Future Hall of Fame trainer Emmanuel Steward believes Manny Pacquiao’s recent title runs have displayed more skill than Roberto Duran’s previous weight class exploits.
In an interview with the Examiner’s Michael Marley, Steward first praised Pacquiao’s list of opponents since moving up to lightweight in 2008. Steward states that Pacquiao has not ducked any challengers despite being a natural lightweight.
“I look at Manny as a lightweight and he’s dominating the welterweights and now fighting at junior middleweight. His real weight, his true weight I think is 138 pounds,” Steward explained. “The rest of his pounds they just fill him up. And another thing is that Manny does not dodge anybody. It’s kind of crazy, all that a blown up lightweight has been accomplishing. He’s been responsible for great fights against other great fighters.”
In 1978, Roberto Duran jumped from lightweight to welterweight. Duran had dominated the lightweight division for the majority of the 70s, and now looked to become a superstar. He did just that by scoring wins over Carlos Palomino and Sugar Ray Leonard, both marvelous displays of counterpunching and infighting.
But Emmanuel Steward points out that Pacquiao’s shown more diversity with his skill set during his climb through the weights. He notes that because of Pacquiao’s faster hands and feet, the Filipino champion hasn’t experienced the difficulty Duran encountered when pitted against opponents with good movement.
“Duran went up in weight, sure, but he was different than Manny. Duran was strictly a power puncher and guys who could box and move gave him big problems,” Steward detailed. “This guy [Pacquiao] shows himself to be phenomenal because he can come in at you, take your punch and then clip you with that straight left hand. Manny can catch you coming in. He’s got real hand speed but he also dares you to trade punches with him. He’s got his own rhythm and he’s got that unique quick step. Duran would just walk in, wade into you. Manny can do that but he moves so quickly it’s hard for the opponent to nail him.”
Pacquiao will test his pound for pound abilities again on November 13, when he moves up to a junior middleweight catchweight of 150 pounds against Antonio Margarito.
Roberto Duran competed in five different decades in a career that spanned from 1968-2001. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2007 with a final record of 103-16, 70 KOs.
**********************************************************
Very interesting comments from Steward. You always have to be careful when comparing fighters from different eras. Personally, the deciding factor is always the level of competition, and how the fighter looked against that said competition. And in that regard, Duran hold a distinct edge over the Pacman.
Pacquiao is naturally smaller than Duran, as noted in the fact the Pacman won his first title at flyweight. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll compare their two careers from Pacquiao’s 2008 move to lightweight, and Duran’s 1978 move to welterweight.
When Pacquiao first moved to lightweight, he challenged WBC titlist David Diaz. While tough, Diaz was the weakest titleholder in the division. That was confirmed when Pacquiao gave Diaz a frightful beating. The consensus top fighter was Nate Campbell, who picked up the WBA, IBF and WBO titles when he defeated Juan Diaz in March of 2008. Instead of facing Campbell after dominating David Diaz, Pacquiao left the division without facing his best challenger at the weight.
Later in 2008, Pacquiao shocked many by agreeing to face Oscar De La Hoya at welterweight. Many believed that De La Hoya, a former welterweight champion in the late 90s, would be far too big for Pacquiao. Instead, De La Hoya was utterly destroyed by Pacquiao, who’s faster hands were too much for a De La Hoya that was uncharacteristically lethargic. It was later determined that De La Hoya’s struggled to get down to the 147 limit, and in the process weakened himself severely by fight night. The issue was so bad that De La Hoya’s team used IVs to try to get their fighter rehydrated.
In 2009, Pacquiao had one of the best years of his career when he knocked out Ricky Hatton at 140, and Miguel Cotto at 147. Both were title fights, with the former giving Pacquiao the linear title at junior welterweight, and the latter victory giving the Filipino fighter the WBO welterweight strap. Earlier this year, Pacquiao won a lopsided victory against Joshua Clottey, a solid contender who’s been ranked in the division’s Top 10 for years.
When Duran moved to welterweight in the late 70s, there were skeptics. But that was erased when he outclassed Palomino. Today, many fans who were either too young or not yet born forget how good Palomino was. The Mexican fighter was a very sharp counterpuncher, possessed an exceptional body attack, and was an excellent inside fighter. While not a one-punch knockout artist, Palomino kept his power into the late rounds and scored his best wins (John Stracey, Davey Green, Armando Muniz) via late knockouts. Outside of Leonard, he was the best welterweight of the late 70s, making seven defenses of the WBC welterweight title.
But against the smaller Duran, Palomino was completely befuddled. Duran outpunched him from long-range and on the inside. It was one of the best displays of skill in Duran’s career, and is a win that trumps Pacquiao’s three appearances at welterweight against Miguel Cotto, Oscar De La Hoya and Joshua Clottey. Palomino was a better fighter than each of them at that stage, having two-fisted power compared to De La Hoya and Cotto’s left hook, sharper combinations than that version of De La Hoya, and being physically strong enough not to give ground or become gun-shy against larger or aggressive opponents like Clottey.
Another counter-point to Emmanuel Steward is that an in-shape and focused Duran never just “waded in.” He feinted his way inside to disrupt an opponent’s rhythm and timing. Below, this completely destroyed Palomino’s ability to counter-punch.
Hatton is a very good win on Pacquiao’s resume. Although Hatton had shown signs of slowing down, he was still undefeated at junior welterweight and had kept his title since beating Kostya Tszyu in 2005. Pacquiao took him out quickly, showing how well he could deal with a pressure fighter.
But even if you think any of those fights are on the same level as the Palomino win, Duran’s victory over Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980 makes it a landslide. On any respectable list, Sugar Ray Leonard is at least Top 5 in the history of the welterweight division. Duran was indeed slower than Leonard, but he used his better timing, counterpunching, body work, and feints to negate Leonard’s advantage. The smaller Duran also bullied Leonard on the inside, where Hands of Stone made sure his shorter reach would now become an asset.
After the Leonard win, Duran’s career becomes highly inconsistent. Leonard won the rematch when Duran shockingly quit in the eighth due to frustration with Sugar Ray’s movement. When he moved to junior middleweight, Steward’s criticism of Duran struggling to deal with movement became more apparent when he dropped back to back decision losses to Wilfred Benitez and Kirkland Laing.
He rebounded with two career-extending wins over a faded Pipino Cuevas, and an inexperienced Davey Moore to win the WBA junior middleweight title. Later in his tenure at the weight, Duran would also post a memorable victory over the much bigger Iran Barkley to win the WBC junior middleweight title at 38 years old. However, it must be noted that Duran’s suffered bad losses at this weight. He was blasted out in two rounds by Tommy Hearns. And Hands of Stone was upset by lowly journey man Robbie Sims.
Next month, some additional clarity will come to this comparison when Pacquiao faces Antonio Margarito. Right now, it’s difficult to guage what Margarito has left. He did not look impressive in his last bout, but that did come following more than a year out of the ring. If the Margarito of 2005-2007 shows up, a Pacquiao win would be comparable to Duran’s exciting battle with Iran Barkley.
But there’s still only one fight Pacquiao can win that could make a Roberto Duran comparison valid, and that’s taking on Floyd Mayweather. Is Mayweather as accomplished as Sugar Ray Leonard at welterweight? Emphatically NO. Is Mayweather a Top 5 all-time welterweight? NO! But Floyd Mayweather is one of the most skilled fighters to ever to lace up the gloves, and represents the biggest fight of this era. A victory ensures Pacquiao moves up considerably in all-time rankings, and exactly where would be the fun debate for critics and fans.
Fighters like Pacquiao and Duran are rare, once in a lifetime fighters. Even though these debates are intriguing, let’s also remember to enjoy them while they’re here.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 