome statement.

"Yo dawg! Leonard only has wins over Duran, Hearns, Hagler and Benitez. Dat sucks. Floyd beat Castillo, Oscar and Hatton! Pwn LAMO! Haterzzzz. Floyd dominates!"