Duran
One of the greatest lightweights in the history of boxing. Before the first Leonard fight, which he won, he had only one loss in over 60 fights, and that was a ten round non-title fight with Estaban de Jesus right after he dethroned Ken Buchannon for the lightweight title. Duran fought de Jesus twice after that, during de Jesus' prime, and he knocked him out both times.
Duran once knocked a horse down on a bet. He ended the career of one fighter, who was unconscious for an hour after Duran knocked him out. Duran said that man was lucky, and that if he had been hit with a clean shot, he would not have survived. Knockout power in both hands, and extremely skilled defensively. Terrific fighter.
Wikipedia:
regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time. A versatile brawler in the ring, he was nicknamed "Manos de Piedra" ("Stone Fists," although the literal translation is "Hands of Stone") during his career.[1]
In 2002, he was chosen by The Ring to be the 5th greatest fighter of the last 80 years.[2] Bert Sugar rates him as the 8th greatest fighter of all-time and the Associated Press voted Duran as the #1 lightweight of the 20th century.[3] Many even consider him the greatest lightweight of all time. He held world titles at four different weights***8212;lightweight (1972***8211;79), welterweight (1980), light middleweight (1983***8211;84) and middleweight (1989). He was the second boxer to have fought a span of five decades, the first being Jack Johnson.
He finally retired in January 2002 at age 50 (having previously retired in 1998) following a bad car crash in October 2001, with a professional record of 119 fights, 103 wins with 70 KOs. Up until the second Ray Leonard fight, he was trained by legendary boxing trainer Ray Arcel.
Durán is one of the rare men in boxing history to win fights in 5 separate decades. He registered wins in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and the 2000s, putting him in the company of Jack Johnson, who had wins in the 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s and 1930s.
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