Most unbeatable: Floyd at 130, Duran at 135, Pryor at 140, or Roy at 160?

[seemorecizzy]

tough
either floyd or duran
slight edge to floyd
i think roy was more unbeatable at 168

 

[NZA]

tough but i had to go with roy even though i cant honestly evaluate an old school fighter like SRR. who knows, robinson might beat him but that is just way too far before my time

if not roy then i think floyd at 130 is hard to beat, even by arguello. which is crazy since floyd didnt even reach his boxing IQ peak till maybe 147

sadly, the more aggressive crowd pleasing guys, even when ATG, can lose to almost anybody under the right circumstances. this kind of thing has to go to the technical fighters or dudes with ridiculous speed more often than not.

 

[Reggie]

I went with Roy who was basically the perfect fighter at 160. It's hard to see to many people beating him at that weight class at his best.

 

[NormanConnors]

I think Gerald would have gave Roy a run at 160, possibly could have beat him.

 

[Thatrogueassdiaz]

no wrong answers here but I got it roy at 160

 

[Erratic415]

Roy peaked at 168. I don’t pick anyone I’ve seen at 168 to beat him there.

 

[Yuzo]

Roy peaked at 168. I don’t pick anyone I’ve seen at 168 to beat him there.

i thought roberto duran peaked at welterweight. that string of wins he put together over palomino, nsubuga, wheatley, and leonard 1 are the fights i tell people to watch if they want to know how good duran really was.

 

[Erratic415]

i thought roberto duran peaked at welterweight. that string of wins he put together over palomino, nsubuga, wheatley, and leonard 1 are the fights i tell people to watch if they want to know how good duran really was.

It’s an interesting choice. He was obviously among the best p4p fighters ever throughout the 70s and up to 1980. He was up and down above 147 after 1980. Duran obviously ranks the highest historically at 135 compared to the other divisions he competed in, but those other fights you named at 147, he was brilliant.

I think you could make similar arguments for Floyd at 140 and JCC at 135. Floyd’s best performance ever may have been over Chico at 130, but he also looked outstanding at 140, although against lesser opposition. He was a little more experienced and I felt he sat down on his punches more. Chavez might have peaked in his short stay at 135, sandwiched between his longer reigns at 130 and 140. His best performance ever was probably Rosario, which was at 135.

Montreal is one of the greatest performances in boxing history. People often say Leonard fought the wrong fight by being flat footed and brawling it out. It’s true, but doesn’t tell the whole story. Leonard generally fought fairly flat-footed, more aggressive than people think of him as this dancer (Hagler has the opposite thing where ppl think of him as an aggressive brawler, but he was generally a methodical boxer-puncher with a ramrod jab). Leonard changed up his style in the Duran rematch and danced around the ring, and also against Hagler. He boxed a lot flat footed against Benitez, his biggest fight prior to Duran. It’s hard to use the ring when the guy is as good at closing the distance as Duran. Both Duran from the mid 70s to 80’ and Leonard from 1979-82 are two of the best fighters that have ever been captured on film.

I’ve always thought that Duran’s last fight at 135 was one of the best defensive performances ever. Dejesus was an excellent dighter, and he just kept swinging at air. It was a virtuouso display of controlled aggression. Duran was constantly in hitting range yet he would slip Esteban’s shots, and counter him to the body.