Why is Roberto Duran rated higher than Sugar Ray Leonard?

[richardt]

Leonard also defeated 3 guys who also beat Duran, including Duran. But the greatness of two fighters is not always based on their fights with each other. Duran is easily one of the three best Lightweights ever and Leonard a top 3 Welterweight. I dont have a problem with either guy being rated above the other ATG but they both were ATG's of the highest order. They dont make fighters like that anymore.

[Unknown Champ]

Agreed with that comment

[crold1]

Well, he was the smaller, older, former lightweight and the only fighter to beat prime Leonard, when younger, bigger, prime ATG fighters like Hearns, Benitez and Hagler couldn't. Think about that for a moment.

He'd been fighting for a decade before all of those guys reached their prime and moved up from super bantamweight before becoming lightweight champ and then beating Leonard.

Despite fighting those guys and being famous as part of that group, he's still not of their generation. He's of the generation before and was the fighter of the decade for the 70's as a lightweight, not the 80's as a welterweight and middleweight.

This is what a LOT of people might overlook. Duran was beating guys like Ernesto Marcel while Leonard was entering high school.

[Elroy The Great]

its not based on h2h. its resume vs resume.

srl highlights -
duran 3x
hearns 2x
hagler
benitez

hagler, benitez and hearns 2 were not quality wins and he lost to duran~
(benitez is all hype. bfd 'he was young'. hagler was shot and some say he should have won. hearns rematch was a sham)

outside of hearns 1 and duran 2, what else is there

[Boxing56]

Do people really think Leonard fought 'Duran's fight' in the first? I have never seen Leonard miss so many punches. Duran's defence and slipping was masterful.

[Canelo and GGG]

He literally said Duran can BOX and punch...

He put strong accent on Leonard high level boxing ,sayin Duran is presseure fighter ,ofc his not saying Duran is not skilled or he cant box(that would be heresy).Duran is boxed as good or better then Ray.

[hugh grant]

I would say furan is greater his flame burned brighter for longer inspite of being koed.

Srl only had to perform to high standard for a lesser amount t of yeasrs, whilst Duran was for lon g haul

[Larry the boss]

there is no official list in boxing, just different peoples opinions

[MELLY-MEL...]

duran was so much smaller then all of those guys. p4p was he better then leonard? no way. but greatness wise he's above leonard.

This

[bojangles1987]

Between the win he holds over Leonard (arguably the best win of any fighter ever), his ATG lightweight resume, and the fact he was such a small fighter still winning championships at middleweight, he built a greater career than Leonard.