IN 1972 he was called ROCKY DURAN... in 2002 he was voted the 5th greatest fighter of the last 80 years. I watched him maul Buchanan for the lightweight title which he won at 21, yet he clearly hit Buchanan with an Andrew Golata type shot to the gonads...

My question is centered on his being considered the 5th greatest in the last 80 years in 2002. Does anyone know the 4 ahead of him ? While he was being called ROCKY where did "hands of stone come". I was not aware that he was such a New York favorite, yet New York had a sizeable Panamanian population that I just don't see visible anymore. Is that ranking justified?

I loved his first mauling of Ray Leonard... Leonard was the prima donna from the Olympics and I loved how Duran mauled his ass... Where does he rank All time in the 100 greatest of the last century? Thanks

the answer to your question is very debatable... so i will answer it like this.... from what i know of the sport.. ive heard many great boxing minds such as bert sugar name roberto duran the greatest lightweight of all times and that is after guys such as pernell whitaker graced the division... for you guys that remember whitaker he dominated lightweight much stronger and had you can argue even more solid opposition than mayweather... that said duran was (shouldnt be an argument) at his very prime and fighting best as a lightweight with his only loss in like 70 sumthing fights if i remember correctly without looking it up coming to a very solid fighter by the last name of dejesus that he would avenge the loss to twice before losing to leonard... when he loss to leonard he was like 70 and 1 having beaten some very strong opposition to that point.. to make a long story short he would move on with his career and fight at weights above his prime and have a good bit of success.. later in his career he would have successes and failures.... where you rate him is very debateable and like any p4p list is up for debate but i could see him ranked 4 behind the likes of only robinson in my mind... to me he is def a top ten all time great no matter how you try to slice it... thats it my opinion on duran the fighter...

the answer to your question is very debatable... so i will answer it like this.... from what i know of the sport.. ive heard many great boxing minds such as bert sugar name roberto duran the greatest lightweight of all times and that is after guys such as pernell whitaker graced the division... for you guys that remember whitaker he dominated lightweight much stronger and had you can argue even more solid opposition than mayweather... that said duran was (shouldnt be an argument) at his very prime and fighting best as a lightweight with his only loss in like 70 sumthing fights if i remember correctly without looking it up coming to a very solid fighter by the last name of dejesus that he would avenge the loss to twice before losing to leonard... when he loss to leonard he was like 70 and 1 having beaten some very strong opposition to that point.. to make a long story short he would move on with his career and fight at weights above his prime and have a good bit of success.. later in his career he would have successes and failures.... where you rate him is very debateable and like any p4p list is up for debate but i could see him ranked 4 behind the likes of only robinson in my mind... to me he is def a top ten all time great no matter how you try to slice it... thats it my opinion on duran the fighter...

He dwarfs Ray Leonard in my view in terms of all time status. He was a modern fighter but had the same number of fights of the old throwbacks such as Robinson. What impressed me most was his win over Iran Barkley... He was great that night. He kicked the shit out of Barkley who was a big middleweight. Now when you talk about guys moving up and facing bigger men, Duran taking on and not only winning but beating up Barkley... flooring him was damned impressive. He was also going on 38 years... Hands of stone definitely one of the greatest of all times. I want to know still who are the 4 guys ranked ahead of him from that 2002 ranking? Anyone?

i guess you have to start by how do you define greatness in a fighter... to me longevity at the elite level is what make fighters truley great and maybe is why i rank certain people higher than most... take larry holmes for instance.. i have no problem saying he is at least top 3 greatest heavy of all time and i dont soley base that off his work from the late 70's and 80's... i base that off his impressive, in my eyes at least, fighting in his mid 40's in the 90's... well same can very well be said for duran... longevity and quality wins at advanced ages when fighters are figured to be done to me is a main key to the greatness of a fighter....