Is Pacquiao this generation’s Roberto Duran?

[Flo_Raiden]

What do you guys think?
Stylistically and skill wise they’re both different but they share a similar career path. Pac was a wild, offensive beast in his younger years, like Duran. Both heavily improved on their skills and defense to become more well rounded. Both also moved up many weight classes and fought the very best fighters, took some bad losses along the way to the point that many didn’t think that they had anymore in the tank. Both were also heavily underestimated and still gave scintillating performances against good fighters even while past their prime.

Pacquiao, I think, has earned the right to be mentioned in the same breathe as other past ATGs such as Roberto Duran. Probably not as great as Duran but pretty damn close.

[YDKSAB12345]

Duran loss all his big fights, except for his first fight with SRL,and he was fighting debutants and dudes with less than 5 fights into his 50+ fights

[Tony Trick-Pony]

What do you guys think?
Stylistically and skill wise they’re both different but they share a similar career path. Pac was a wild, offensive beast in his younger years, like Duran. Both heavily improved on their skills and defense to become more well rounded. Both also moved up many weight classes and fought the very best fighters, took some bad losses along the way to the point that many didn’t think that they had anymore in the tank. Both were also heavily underestimated and still gave scintillating performances against good fighters even while past their prime.

Pacquiao, I think, has earned the right to be mentioned in the same breathe as other past ATGs such as Roberto Duran. Probably not as great as Duran but pretty damn close.

Yeah, I think Manny is on that level at this point. I hoped he would beat Thurman but had serious doubts about it. After he beat Matthysse, I was glad that he had something left and I thought he'd beat Broner because well, it's AB. Haha. However, he went above and beyond my expectations here. Pac is a true legend and showed true heart to take this fight. They are definitely comparable and Manny is the Roberto Duran of the Phillippines. They had a long history but none of them come close to Pac and no Panamanian comes close to Duran. Legends through and through. Cong****, Pac!

[Tony Trick-Pony]

Duran loss all his big fights, except for his first fight with SRL,and he was fighting debutants and dudes with less than 5 fights into his 50+ fights

I think your name should be IDKSAB12345.

[YDKSAB12345]

I think your name should be IDKSAB12345.

explain to me how great he is again?

[Pac=Duran]

What do you guys think?
Stylistically and skill wise they’re both different but they share a similar career path. Pac was a wild, offensive beast in his younger years, like Duran. Both heavily improved on their skills and defense to become more well rounded. Both also moved up many weight classes and fought the very best fighters, took some bad losses along the way to the point that many didn’t think that they had anymore in the tank. Both were also heavily underestimated and still gave scintillating performances against good fighters even while past their prime.

Pacquiao, I think, has earned the right to be mentioned in the same breathe as other past ATGs such as Roberto Duran. Probably not as great as Duran but pretty damn close.

Ahem....

This has been my user name since 2013 btw

[Tony Trick-Pony]

explain to me how great he is again?

I think you should look it up for yourself, man.

However, why is Duran great? I mean, you can't know much about boxing and wonder why people call Duran great. Mayweather ranked him number two pound for pound of all time. Duran's mentioned on most ATG lists. He turned pro at 15 and fought until he was 50 years old and still speaks coherently. Not a dent in the fender. That in itself is impressive. He won the lightweight title(when there were only two) at 21 years of age with a win over Kenny Buchanan who was no slouch by any means. He cleaned out the division and made twelve successful defenses, two of which were KO wins of the only man to beat him to that point, Esteban DeJesus who was a fine fighter himself. Duran unified 135 with the winin the third fight. Then he moved to welter and beat Carlos Palomino who was a very talented fighter. Duran made him look very ordinary in there. Then he beats Leonard in great fight in Montreal and becomes the welter champion. He's pushed into the rematch and then quits in the eighth round which gave all his haters all the fodder they needed from there on out. However, the fight was close before he did so and why did he do it? We'll probably never know.

Nevertheless, he gos on to lose to Benitez in a fight where I'm not sure he was over the Leonard rematch. Nevertheless, props to Benitez. He goes on to destroy former champion Pipino Cuevas and then has a super close fight with Marvin Hagler who was the natural welterweight. Many thought Duran won the fight. Duran gets obliterated by Tommy Hearns who I believe he took too lightly. He did want a rematch however although it never happened. Duran destroys WBA junior middleweight champion Davey Moore(again there were only two recognized titles at the time) and then he goes on to beat Iran Barkley at the age of 37 in a David and Goliath fight where he floors Barkley and takes the middleweight crown, making him a 4-division champion in an era where that meant a lot more than it does now. Beyond that, he fought Hector Camacho in a fight most thought he won but he was robbed of the victory. Camacho then beat down a comebacking Leonard in 5 rounds. Leonard had beaten Duran twice but I think it's a very honest assessment to say the third fight was a track meet and Duran wasn't trying to even go after him that hard at his age at the time. He wanted a good check and got one. Leonard got a nasty cut over his eye in the only meaningful punch of the fight.

Duran fought Vinny Pazienza and I thought definitely won the first fight but was not given the decision. Duran didn't try in the rematch, showing up for a check again. Duran also had losses to Robbie Simms and Kirkland Laing but I suggest you watch them for yourself. I had Duran winning both. Duran fought Jorge Castro twice, splitting a pair of fights with him. Castro was not great but he wasn't a bum either and at Duran's age, that impressed me. Duran even fought William Joppy for the middleweight title at age 48. He didn't fare well but hell, most guys aren't trying to do that at 48.

Duran had his slumps and if you're looking for boxrec greatness, it's not there but I believe Duran actually won a lot of decisions that didn't go his way. And you want to talk about bias commentary. My God. They were never harder on any fighter than they were on post-Leonard Duran. He could never do right. He always looked like crap. He might as well have not even showed up, no matter the opponent. Al Bernstein was the absolute worst. They must have paid him off I swear.

Either way, the only way for you to really know is to watch the man in action. Check out his fights on youtube. He's the best inside fighter of all time. I don't think anyone on here would argue against that. His defense and movement and ring IQ were incredible. Like I say, check him out for yourself. Happy watching!

[Flo_Raiden]

What makes a great fighter is the ability to bounce back even after being on the downslope. No one believed Pacquiao could come back after getting KO’d by JMM or be able to still hang in there with the young fighters at his age. Duran had his share of having his career in doubt but he still went ahead anyways after bad losses to SRL, Benitez, Laing, Hagler, Hearns, etc.

It really does show that having losses doesn’t hurt your legacy as long as you keep moving forward and proving people wrong.

At the end of the day Pacquiao represents everything right about the sport. He has the old school style and mentality to keep wanting to challenge himself and defying the odds.

[Flo_Raiden]

Bump. Incredible how Pac, at this stage of his career, decides to take on a monster like Spence. That already shows why he's an ATG. Win or lose he's already made his mark on the sport as a legend to the sport.

[Left Hook Tua]

Duran loss all his big fights, except for his first fight with SRL,and he was fighting debutants and dudes with less than 5 fights into his 50+ fights

You misspelled IDKSAB