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There will never be another fighter let alone a lightweight like Duran, be it past, present or future with all due respect to previous, current and future greats. His lightweight reign was close to perfect barring one loss at lightweight which he avenged later on in his career twice by stopping Esteban DeJesus. There is a saying in boxing punchers are born and not made. Well, that was the case with Duran, there is a reason he was called Manos de Piedra” (“Hands of Stone”). Thanks to Panamanian boxing writer/broadcaster Alfonso Castillo who coined the nickname Hands of Stone, there would not have been a better and more apt nickname to describe Duran and his fighting style.

Sugar Ray Leonard describes how it felt getting hit by Duran and I quote

He hit me and I tried to turn around to see who else is in this damn ring.

Imagine a natural welterweight of Sugar Ray Leonard’s calibre describing a natural lightweight’s punching power like this. You got to be very special.

Vinny Pazienza described Duran power as following

He hit me the hardest in my career, harder than Roy Jones. In the 2nd fight he hit me with a shot, I didn’t even know where I was, or what i was doing.

And this was Pazienza describing Duran and his punching power when Duran was a 43-year-old. Imagine his power at his peak.

This would attest to Duran’s dominance at lightweight – 12 successful title defenses, never lost a title fight at lightweight, had a record of 62-1 with the only loss to DeJesus, defeated a hall of famer in Ken Buchanan, beat an all-time another great lightweight in Esteban DeJesus twice and many more champions. It was not just the wins, it was the way he was annihilating all those guys, his famous words on Ray Lampkin post-fight after stopping him in the 14th round

I was not in my best condition. Today I sent him to the hospital. Next time I’ll put him in the morgue.

When you are so great and dominant in your weight class, there is nothing left for you to prove anymore and that’s what Duran did, moved up in weight class to test his greatness. Had he spent his entire career at lightweight, he would not be remembered amongst fans the way he is today and not be placed as high in the all-time great list as he is today.

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Moving up in weight-class

This is where Duran dominance started to diminish when he started to compete in higher weight classes and the same can be seen in his performances leading to 15 losses at higher weight classes. He wasn’t the most disciplined fighter, was tough to keep motivating him for every fight yet he was so successful at lightweight because he was way superior to everyone in that weight class and had that power. However he could not get away with that at a higher weight class and that did cost him some strange losses in his career where he was supposed to win, the ones against Leonard in 2nd fight with himself admitting he wasn’t prepared, getting knocked out and stopped by Hearns and getting outboxed on multiple occasions. Still, you could see flashes of brilliance from Duran in certain fights and hence no fighter from any era talks less of Duran greatness because of that losses.

This is what fighters of today’s day and age need to learn, you elevate your legacies by taking on tough competitions irrespective of the losses and in the process, you might even surprise yourself and end up giving an all-time classic which fans would remember for life. He faced Leonard at welterweight in the 1st fight and handed Leonard his 1st ever loss where he showed he was the bigger puncher despite coming up from a lower weight class, his destruction of Moore at junior middleweight and handing Moore his 1st ever loss, against Barkley and winning the middleweight title. This is where Duran achieved his all-time great status.

Roberto Duran once said that he was Mike Tyson way before ‘Iron Mike Tyson’ came along and he was absolutely spot on with the analogy, in fact when Mike Tyson was asked about who his favourite fighter was, this was his reply

Roberto Duran is my favourite fighter. He was not ashamed of being who he was. I related to him as a human being. As my career progressed and people started praising me for being a savage, I knew that being called an animal was the highest praise I could receive from someone in the ring. I was ferocious and fearless, like Duran.

Imagine the entire world knows who Tyson is and were a fan of his style, but he was a fan of Duran, which goes to show the greatness of Duran and how ferocious Duran was inside the ring irrespective of who the opponent was.

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My favourite Duran performance

At lightweight, you could probably pick a bunch of his wins as his best. However, I am going to pick his best performance from higher weight classes because he dared to be great and that’s where the world noticed Duran greatness. So I am going to pick a couple of his performances as my favourite.

1. His performance against Barkley where he won the middleweight title. This performance from Duran is my favourite due to various reasons. First, the fight was an absolute war with most of the damage being inflicted on Barkley and was a treat for fans. Secondly, Duran was 37 years old, far from his best, not at his peak and still was able to put on a performance of a lifetime in his 92nd fight. Also, Barkley was a natural middleweight and yet was put on the canvas by Duran. The fact that Barkley faced guys like James Toney, Hearns and many other greats in his career and still to this day says Duran was the most skilled fighter he ever faced is a testament to Duran’s greatness.
2. His performance against Hagler is also one of my favourites. Even though he lost a UD to Hagler, what he was able to do in that fight was remarkable. Now when we revisit that fight, it should be billed as the Battle of the greatest lightweight against the greatest middleweight. The fact that Duran was just not able to stand his ground but went toe to toe against Hagler at times goes to show how special he was. Also, it was a close fight, in fact till the 13th round, it was Duran who was winning the fight until Hagler took it back in the 14th and 15th as per official scorecards. This shows the greatness of Duran. not only was he competitive against the greatest middleweight of all time but the fight was very close.

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To win titles at welterweight, junior middleweight, and middleweight, stand out amongst the following names of Hearns – Hagler – Leonard and be considered the best out of the fab 4 by many fans and purists, you got to be very special, Duran was exactly that. Let me know your favourite memories of Duran.