Floyd Mayweather will never win a belt at middleweight because he will never take on an opponent slightly bigger than himself, like Sergio Martinez or Gennady Golovkin. However, Floyd has never had a problem fighting smaller men like Juan Manuel Marquez.
Duran never ducked anybody. His achievements are greater than Floyds. Instead of cherry-picking old faded fighters like Shane Mosley or flawed fighters coming off a loss like Zab Judah, instead of ducking prime lightweights, welterweights and middleweights, Duran was always willing to fight the best boxers in their prime.
Even fighters much bigger than himself like Iran Barkley!
You answered your own question. What are you trying to validate your thinking?
I hate threads that try and validate how great Floyd is or a thread about how he is not as great as a certain fighter.
All I know Floyd is an ATG, one of the best if not arguably the best of his generation. Can he beat past greats, yes, can past great beat him, yes. Does his resume have flaws to it, yes but he is still an ATG
had floyd fought the same guys years earlier it would be a tougher question
he will go down in history with an impressive undefeated record but experts wont ignore the waiting games he played with pac, cotto, mosely, etc (and guys he waited too long for like williams and marg)
Was Duran the best of his era? no! was Duran rated P4P this long? no, was Duran 25-0 in championship fights? no, he was 12-7, Are Hearns, Leonard and Hagler better than all Mayweather's opponents considering the different eras, yes, but 3 fights don't define a carreer, I'm a fan of fighters that are consistent, and I don't believe that Mayweather ducked anyone cuz he was afraid to lose, when Mayweather was coming up he was calling out everyone, prime Mosley, prime Dela Hoya, prime Naseem Hamed, Prime Tszyu, prime Casamayor, they never, and I mean NEVER even tried to mention his name untill they got older and wanted to cash out, had he fought them and beat them, people would've looked at him differently, I think he made up for it by what he's been able to accomplish on the long run though, best P4P fighter in the world for like 12 years, 18 years old champion, fighting and beating top young fighters rather easily at 38, where was Duran or Leonard or Hearns or Hagler at 38, they were all either retired or getting KOed by some bums.
Duran climbed 25 lbs, Mayweather climbed 24 lbs, and at 154 he didn't win the title once by beating Barkley, who already had 4 losses in 29 fights, one by KO to some bum, he won the 154 title 3 times by beating 3 hall of famers. Take that into consideration!
Was Duran the best of his era? no! was Duran rated P4P this long? no, was Duran 25-0 in championship fights? no, he was 12-7, Are Hearns, Leonard and Hagler better than all Mayweather's opponents considering the different eras, yes, but 3 fights don't define a carreer, I'm a fan of fighters that are consistent, and I don't believe that Mayweather ducked anyone cuz he was afraid to lose, when Mayweather was coming up he was calling out everyone, prime Mosley, prime Dela Hoya, prime Naseem Hamed, Prime Tszyu, prime Casamayor, they never, and I mean NEVER even tried to mention his name untill they got older and wanted to cash out, had he fought them and beat them, people would've looked at him differently, I think he made up for it by what he's been able to accomplish on the long run though, best P4P fighter in the world for like 12 years, 18 years old champion, fighting and beating top young fighters rather easily at 38, where was Duran or Leonard or Hearns or Hagler at 38, they were all either retired or getting KOed by some bums.
Duran climbed 25 lbs, Mayweather climbed 24 lbs, and at 154 he didn't win the title once by beating Barkley, who already had 4 losses in 29 fights, one by KO to some bum, he won the 154 title 3 times by beating 3 hall of famers. Take that into consideration!
Duran won the linear middleweight title at 160 against Iran Barkley (no catch weight!!) at age 38.
Duran was a naturally smaller man than Floyd, who started at 130 and is taller with a longer reach. Duran started below 120, his early fights were around the bantam weight limit.
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