Duran : In My Era, Mayweather Would Have Been Ordinary

[jehoshaphat]

Duran was a better fighter than Hearns and Ray Leonard.
And even when Duran was past his prime, older, slower, and waaay out of his weight class(135), he still won rds at 160 against a prime Hagler.

In the era of same-day weigh-ins when men fought where they really belonged, Duran was a Lightweight 135 lbs. Leonard was 147lbs. Hearns best weight was really 154. Hagler was 160.

135 lb Champ in 1972, Duran's spectacular run culminated in 1980 by going up 12 lbs to 147 and defeating a prime undefeated Sugar Ray Leonard in a 15 rd battle.
Duran was 71 wins and 1 loss (avenged), 55 KOs going into that 1st Ray Leonard fight.


It's unfortunate that people nowadays judge Duran by his high-profile 80s fights when he was past his prime, older, slower, and fatter rather than by his prime through the 1970s at Lightweight.

It's like ignoring a prime Mike Tyson's 80s performances, like it didn't happen, and basing everything you know on his post-prison, past his prime performances instead. That's what ignoramuses do to Duran nowadays...

I don't think people in this thread are basing Duran's career after his lightweight run. Besides, his lightweight run wasn't exactly murderers row. A lot of fighters move up in weight for bigger fish. And Duran didn't go up 12 pounds to fight Leonard. He had already been at welterweight and fought 7 times before the Leonard bout. We are keeping it relevant to Duran's comments and how he linked Mayweather to the fab 4 of his day. So were like...well lets look at it then. Duran fought 4 of his matches against Leonard, Hagler, and Hearns in like a 4 year span. Basically from the ages of 29-32. When would you guess he was out of his prime? Leonard made him quit, Hagler beat him, and Hearns mercilessly KO'd him. Not to mention his loss to Benitez in that span. I'm not trying to discredit Duran for anything but I also always try to be fair, honest, and neutral. I would be very interested in how you figure Duran was a better fighter than Hearns and especially Leonard.