Could Duran at his best have been able to get close to PBF and land enough effective shots? Or would Floyd's speed, skill and defense be enough to beat Duran after round 12(or 15)?

Floyd would make things awkward and maybe even close but Duran showed that he was a bigger man, with bigger power.

Problem with Floyd is that he hasn't challenged himself enough against dangerous guys at 147 or 140. He certainly has the talent to hang with one of the best in Duran, but based on evidence Duran would take a decision.

I believe there's a general tendency to underestimate the more modern fighter, but it's clear enough that Mayweather has the pure talent and technique to hang with greats. His defense is better than SRL's or SRR's and that's no exaggeration.

While Mayweather's defense is one of the best I've ever seen, I think at least some of that is also due to the fact that he often tends to be very cautious. Definitely moreso than SRL & SRR.

And his offense probably isn't 1/2 as good as SRL or SRR's and that's no exaggeration either. To beat a guy like Duran it's not enough to have a great defense. You have to be able to put enough on him offensively to back him off. Single potshots from Mayweather aren't nearly enough to do that. I can't see this being any closer than 8-4. And it would likely be wider than that. The rounds might be relatively close, but Duran would always be the busier, harder, more effective puncher.

I see Mayweather fighting much like he did against Baldomir once he sees he can't hurt Duran, which would be early. From then on out, Duran walks him down and wins handily in rounds in a fairly stinky fight.

The reality, of course, is that if Duran and Mayweather fought in the same era, Mayweather would think of every reason imaginable not to fight him. "That guy lost to Esteban De Jesus. There's no point in fighting a guy like that. He's clearly not on my level."

I'm not sure how Floyd would respond to a fight like this. We haven't seen him in with a super accurate guy who could get close and make things really nasty for him at welter. Hell, we didn't see it at 140. Also, I don't think he's active enough to take rounds even when he's having success making Duran miss and countering. Unlike most of Floyd's opponents, Duran will NEVER get discouraged.

Frankly, I don't see how anyone could confidently pick Floyd here.

All the respect in the world for Floyd`s skills but Duran has too much offense and was too ferocious to be denied by one or two leave me alone counterpunches a round. Mayweather would find Duran a difficult target as he moves in.

They were both better in the lighter classes and I think it would be a better fight the lower you go in weight but Mayweather just hasnt challenged himself enough at Welterweight or even jr Welter.

Great phrase. I'll be stealing that one liberally.

That is correct, not to mention quality of opp. SRL and SRR could fight like Floyd but they wouldn't have been as successful.



Bigger? No. Better? Yes.

This is sad and funny but also probably true.

fixed.

As much as I love Floyd Jr, if he was brave enough to take the fight he would find out how hard Duran punches. He should consulte SRL to get a general idea.

The Montreal Duran probably beats the Hatton Floyd
just a feeling

Floyd is actually the bigger man.

Hmmm...

Nicely put.

Floyd has never had to sell out entirely and risk being seriously hurt to win a fight. It's not saying he couldn't, but Duran would swarm him in a ferocious manner. In addition to having great accuracy and power, if nothing was open, Roberto would hit arms, shoulders, elbows, whatever he could. Floyd's success is predicated upon enough spacing to counterpunch, roll and reset. Duran would be on him constantly for 12 or 15 rounds. Floyd would not stand a chance without seriously letting his hands go, which begs the question, would Floyd's hands hold up?

As much as I don't like to say it, Mayweather is a truly great fighter (who has sold himself short cherry-picking, in recent times), & truly great fighters have a way of stepping up when the heat is on.

Mayweather would, but he doesn't have the output or power to deal with Duran for a complete fight. It'd get real nasty, starting around the ninth or tenth, IMO. Before that, I think he'd have more success than many would predict. I don't think he's winning, though --- Duran was too much everything to be denied. He stops Mayweather late-on, IMO.

Who? Duran? The guy that got beat by Esteban DeJesus, and was knocked down by him twice, that Duran?

Don't you feel an impending sense of foolishness saying that? No sarcasm, in all sincerity. Look at his entire career. You don't think your response speaks to a rather limited scope?

You need some work on picking up jokes and sarcasm.

I think until we see Floyd lose, this is extremely tough to call.

Is Duran better than Castillo, you'd have to say 'yes' but does that mean he would beat Mayweather? Is Mayweather better than De Jesus? (man of the moment in this thread)

Both guys are elite, no doubt. It's a fight that would come down to tactics and (to date) could simply be who was better on the day.

Don't know where to start with this one. Is Duran better than Castillo? By a country mile. He was faster, stronger, had better defense, hit harder, threw more punches. Castillo was a broke man's Duran.

Was Mayweather better than DeJesus. P4P yes. As a lightweight, I don't think he proved he was better. Mayweather's body of work at lightweight is really Castillo and two gimmies. The real question is did Mayweather fight in a style similar to DeJesus. And the answer is that at lightweight and Welterweight he wasn't very similar to DeJesus at all. I also think DeJesus hit harder.

And whereas Castillo was close with Mayweather in both fights, DeJesus had one win in a fight where Duran was underprepared and was then knocked out twice.

When Duran was at his best and properly trained he showed that he was clearly the better man. Since we are talking about both men in their primes I think it's safe to say that we'd see the Duran from the 2nd and 3rd DeJesus fights.

I think this fight would ultimately play out much like the Castillo fights, only Duran would be swarming and beating up Mayweather from the opening bell. After round six I see Mayweather using his legs more than his fists. Mayweather would try to suck all of the drama and fight out of the fight and land enough clean potshots to take a decision. But Duran would be so much busier he'd win the vast majority of the rounds. There'd be plenty of close rounds, but at the end of the day, Duran would be so much busier (and while I imaging Floyd might be more accurate, Duran would land plenty of clean punches himself) that the close rounds would almost certainly be scored in his favor.

I don't see Floyd making this any closer than 8-4 Duran if it's a 12 round fight.

I still think it comes down to tactics on the day and I still think we need to see Floyd lose to know the style it takes to beat him.

Until now, Floyd has always done enough to win, we haven't seen him have to try to pull out a win, We haven't seen him pushed to his limit (I don't believe.)

I think that's a huge misconception in the boxing world, but even so, I think we did see him lose the first time against Castillo.

The more I think about this matchup, the more I would pay to see it. The savagery that Duran inflicted on Leonard would be oh so satisfying to see here. Floyd with a huge mouse under his left eye, bleeding and in a stupor while Duran stepped over the body and beat his chest. I'm fully convinced that Floyd couldn't keep Duran off him at any weight.

I agree. It would take time, but Duran would overwhelm him, & I think people are perhaps under-estimating how seriously Duran could --- IMO, would --- hurt Mayweather.

Best case scenario for Floyd. Lets say he wins some early rounds. He would expend so much energy in doing so. He wouldnt be fighting Duran. He would be fighting Duran off.

Its one thing to fight at the pace Floyd usually does. He is in fine shape to do that for 30 rounds. It totally another to fight at the pace Duran would force.

...& I think Mayweather would respond to that adversity as great fighters do, but only for a time. His game would be elevated to a new height, being in the ring with Duran, & when Mayweather hits top gear, that's no joke. I just can't see it as being enough for a full fight, but he'd have his moments. It'd be ugly by the end, though. One guy would still want it, & the others' heart would have left him.

the more Floyd opens up though the more he is going to get caught with counterpunches himself. He cant afford to not see even one of Duran`s coming. Duran could afford to make some mistakes and get hit some. Mayweather is going to pay a higher price when he makes a mistake.

I just rewatched Duran-Leonard I , and I simply don't see how Mayweather could keep Duran off of him. Mayweather wouldn't punch enough to get Duran's respect. Duran had precision and defense, and would have very much hurt Mayweather with the punches he landed against SRL.

Mayweather may be better (albeit slightly) than SRL, but SRL is lightyears ahead of him in terms of offense (both in terms of output and power).

Duran would own Mayweather. It's simply a matter of Mayweather choosing to survive or go out on his shield. If I had to bet, I'd wager an indisputable decision by Duran.

I'm with you. I can't concretely decide anything because I just don't know what Floyd is capable of. I can see a lot of what was posted being the outcome but it really doesn't settle it definitively for me.

Wow, really? You think he might have super powers or something?

You think it takes superpowers to beat Duran?

I think it's funny that you said you don't know what Floyd is capable of. Have you seen him fight before?

Mayweather is absolutely not better than SRL. While Leonard was in his prime at 147, he beat Benitez and Hearns by KO. Mayweather had to eek out two decisions (one of which was pretty controversial) against Jose Luis Castillo, who wasn't nearly the quality of lightweight that Benitez and Hearns were at welter.

Floyd may have better defense at 140 and 147 than Leonard had at 147, but that's debatable. Against inferior competition like the guys Mayweather fought at 140 and 147 (with the possible exeptions of Judah and Hatton, who weren't even close to the caliber of SRL's best Welterweight opponents) Leonard could look untouchable. And against Judah and Hatton, Leonard likely would have looked untouchable too. Hatton wouldn't last 6 rounds IMO and I tend to doubt Judah sees the end of round 6 either.

What isn't debatable is who had the better offense and overall game at 147 - that was pretty clearly SRL.

I thought it was common knowledge that MW has never been pushed to the limit. If a repeated scenario has Duran pushing MW to the limit and stopping him, how can one be so sure? Quite a few people were sure that Hatton could take MW to his limits and actually beat him. MW mopped the floor with him. And I am not equating Hatton to Duran, just saying that people get it wrong, for whatever reason. It's a safe bet to say Duran, I won't argue against it. I just said I'm not so sure. I don't see anything wrong with that, certainly not wrong enough for your smug response.

Actually, many (myself, among them) believe Mayweather was taken to his limit & perhaps actually beyond in appearing to lose to Castillo in their first fight. I do think he lost that fight --- does that not constitute being taken to one's limited?

I know it's just one fight in a career, of course, but I think that fight, even if you thought he edged it, was a boundary-pusher for him.

I had meant to say Mayweather 'might' be slightly better defensively than SRL. That's a big 'might'.

I would never, ever think Mayweather was overall better than SRL.

Floyd was a considerable favorite over Hatton and that fight went exactly as I expected. Not sure what Ricky has to do with anything though. I think May has received a worthy amount of respect in this thread. He's an exceptional fighter but along with his strengths, he has shown limitations and weaknesses even in victory. Like many, I also feel that he lost the first fight with Castillo. I don't care if anybody picks Floyd, though I'd disagree. However, I found it erroneous to suggest that we don't have a pretty solid idea of who and what Floyd is as a fighter.

I don't think he lost to Castillo and I didn't find it to be a boundary pusher except in the sense that it was his closest fight. He takes on the champ for his first fight in the division, maybe underestimated him, maybe fought the wrong fight. The rematch was pretty definitive and we're talking the best version of each man. The limits I am thinking of are more along the lines of stamina, ability to take a punch, fighting when hurt, fighting when hurt badly. MW doesn't even have the resume to give a legit comparison when looking at someone like Duran. Whether he cherry-picked or not, the caliber of fighters from the days of Duran don't even exist. MW hasn't been pushed, nor has he fought that level of opposition. Like I said, I have no argument against anyone's opinions, it's just that I don't feel comfortable with making my own.

Pickled, the fight went exactly as you expected, great. Not everyone on the board thought so and more than just you have posted in this thread. Point being, people are capable of making a prediction that turn's out wrong. MW/Hatton wasn't important, it could have been any fight used to make the point. I'd like to hear your opinions on his weaknesses, I reread through and that isn't something you had mentioned before. That is fine if you find my opinion erroneous, I would have appreciated something to the effect of your last sentence to say so.

When I spoke of his limitations, I think we can accurately gauge for example : His punching power, his speed, defensive ability, offensive ability. He's a very good counterpuncher, who is defensive minded enough that he leaves himself open to being outworked and doesn't have near the same effectiveness leading. He also uses his speed to get away with a few unorthodox and fundamentally unsound moves that could be exploited against better fighters than he's been facing.

I don't think anybody here is doubting his stamina or saying that he's chinny, so I don't think that is really the issue here. If anything, he is getting the benefit of the doubt. Unless you are suggesting that he might inexhaustible or impossible to hurt. It's pretty safe to assume that Duran could both tire him out and hurt him, isn't it?

Felt he fought pretty evenly with Castillo over 24 rounds. Sadly, JLC happened to be the last fighter he fought who was anything close to p4p in his division.

Mayweather was a considerable favorite over Hatton and im not why you are using this fight to make a point. If it is honestly just to say that people make incorrect picks, well certainly. However, in the instances of underdogs winning, it is far less often than they lose.

Mayweather had difficulty landing on Castillo. JLC is severely underrated as a tactician, but he is no Duran. It's is pretty safe to say that Floyd would have a lot of difficulty landing punches against Duran. While anyone will have trouble landing on Floyd, there is no scenario where Duran isn't throwing 2 or 3 times more punches.

I'd give Floyd a better shot at 35 where Roberto was a bit wilder. At 47, Floyd is losing, just a question of how.

Duran pushing and pressuring PBF all night.....PBF would be forced to RUN badly and Duran would get the UD.

140 Duran. 147 Mayweather.

K X P