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All kidding aside, I must admit that Duran had the type of sublime skill that you just don't see in 2011. The Duran of the Fab 4 rivalry time period was incredible animal to watch. Virtuoso performance after virtuoso performance. Here's a video tribute: :bears: <IFRAME src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zgPbmOnVGkw" frameBorder=0 width=420 height=315 allowfullscreen></IFRAME>
A 2011 guy like Floyd has primitive skills in comparison: <IFRAME src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5dPy_C5tXgc" frameBorder=0 width=420 height=315 allowfullscreen></IFRAME>
Yawn. Here's what Duran did to Leonard in a regulation ring under the standard rules of boxing. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ydUVVT2DPjs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Leonard had a high fever in the first fight. You see what happens when he's "on" Duran gets humiliated.
A clown ring has 43% more surface area. You can't run from Duran with spare room to flaunt your man-attracting slender hips and stick out your frenulum flicking tongue in a boxing ring. Only a clown ring. Fuck Ray Leonard.
No Fuck Duran. He was humiliated and knocked out in 2 rounds by anothe rfighter (doesn't matter that it was hearns) when he was still close to prime. That wasn't happening to Hagler, Leonard, Robinson, Ali or any of the TRUE all time Top 5 greats.
No he wasn't close to his prime you nutter. And it certainly does fucking matter that it was Tommy Hearns.
Sly, Floyd was about 2 good punches by getting KO'd by a 39 year old Shane Mosley. If it had been Tommy Hearns he'd still be sleeping and we'd all have some peace.
Floyd was about 2 good shots from getting KO'd in 2 rounds by a 39 year old Shane Mosley, who by my mathematical calculations is about 1/25th as good as a prime 154lb Thomas Hearns.
Kirkland was a badass. Proper unruly donkey. I wish he'd stayed off the weed a bit and sent it over my way instead.
The Kirkland Duran fought was probably better than anyone Floyd has fought above 135, including old trigger shy Oscar.
Floyd was NO WHERE NEAR close to being KO'd by Mosley. He was just more shaken up than we had ever seen him before. Big difference.
Also Hearns doesn't land the same shot...Tommy wasn't known for throwing an overhand right at close quarters like the one Shane caught Floyd with. No way Floyd gets kncked out in 2 rounds by Hearns...in fact it's unlikely Hearns would stop him at all.
:: You saw a different fight than the one I saw. Must be another Floyd Shane fought. I don't recall Floyd holing on for dear life..even for a second. I remember him firing back almost immediately and putting Shane on the defensive..albeit on unsteady legs.
Bottomline is this: Duran is overrated. Duran nuthuggers are ridiculous. Dude was beaten by Kirkland Laing, destroyed by Hearns, comprehensively outboxed by Benitez, made to quit by Leonard.....yet he's P4P #1 all time according to some.
You tell these scrubs Hut :kidcool: DOOOOOOORAN When they were both on top form and the fight mattered most, Duran basically schooled Leonard.
Sly I luv ya but sometimes your grasp of boxing history reminds me of early rennaisance painters who hadn't grasped how to paint perspective yet. It's all superficially realistic but it's all flat and out of whack. Great fighters often suffer from rapid declines in their ability. Ezzard Charles, Wilfred Benitez, Aaron Pryor, Pernel Whitaker, Roy Jones and on and on and on. Myriad reasons. Can you imagine how infuriating it's gonna be in 40 years time trying to talk sense into some guy telling you Roy Jones is so overrrated because he lost to fucking Glen Johnson? Picture the scene.
Dude..give me more credit. I'm not talking about losses at the end of a person's career when they are obviously shot. I'm talking about losses, in Duran's case that happened BEFORE the Davey moore fight, before he fought Hagler...I'm talking about the "Fab Four" era...when they rivalry was going on. If we want to say that Duran was WASHED UP during the Fab Four rivalry then FINE...don't give Leonard, Hearns or Hagler any credit for beating him then. You can't have it both ways.
Leonard looked like Zab Judah in the Baldomir fight. A punk who doesn't want to fight. Put them in a regulation ring or a 16x16 ring and he gets his ass kicked. Hell, a 100% Duran still would've kicked his ass even in that giant travesty of a ring. Says a lot about both Leonard and Duran that Leonard demanded a 24x24' ring to fight a guy whose best days were at 135.
It's not a case of not giving 'any' credit or giving them full credit, you just have to treat the thing with reasonable nuance. Duran had seriously declined. In the same way Ali had seriously declined by the 70s, Louis had seriously declined by the time he fought Wallcott, Pep after his plane crash, Robinson post retirement, Charles post Wallcott III etc. One thing you can guarantee from me, btw, is that I won't start rewriting Floyd's career and calling him overrated if he declines from this point on. Just like i didn't with Roy's.
