8. Roberto Duran (103-16, 70 KO)

Born: June. 16, 1951

 

The race between Chavez and Duran on this list was very close.  Chavez has the better overall record and his ring efforts more consistent, but Duran was a championship level fighter for longer and over more divisions.  Roberto Duran has the appearance of a fighter whose peers can be counted on one hand in terms of skill.  So brilliant does he seem that despite his having one of the most celebrated careers in boxing, 'Hands of Stone' may have underachieved on a journey that sprawled from bantamweight to light-heavyweight and across five decades.

 

Duran was at his terrifying best as a lightweight, ruling the division for nearly seven years.  All but one of his 11 title defences ended in knockout.  'El Cholo' reached his positive peak in winning the WBC welterweight title from Sugar Ray Leonard in 'The Brawl in Montreal' June 20, 1980.  Duran resented the attention gold-medal winner Leonard received because he knew in his heart that he was, by far, the greater fighter.  Duran unleashed his fury over 15 scintillating rounds, and Leonard, stung by the Panamanian’s pre-fight taunts, ignored his boxing skills and fought chest to chest.  Leonard was absolutely primed in 1980 and must therefore list amongst the most formidable fighters pound-for-pound ever to lace up gloves when Duran, two weight divisions above his natural lightweight, proceeded to kick Ray’s arse in perhaps the most brilliant display by a winner and a loser ever seen in the ring.

 

Much is made of the plan adopted by Ray Leonard in that fight but even more is quite rightly made of the astounding marriage of defense and offense conjured by the animal Duran, a pure embodiment of savagery.  Whereas his distant ancestors had been hurricanes, Duran was a tornado, focused, the thinking man’s demon.

 

"Nothing could prepare you for Duran," Ray Leonard would say after their two infamous clashes. "Duran was a fight within itself. Duran was crazed, talented, technical…an extremely good defensive fighter who was very elusive."

 

Duran: "Leonard was shitting his pants."

 

That was who he was. He lived and died by that type of brimming emotion.

 

Because Duran was machismo personified that night, his uttering of "no mas" in the Leonard rematch five months later was beyond comprehension for many.  Though Duran suffered untold humiliation (and losses to Wilfred Benitez and Kirkland Laing in consecutive fights), he was able to pick up the pieces of his career and reputation with wins over Pipino Cuevas and WBA junior middleweight champion Davey Moore and a valiant, but losing, effort against middleweight king Marvellous Marvin Hagler.  Duran was thought to be finished after Thomas Hearns crushed him in two rounds in 1984 but three years later at age 37, Duran amazingly dethroned WBC middleweight champion Iran Barkley with his brain as much as with his brawn.  His powers of career resuscitation inspired some to think a 47-year-old Duran could beat WBA middleweight titlist William Joppy. The third round KO loss proved otherwise.

 

Duran’s career has had many ups and downs but when it comes to greatness, his place is 'set in stone.'