Quote Originally Posted by Master View Post
A while back people were saying Duran at lightweight and Manny at welterweight as he proved a better fighter. Now that Manny has had a poor performance suddenly Duran becomes favourite again. Not saying I disagree but Manny has done very well and been consistently great at moving up the weights except for his last performance.

It depends an awful lot on the weight class, IMO. I think at 147, it's a competitive fight. At 135, Duran takes him apart. People who only became familiar with Duran after the Leonard fights really don't appreciate how good he was at 135 and below. IMO, he's one of the few fighters who can realistically be in the discussion for all-time greatest P4P. After his last fight at 135, he was 63-1, with 53 knockouts. His one loss was a decision (Esteban DeJesus) that he had avenged with two knockouts. That was the one fight he'd lost in the first 10 years of his career, and the opposition was stiff, with his winning the lightweight title a week after he turned 21. Duran was just an absolute machine at 135 and below. And 147 and above, and when he was in his 30's, he was "merely" great. But the 70s version of Duran was a whole other thing.