Damn shame that 2 of the greatest fighters of the last 50 years,..and who competed at the same time, close to the same weight….never fought. Duran would have won. Bigger,..unhurtable.
Arguello vs Chavez is a better question because a case can be made for either winning. Duran was ultimately too dynamic, too quick, and too versatile for both of them.
While it would be an excellent fight, i think Arguello is a bit too slow on his feet to handle Duran. His only real chance would be to land a peach of a right hand, which he's certainly capable of doing. It doesn't have to have the Hitman's force behind it to get the job done.
Arguello is taylor made for Duran. He wouldn't be very competitive, even though he was a great fighter
I don't see this fight as a one way affair. Arguello wasn't a guy that moved a lot to maintain the space he wanted; he did use his feet very well to create the angles that he wanted to do his thing. He kept guys off of him by making them pay on the way in, and not by hitting them with a jab. He would throw the jab to make you move into a place where he could use his left uppercut, then hook to the body. He would put a jab out, then rock his weight back and throw a very hard, short left hook. He would realign his lead foot, put the jab out and use his very effective right uppercut to the body as you tried to get around it. He is more than capable of hurting Duran to the body, with a left hook, not only with a right hand. The biggest factor in this fight would be the price Duran has to pay to get close. If he can close distance at will it will go his way. But if Arguello lands a left uppercut or hook, or a body shot that makes Duran think, to be hesitant coming in, or to stand up straight, then Roberto's evening gets more difficult. That is when the Arguello jab would start to land and it would give Alexis angles for the right hand. Duran was human, even at 135, and Arguello could hurt him to the body with either hand, or with a head shot from either hand. And it doesn't even have to hurt enough to go down, stagger around the ring, whatever. Just hard enough to make him slow down and think.
I think of Chavez as MORE tailor made for Duran than Arguello. Both would lose, but I actually think Alexis gives Duran a tougher fight than JCC would.
Arguello puts up a good fight against Duran in a FOTY candidate, although I see Duran’s craftier defense, nonstop aggression, and ring IQ to be the difference. I think Arguello is capable of landing a perfect right hand that can get Duran’s respect but it won’t be enough to keep him off him. Also worth noting that Duran stopped 2 fighters that beat Arguello as well (Marcel, Fernandez).
