Top Twenty Welterweights Of All Time

[elmersalsa]

Poor Roberto. Life has been so unfair to him.
The two fights were 5 months apart, not exactly a short time.
Supposedly two and a halfs after that the rematch (whcih everyone knew was going to happen) was official. It was another two and half months before the rematch actually took place.

80 pounds? Now it's up to 80 pounds in two and half months? Wow it keeps getting higher and higher over the years.
That means Duran weighed 147 on June 20, and was up to 227 by early September. Yeah, sure.

The governing bodies only gave him two and a half months to prepare for a title defense? That should have been plenty of time. (Like they would have stripped Roberto Duran of the title if he wanted another month)

When exactly did Duran plan on fighting again anyway?

Duran lost and that's it. Too bad, so sad. (Tyson lost to Douglas and he had no legitimate excuse either.)

Having said that, Duran had enough success in his other fights at welterweight and deserves to be in the Top 20.

watch the documentary.duran ballooned up to 230 before having to start with the dramatically fast weight loss to take off the immense weight gain.they clearly state that he only had 2 and a half months to get down to 147 for the rushed rematch.
nowadays,they would'nt make the rematch until at least 9 months following the first clash.

i agree when you say "too bad" because from that prospective of thought you are heavily implying that a boxer needs to keep himself in a disciplined state of mind throughout the year by staying in at least pretty good shape instead of letting themselves go in between bouts with they're "celebration time fat phases".There is no excuse to be gluttonizing oneself in between bouts.i totally 100% agree with that point.

if i were duran's manager or trainer at that time i would've been kickin his ass to get back in the gym just weeks after the first bout with SRL.It's funny,strange and peculiar how Arcel,Brown and Panama Lewis just carelessly let Duran become a happy hamster without enforcing any discipline onto him in the weeks following the 1st SRL bout.When Duran was let off the leash of proper managerial discipline he was obviously prone to falling into a path of self destruction of sorts which by all means severe gluttony is.

You have to agree though that had Duran been given the proper disciplinary action by his trainers and manager,he would've been much more properly prepared for the rematch.If it was set for march he would've lost the weight much more smoothly and would've been able to have the time needed to adjust his eating habits in enough adequete time,but on the flip side,like i had allready acknowledged of you're post,he really should've kept himself properly disciplined and ready for the sake of the premise to an immediete rematch which he should've been aware that promoters would be catering to leonard's demandfull request.anyway,had he not let himself become a happy hamster and then torture and drain himself down with the crash diet,roberto would've lasted the distance even if leonard were to still clearly have his number on the given night.

even at that,duran still was only slightly trailing until he started obviously seriously running out of gas in the 8th,thus prompting him to take himself out of the fight in the middle of the round.

i think leonard was going to have duran's number anyway even with a 100% version of duran,dont get me wrong,but it would've gone the distance and would've been relatively close.ray would've won though because he knew duran's style alot better by then,but duran still would've proved to be a very tough obstacle to conquor for ray.

i definately think that rating duran between 12 and 15 in WW is definately not overrating "hands of stone".

i would rank Duran around number 5 in LW,just behind B. Leonard,Armstrong,Williams,and Gans.

I think Duran, WELL PREPARED, would have beaten Leonard again in New Orleans and that would have been the END for Sugar Ray. He would have retired after that.

[Zelley]

Nobody who posts here has heard of Tommy Ryan.

That would assume that the posters don't understand the history of boxing.

AS he held the welterweight and middleweight titles, he is one of those rare few greats
that held more than one title . He is in the same company as
Sugar Ray Robinson, Carmen Basilio and Emile Griffith.

[AngryGoon38]

As great as Roberto Duran was, TO ME, he does not belong in the top 20 welterweights of all-time. He ONLY had 8 fights there.

Sugar Ray Leonard, Emile Griffith and Kid Gavilan are definately top 5 in the welterweight division all time. They are too low. They should be ranked higher.

correction.Duran had 10 fights at WW.

Palamino was his 5th fight at WW.

after Palomino,it was....

#6-Zeferino Gonzalaz
#7-Josef Nbuzga
#8-Wellington Wheatley
#9-SRL I
#10-SRL II

Duran decisioning Leonard in bout I,and easily decisioning Palomino,definately secured his spot in being a top 20 WW of all time IMO.