Boxing's Best: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Roberto Duran; Present vs. the Past

It’s the quintessential question tossed around by casual fans and devoted pundits alike: “Who would win if...?”

When a fighter proves himself to be a standout in his era, enjoying a dominance that makes it seem as if has no real competition left in his division, then the question arises.

It’s not an unreasonable question, albeit one without an answer. The fight game was based on this question, and to entertain the notion is to imagine an epic fight. It allows fans of both fighters, no matter their age, to engage in a discussion about a common love, and that is worth its weight in gold.

Boxers themselves indulge in this bit of fancy, usually with at least a healthy amount of personal bias. Just ask Floyd Mayweather Jr., who said during HBO’s “24/7”, prior to his bout with Victor Ortiz, that he couldn't be beaten.

And he is not the first fighter to say this.

There have been so many great boxers over the past years that it is hard to quantify their skills and talents in such a way that it can be reduced to a simple matter of math.

The real answer could only come if the fighters could met in the ring.

Since Mayweather is fresh in our mind, it is no surprise that for many fans, he is the yardstick by which the greats of the past are measured.

When someone recently asked me which fighter from the past I thought could beat Floyd Mayweather Jr., the first face that popped into my mind was Roberto Duran.

After two or three minutes of an enjoyable fiction, I began to wonder if I was correct.

Now, I invite you to join the debate as I humbly offer, for your consideration, the fistic fantasy that would be a true “Rock of Ages” kind of fight: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Roberto Duran.

Speed: Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Very few fighters today can honestly boast they possess the kind of speed that puts them beside mythic fighters like Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. can say that, and no one would debate it.

It’s not just speed of hand Floyd possesses; it’s an overall speed, a kind of kinetic swiftness that allows him to be miles away from a counter if he wishes to be. If he’s got the room to move, he can rip off a flurry, and then be behind his man before the sweat hits the canvas.

His reaction time seems to be in perfect unison to his speed, and it allows him to perform the kind of disappearing acts that would make David Copperfield smile.

There really are no questions as to who is faster between Mayweather Jr. and Duran, but the fastest hare doesn’t always win the race.

Duran was capable of bursts of speed that would catch his opponents off guard, as he was able to do in his first epic bout with Sugar Ray Leonard.

Leonard was the faster fighter―as fast a Mayweather Jr., to be sure―but that did not keep Duran from landing several punches in their bout.

Duran conducts the business of boxing in an aggressive style that is terribly unpredictable, swarming with shocking speed for brief periods of time, coming from odd angles. This and his relentless aggression allowed him to find his mark against Sugar Ray many times in their fight, earning him the decision.

Would Duran be able to do the same thing against Mayweather Jr.?

Yes, but to a lesser degree. Ray Leonard and Mayweather Jr. are different fighters stylistically, and Mayweather has based much of his defensive counter-punching style on his blazing speed.

Then again, we’ve never seen Mayweather Jr. pressured like he would be against Duran, so maybe all that speed wouldn’t make as big a difference against an opponent who is so savage and relentless.

But as we don’t really know for this specific instance. We do know that in the fight game, speed kills, and thus this area belongs to Mayweather Jr.

Chin: Roberto Duran

Much the same way that the speed advantage goes to Mayweather Jr., the chin advantage goes to Duran. Granted, Duran didn’t have the chin of Marvin Hagler, but he was awfully close.

Mayweather Jr. fans will cry that we don’t know what his chin is made of because he so rarely gets hit, and they are right.

But he did get rocked by an aging Shane Mosley, and that shot would have only made a fighter like Duran smile.

When a fighter has a strong, reliable chin, they often build their style of fighting around that, much like a fighter will build their style around their speed or power.

The chin of Duran seemed to empower him, fight-by-fight. Duran was bold to the point of being considered almost insane, and much of that was based on his belief that his opponents could not hurt him.

When a fighter finds that his opponent doesn’t possess the power to do him harm, he becomes a very dangerous man. For Duran, who was already dangerous to being with, it almost makes him downright homicidal.

Fast as Mayweather Jr. is, it is highly doubtful that his speed or power would give Duran any reason for pause at all, and that would lead to Duran swarming all over Mayweather Jr. for 12 rounds.

The better chin belongs to Duran.

Power: Duran

Another prize that fighters and trainers hope for is that of teeth-rattling, bone-breaking, rib-cracking power.

While Duran didn’t possess the power of fighters like Marvin Hagler or Thomas Hearns, he and his fists rendered many a man out cold on the canvas. His power remained, even during his later years, as seen in his Fight of the Year with Iran Barkley.

For Mayweather Jr., his power seems to have faded as he added weight. But given his speed and technique, when Mayweather honestly decides to come out of his defensive (and well nigh impenetrable) shell, he hurts his opponents, badly.

Both men hit hard, to be sure. But both men also seem to do the bulk of their heavy work via quantity over sheer blunt-force trauma.

Both men would land their fair share of heavy leather, but I think that a slight advantage would belong to the man they called “Hands of Stone”, Roberto Duran.

Style: Mayweather Jr.

Very few fighters can dance their way through a career that spans over forty fights and never sustain a loss, much less a bump or bruise.

Floyd Mayweather can, and that’s why they call him “The Pretty Boy.”

Many people have spoken about fighters they think can beat Mayweather Jr., as if it is as easy as pouring flour, sugar and eggs into a bowl and from there baking a cake.

If it was that easy, someone would have done it by now.

The fact is, Mayweather Jr. has just about the perfect style of fighting, based on his natural talents and dedication to training. “Hit and not get hit” is the oldest adage in the fight game, and based upon the style of Mayweather Jr., it is clear that he is a firm believer in that wisdom.

Mayweather Jr. has fought some excellent fighters. The fact that he has defeated them all is really astonishing. The fact that he has done so and never ever really been in any kind of trouble at all is simply incredible.

Hitting Mayweather Jr. with anything substantial seems to be about the equivalent of catching lightning in your hand. When the shoe is on the other foot and Mayweather Jr. is of an offensive mind, trying to avoid his punches is like trying to dodge rain in the middle of thunderstorm.

Simply put, his style of defense and counter-punching brilliance is just about the best style ever seen in boxing, and he can still employ both while being totally offensive.

Duran is different, but not enough. For Duran, his style is rapid head movement, ducking high to low, and throwing stones while working to cut the ring off and pin an opponent in the corner.

Duran might be able to pull this off against Mayweather Jr., as once again we’ve never seen him fight someone established who didn’t seem tentative or worried. Against Duran, Mayweather Jr. would see his style tested against a madman who was not the least bit afraid or intimidated by him.

But then again, maybe this wouldn’t work for Duran, especially if the typically defense minded Mayweather Jr. decided the best defense was savage offense. He did so against Arturo Gatti and basically reduced him to a one legged fighter so afraid of the million and one punches coming his way that he had a hard time peeking his head out of his shell.

Mayweather’s style is beautiful and damn near perfect, and as F.X. Toole said, there’s nothing wrong with that kind of pretty in the fight game.

Grit: Duran

This one is all Duran, and easily so.

Roberto Duran is a brutal, almost cataclysmic kind of force in the ring, and his opponents have thrown everything at him, including the kitchen sink, only to see him rise up and keep on coming.

He has had many a tough moment in his fights, and never once did we see him play it safe or abandon his offense-first style. Never mind the “no mass” fight with Leonard; that was the result of frustration and a lack of preparation, something that never happened again.

Duran is the kind of gun-fighter who’d get shot in the knee and gut and keep on coming, simply because you pissed him off.

When it comes to the area of Grit, Duran was chock full of that.

Endurance: Mayweather Jr.

Another reason why Mayweather has never tasted the bitter cup of defeat is because of his dedication to training and endurance.

While other fighters begin to tire in the mid to late rounds, Mayweather comes on strong. He trains to throw punches in high volume, every round, and his feet never seem to tire.

Duran has had some questionable nights when it comes to his preparation, but when he was on, he could go hard for fifteen full rounds.

But smart money is on Mayweather being the fresher fighter, even though he has never seen round thirteen.

Technique: Mayweather Jr.

This one is another easy pick for Mayweather.

Everything Mayweather does in the ring is almost textbook perfect. He has a shockingly solid grasp of the basics, great eyes that never seem to close when the punches are coming, beautiful footwork, Oscar-worthy feints, excellent defense, a very good jab, and so on and so on.

The thing he does the best offensively is string together beautiful combinations that are so flawless and devastating that they look like they were written for a movie screen.

Defensively, almost everything Mayweather does is perfect. In many ways, he has added a few new chapters to the book defensive/counter-punching boxers will read and read again, and he’s done so with a flawless hand.

Duran is the exact opposite. The fact that he gained such success speaks to his desire and hunger for combat, because he made it to the top in spite of himself.

Simply put, he faked a great deal of it until he made it, and he made it on the things he didn’t have to fake: chin, power and grit, not to mention blood lust.  

Intangibles: Duran

There are a few intangibles remaining; questions that only a fight such as this could answer: how would Mayweather handle a fighter of Duran’s style and fearlessness? How would Duran handle a fighter of Mayweather’s speed and defensive ability?

It goes on and on.

But one intangible that looms high above all others is a simple one: How would Mayweather handle being face-to-face with a true maniac?

There has never really been anyone like Roberto Duran. Before his fight with De La Hoya, Mayweather Jr. decided to really wear his black hat down tight above his eyes. He spoke of confrontation, and how he was “all about it.”

Against Duran, he would find someone who’d redefine Mayweather’s definition of confrontation, shockingly so.

For a long time now, Mayweather seems to have perfected his heel persona so well that his opponents seem honestly afraid of him, as seen in the pre-fight press tours with De La Hoya, Ortiz and others. By the time he see’s them in the ring, half his work seems done for him.

If he tried any of those pre-fight intimidation tactics against Duran, he’d likely find himself in a brutal street fight with a man who honestly wanted to kill him.

In the ring, it would be more of the same. There would be no quarter asked by Duran, nor given. He would give Mayweather Jr. no respect, not even when he’d earned it, and he would probably go after him in the parking lot later.

How would Mayweather handle someone that violent, who was not the least bit afraid of him, but in fact, wanted that confrontation with him; wanted it so bad he would never stop coming, never concede the high ground and never give him a moment’s peace?

The intangibles are always a big thing in boxing, and this one—that of being totally and utterly insane with rage—goes to Duran, with plenty to spare.

In Conclusion...

For all of the above reasons, we can see why this would be such an incredible fight.

Honestly, I think in order for Mayweather to make it to the final bell, let alone win, he would have to become a different kind of fighter. Ironically, I think a fifteen round fight would serve Mayweather better than a twelve round fight. He would have to reinvent himself mid-fight, and possibly round-by-round, and in that situation, fifteen rounds is better than twelve.   

If he could manage to do all of that, he could beat Duran.

If he could not, he would probably lose.

But enough of me: what say you?