Posted: 19 Dec 2006, 10:31
Although those fights would have been great surely not as great as whipping Leonard.bennie wrote:Duran licked Mamby, so we'll allow the writer his slip.T.M.K wrote:AMAZON SYNOPSIS: Roberto Duran is a sporting legend. Often called the greatest boxer of all time, he held world titles at four different weights and is the only professional in history to have fought in five different decades
Shame the synopsis writer hadn't ever heard of Saoul Mamby.
Ah well, best wishes
"T.M.K"
I've always believed Duran should have taken part in two memorable battles with Pryor, as opposed to with Leonard. The Panamanian, after his destructive reign at lightweight, would have proved equally destructive at light-welterweight against Pryor in 1980 (when he fought Leonard). Pryor's defence was leaky, and Duran would have feasted: busting him up, wearing him down and stopped him late (13 or 14 rounds). Duran hated movers, remember. Pryor would have suited him.
There would have been a rematch in early 1981, which Duran would have won in about the ninth. Then he should have squeezed his frame down for one more superfight with Arguello (too slow for Duran) and contemplated quitting. He was already in his 30s by 1982 and didn't need to be moving up and fighting much bigger opponents, even though he often performed well.
Indeed, my overriding memory of Duran is his middleweight fight with Barkley in a snowstorm in Atlantic City in 1989. Duran dropped Barkley in the 11th round and, at the bell, the lights come on in the arena and you can see the vast crowd literally hanging off the rafters. Nobody, not even a peak Tyson, could whip a crowd up like Duran in the modern era.