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| Photo by Chris Cozzone- Courtesy of Fightnews.com |
Showing posts with label Roberto Duran. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roberto Duran. Show all posts
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Roberto Duran Turns 60 Today
Happy Birthday to my all time favorite fighter; Roberto Duran. Hard to believe he turned 60 today. Duran, at his peak was one of the most intimidating fighters to step into the ring. He had a Hall of Fame career and would have been right at home in any of boxing's great decades. There will never be another like him, as far as I'm concerned. Thanks for the memories Roberto! All the best to you.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Roberto Duran Pictures
Roberto Duran Pictures
Roberto Duran Pictures
Roberto Duran Pictures
Roberto Duran Pictures
Roberto Duran Pictures
Roberto Duran Pictures
Roberto Duran Pictures
Roberto Duran Pictures
Roberto Duran Pictures
Roberto Duran Pictures
Roberto Duran Pictures
Friday, February 25, 2011
Roberto Duran
The Boxer Roberto Duran
Roberto Duran Biography - Roberto Duran Pictures
| The Roberto Duran Biography Roberto Durán Samaniego was born June 16th 1951 in Guarare, Panama. Roberto Duran is a former professional boxer known for all his fights. Roberto Duran Boxing Record | |
| | Roberto Duran is a 1 time Undisputed WBA Lightweight Champion, 1 time Undisputed WBC Lightweight Champion, 1 time WBC Welterweight Champion, 1 time WBC Light Middleweight Champion and 1 time WBC Middleweight Champion. Did you know?
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Roberto Duran
Roberto Duran
The unorthodox stanced Panama born Duran retired with a record of 103 Wins, 16 Loss, 69 Knockouts in 2002 at the age of 50. Yes, that’s a five with a zero behind it. Duran was a serious ring mixer who only knew how to punch three ways: hard, fast and often. As a welterweight he beat the incomparable Sugar Ray Leonard before becoming a dominant middleweight.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
What If: Roberto Duran vs Aaron Pryor
By Randy De La O
Debunking a common fallacy…………..
Almost without fail, whenever the subject of both Roberto Duran and Aaron Pryor comes up, Duran is almost always accused of purposely passing over the junior welterweights in order to avoid a showdown with Aaron Pryor. But the truth is when Roberto Duran moved up in weight to fight Edwin Viruet in April of 1978, it was Antonio Cervantes who held the junior welterweight title. Pryor would eventually challenge Cervantes for that title in August of 1980, almost two and a half years after the Duran vs. Viruet fight, stopping Cervantes in the 4th round.
Prior (no pun intended) to winning the title against Cervantes, Aaron Pryor had not fought anyone of any real consequence and certainly no one of Duran’s caliber. At the time of the Duran vs Viruet fight, Aaron Pryor was undefeated in 12 fights with 10 KO’s to his name. A fine record for an up and coming fighter but hardly someone deserving of a fight with Roberto Duran, at least not in that era. Even with an amateur win over Detroit’s Tommy Hearns in 1976, Pryor would not even be an after thought as an opponent for Duran. Pryor’s claim to fame was his 14th round KO over three time champ Alexis Arguello in November of 1982. He would fight Arguello the following year stopping him in the 10th round.
Pryor, a fine fighter with an exciting style peaked with the Arguello fight and never in his career came close to being the type of fighter that Duran was. Pryor had six more fights after the second Arguello fight, all of them against mediocre to average competition.
Roberto Duran was the reigning lightweight champ for almost seven years before moving up in weight and setting his sights on the welterweight crown. Duran ended the 70’s with fights against Viruet, Ezequiel Obando, Monroe Brooks, Jimmy Heair, Carlos Palomino and Zeffie Gonzalez. In the case of Viruet, Heair and Brooks, Duran was fighting better than average competition, and in Palomino’s case he was fighting an outstanding former welterweight champion. In his previous fight earlier that year, Palomino lost the welterweight title to the great Wilfredo Benitez by a 15 round split decision. It was Duran’s win over Carlos Palomino that showed he was a real threat to the welterweights.
So the question remains, who would win?
Physically, they match up well, Pryor standing 5’6” ½ , Duran at 5”7’ a ½ inch taller, but for me this is a no brainer. Duran, a natural lightweight might have lost some of his KO power when he moved up in weight, especially when he moved up to the middleweights, but he would have been right at home as a junior welterweight. Pryor was street tough and aggressive. Duran was feral, savage and primal in his approach. Both fighters could be relentless but Duran had bigger arsenal to draw from. Overall Roberto Duran was a fundamentally better fighter.
Duran was no one hit wonder and his career record will back me up. He is in the top five of almost anyone’s all time great list and certainly in the top ten. Counter punching was the key to defeating Pryor and Duran was a great albeit vastly underrated counter puncher. Duran had angles and was great on the inside. He had too much experience for Pryor. Duran was a well schooled fighter with perhaps the greatest cornermen of all time working in his corner, Ray Arcel and Freddie Brown, Panama Lewis would be in Pryor’s corner. There is no such thing as a sure thing, I know that but I believe Duran had too much going for him.
Duran beat Ken Buchanan to win the WBA World Lightweight Championship at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 1972. In 1980, at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec Duran lifted the welterweight crown from Sugar Ray Leonard in a hard fought and exciting 15 rounds unanimous decision. After the disastrous rematch with Leonard (I can hardly utter the words) and following a dark period in his career, including a 15 round unanimous decision loss to Wilfredo Benitez, Duran rebounded with a win over Pipino Cuevas, winning by a 4th round KO and securing a title fight with junior middleweight Davey Moore. Duran would outclass and out fight the game but overmatched champion Davey Moore in 8 rounds.
Later that year, 1983, Duran would face Marvelous Marvin Hagler for the middleweight title, losing a closer than expected unanimous 12 round decision. It was a fight that brought out all of Duran’s crafty experience. Duran would be knocked out the following year for the first time in his career by fellow legendary fighter Tommy “Hit man” Hearns. For the next several years Duran would have inconsistent success against mostly inferior opponents, including a split decision loss to Marvin Hagler’s half brother Robbie Simms.
In 1989 Duran would once again fight for a world title, facing the ever tough fighter from the Bronx, New York, Iran Barkley in Atlantic City, New Jersey for the WBC Middleweight title. It was a close back and forth fight that saw Duran enduring some great punching by Barkley and drawing upon his experience to knockdown Barkley in the 11th round and securing a split decision win from the judges. This would be Duran’s last great fight.
Aaron Pryor would beat both Antonio Cervantes and Alexis Arguello. The first fight with Arguello was named the fight of the decade by Ring Magazine and is considered one of the classic fights of the 1980’s. Despite fighting many good fighters during his career, in 40 fights in a 14 year career these are the only truly meaningful names on his resume. One, Cervantes, a near great, the other, Arguello, an all time great champion. Juxtaposed against Roberto Duran, whose career records reads like a classic boxing hall of fame roster, Pryor pales in comparison. It’s true that anything can happen in boxing and on any given night any fighter can win or lose, that’s been proven again and again over the years. Still if I had to pick a winner between Duran and Pryor, on their best night, I would pick Duran. When Duran was Duran he was unbeatable.
Roberto Duran's Career Record
Aaron Pryor's Career Record
Debunking a common fallacy…………..
Almost without fail, whenever the subject of both Roberto Duran and Aaron Pryor comes up, Duran is almost always accused of purposely passing over the junior welterweights in order to avoid a showdown with Aaron Pryor. But the truth is when Roberto Duran moved up in weight to fight Edwin Viruet in April of 1978, it was Antonio Cervantes who held the junior welterweight title. Pryor would eventually challenge Cervantes for that title in August of 1980, almost two and a half years after the Duran vs. Viruet fight, stopping Cervantes in the 4th round.
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| Aaron Pryor vs Alexis Arguello 1982 |
Pryor, a fine fighter with an exciting style peaked with the Arguello fight and never in his career came close to being the type of fighter that Duran was. Pryor had six more fights after the second Arguello fight, all of them against mediocre to average competition.
Roberto Duran was the reigning lightweight champ for almost seven years before moving up in weight and setting his sights on the welterweight crown. Duran ended the 70’s with fights against Viruet, Ezequiel Obando, Monroe Brooks, Jimmy Heair, Carlos Palomino and Zeffie Gonzalez. In the case of Viruet, Heair and Brooks, Duran was fighting better than average competition, and in Palomino’s case he was fighting an outstanding former welterweight champion. In his previous fight earlier that year, Palomino lost the welterweight title to the great Wilfredo Benitez by a 15 round split decision. It was Duran’s win over Carlos Palomino that showed he was a real threat to the welterweights.
So the question remains, who would win?
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| Roberto Duran vs Sugar Ray Leonard I 1980 |
Duran was no one hit wonder and his career record will back me up. He is in the top five of almost anyone’s all time great list and certainly in the top ten. Counter punching was the key to defeating Pryor and Duran was a great albeit vastly underrated counter puncher. Duran had angles and was great on the inside. He had too much experience for Pryor. Duran was a well schooled fighter with perhaps the greatest cornermen of all time working in his corner, Ray Arcel and Freddie Brown, Panama Lewis would be in Pryor’s corner. There is no such thing as a sure thing, I know that but I believe Duran had too much going for him.
Duran beat Ken Buchanan to win the WBA World Lightweight Championship at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 1972. In 1980, at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec Duran lifted the welterweight crown from Sugar Ray Leonard in a hard fought and exciting 15 rounds unanimous decision. After the disastrous rematch with Leonard (I can hardly utter the words) and following a dark period in his career, including a 15 round unanimous decision loss to Wilfredo Benitez, Duran rebounded with a win over Pipino Cuevas, winning by a 4th round KO and securing a title fight with junior middleweight Davey Moore. Duran would outclass and out fight the game but overmatched champion Davey Moore in 8 rounds.
Later that year, 1983, Duran would face Marvelous Marvin Hagler for the middleweight title, losing a closer than expected unanimous 12 round decision. It was a fight that brought out all of Duran’s crafty experience. Duran would be knocked out the following year for the first time in his career by fellow legendary fighter Tommy “Hit man” Hearns. For the next several years Duran would have inconsistent success against mostly inferior opponents, including a split decision loss to Marvin Hagler’s half brother Robbie Simms.
In 1989 Duran would once again fight for a world title, facing the ever tough fighter from the Bronx, New York, Iran Barkley in Atlantic City, New Jersey for the WBC Middleweight title. It was a close back and forth fight that saw Duran enduring some great punching by Barkley and drawing upon his experience to knockdown Barkley in the 11th round and securing a split decision win from the judges. This would be Duran’s last great fight.
Aaron Pryor would beat both Antonio Cervantes and Alexis Arguello. The first fight with Arguello was named the fight of the decade by Ring Magazine and is considered one of the classic fights of the 1980’s. Despite fighting many good fighters during his career, in 40 fights in a 14 year career these are the only truly meaningful names on his resume. One, Cervantes, a near great, the other, Arguello, an all time great champion. Juxtaposed against Roberto Duran, whose career records reads like a classic boxing hall of fame roster, Pryor pales in comparison. It’s true that anything can happen in boxing and on any given night any fighter can win or lose, that’s been proven again and again over the years. Still if I had to pick a winner between Duran and Pryor, on their best night, I would pick Duran. When Duran was Duran he was unbeatable.
Roberto Duran's Career Record
Aaron Pryor's Career Record
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Tommy Hearns vs Roberto Duran
By Randy De La O
This fight has always been painful for me to watch. This and Duran v Leonard II are difficult for me. Hearns was at the top of his game that night. This is the fight that convinced Hearns and his people that they could beat Marvin Hagler and maybe on another night he might have beaten him but on the night they fought, Hagler was too much for Hearns plus he was spurred on by the cut. He was afraid the fight might be stopped and it might have. He took matters into his own hands and gave us a classic, both of them did.
Even with his losses and the flaws in his career Roberto Duran is my favorite fighter. Leonard, Hagler and Hearns got him past his best. Duran, a natural lightweight took on the Welters and Middleweights and did pretty damned good all things considered. As far as I'm concerned he's right there with Robinson as the greatest fighter that ever lived. As a lightweight maybe he was the very best. As good as Manny Paquiao seems to be, there is no Leonard, Hagler or Hearns on his resume or in his future. Duran was special.
Even with his losses and the flaws in his career Roberto Duran is my favorite fighter. Leonard, Hagler and Hearns got him past his best. Duran, a natural lightweight took on the Welters and Middleweights and did pretty damned good all things considered. As far as I'm concerned he's right there with Robinson as the greatest fighter that ever lived. As a lightweight maybe he was the very best. As good as Manny Paquiao seems to be, there is no Leonard, Hagler or Hearns on his resume or in his future. Duran was special.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Exclusive Interview With "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler
This interview is from ESPN. Marvin Hagler reflects on his November 10, 1983 title fight with Roberto Duran. Hagler was defending his middleweight title. Roberto Duran was and is my favorite fighter. Hagler is also one of my favorites and this was probably the only time I was looking for Hagler to lose. This was a great technical fight won by Hagler. I also posted a video of the fight in it's entirty. The 1980's was a great era for boxing, especially the middleweights, which, in addition to Hagler and Duran (Duran was actually a lightweight), included Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, former champions Vito Antuofermo and Alan Minter, and to a lesser degree but still hard fighting guys like John "The Beast' Mugabi, Mustafa Hamsho and Juan Roldan. It was a great time to be a boxing fan.
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