Who beats Roberto Duran ...

[Panamaniac]

Duran vs Whitaker?

...Whitaker has much more of a chance but again Duran would have no respect for his power and would rough up Whitaker. I imagine if they were to fight he would backpedal most of the fight giving Duran problems but he would be able to stop Duran getting on the inside IMO in which would favour Duran massively...

A video clip (see youtube) of Duran vs Bizarro is a good example of how this match-up would go...

[Thread Stealer]

Of the guys I've seen a good amount of film of, I give the best chance to Whitaker, which I consider close to a pick-em fight.

I'd have Mayweather 2nd, although I definitely favor Duran in that matchup.

Then behind that would be Chavez, I guess.

[SBleeder]

I definitely favor Gans to beat Duran. I'd give even odds to Whitaker, and Leonard could have a shot, but I'd favor Duran over Leonard.

[Capaedia]

I am no ******* but I do believe he is the greater fighter and has met the best out there as he was rising, and I dont care what anyone says to diss Manny's 8 division titles from Flyweight up as simply incredible, more than incredible and he fights more like an old timer. I really would have liked to see another guy Floyds size who was a true ATG and to have given us an amazing 3 fight series, I never saw how much was left in Floyds tank as he has never been tested... at least I have never even seen him in a real contest, just walkover after walkover.

His title at 154 was and is a farce. He won it against a punching bag who was coming off a year long lay-off, a brutal domination and knockout by an old man (). To add to that, he had his loaded wraps taken away. (Margarito should've been banned for life, scum of the earth)

To make matters worse, he won the 154 title at 150.

I think Manny is very, very carefully guided. Roach admitted to avoiding Mosley in 2009, the link is right up there.

If he had stayed at the lower weights he would've made much less money but he wouldn't have needed to catch all these fighters at just the right times.

I simply have no idea how on earth ******* came up there, I never swore so not sure what happened there.

Pac_ _ _ _ is censored. Same with Flo_ _

[Rowley]

I've always fancied Benny Leonard to beat Duran, think in terms of ring intelligence there are few tat can match Benny and whilst it make take him a couple of rounds I figure him to work Duran out. Whilst I'd back him to outbox Duran is also worth remembering Benny was capable of going to war and mixing it inside when needed and whilst obviously this is not a tactic to employ against Duran there will be points where it is necessary. Also think he has enough power to stop Roberto taking liberties, Leonard was the only guy to ever stop Welsh so his power should not be readily dismissed.

Would ot be easy as nobody has it easy with Duran at lightweight but think Benny does enough to take a decision.

[joseph5620]

I would favor no one over Duran at lightweight but Pacquiao and Chavez are 50/50 fights

[joseph5620]

I'm saying Duran is a monster Floyd has never met and will not meet, not now. Duran was equally good at defence, I think he rolled with punches better than anyone else in his era and I think he would test Floyds defence more than any Floyd opponent could have, I am talking prime Duran.... I am not a fan of Floyd, you are right about that, but I still rate him as the #2 fighter of his era... because I have eyes and am no fool. BUT I do believe that styles make fights and boxing is far harder to predict head to head than most posters here seem to realise so I acknowledge that I will be wrong sometimes and that may sometimes coincide with you being right, but I do think a KO victory is possible as I dont think Floyd has had the greatest opposition. I reckon #2 in this era akin to being top 20 in many other eras, I am talking pound for pound, not divisions.

No he wasn't. Duran had a good defense but it did not equal Mayweather's.

[GoogleMe]

Mayweather would make a decent fight at 135, I believe so. We haven't seen him against enough high quality opponents at 135 to know. But he had good movement, speed, combinations, chin and power at that weight. But as said, we don't know enough about Mayweather at 135 to judge, I just believe it'd be an awesome fight.

Sweet Pea and Leonard might cause some trouble for him.

[BennyST]

Have you forgoten that a top contender named villomar fernandez gave duran some fits and was able to make duran obviously uncomfortable chasing him during their fight? fernandez was KOed eventually yes, but he was a fighter that resides somewhere below PBF's level.

Have you forgotten, or ever even known, that Fernandez gave everyone he ever fought fits. He beat Alexis Arguello and Howard Davis Jr called him the trickiest, and best, boxer he ever fought in his career.

I think it should also be clarified that giving Duran 'fits' still meant losing every round, getting the absolute bollocks beaten out of him and lasting longer than anyone thought he would, through his incredible toughness and ring savvy, before being knocked out.

It would be a bit like saying Cotto gave Floyd fits....except Cotto did better than Fernandez.

[BennyST]

No he wasn't. Duran had a good defense but it did not equal Mayweather's.

Yeah, and completely different styles of defense. Duran was an offensive fighter with great defense. Mayweather is a defensive fighter with excellent offense. They both base everything off counter punching, but Duran is entirely intent upon destroying his opponent, while Mayweather is intent upon just winning the fight no matter what.

Nonetheless, in Mayweather's most offensive efforts, he got hit quite a lot (probably as much as Duran did in his best defensive fights), as one does when they open up themselves by going for the KO.