Respected trainer, commentator and fight analyst, Teddy Atlas, once made his prediction for a fight between Panamanian legend Roberto Duran and American superstar Floyd Mayweather.
Duran won titles in four weight divisions, claiming honours at lightweight, welterweight, super-welterweight and middleweight during a 119-fight professional career that spanned between 1968 and 2001.
Meanwhile, Mayweather retired undefeated with an iconic record of 50-0, having ruled at all five weights between super-featherweight and super-welterweight, with his defensive wizardry making him difficult to damage and therefore defeat throughout his time in the ring.
However, on his YouTube channel, Atlas picked out one of Mayweather’s closest shaves when discussing how ‘TBE’ would have fared against Duran, recalling the time he was ran close by Mexico’s José Luis Castillo.
“Floyd had a tough fight with Castillo, a tough fight, two of ‘em.”
“A lot of people thought he [Castillo] won the fight, it was a very close decision. The first one, had some controversy attached to it, tough fight. Everyone’s had a tough fight, I could pick them out of Duran too but I’m saying that, if he [Mayweather] had a tough fight like that with Castillo, OK, Duran is not Castillo.
“I’m not knocking Castillo at all, he is a good, solid guy but he’s not Duran.”
Similarly, Atlas then went on to remember how Duran dealt with an elite boxer in Ken Buchanan back in 1972, when he knocked out the Scotsman to first get his hands on a world title and truly announce himself to the world of boxing.
“It was body work and it was relentlessness [that helped Duran beat Buchanan] and we wouldn’t have beat such a good boxer [without it]. We talk about Mayweather, he was a great boxer, he is a great boxer, well Buchanan was a tremendous boxer and Duran did what he had to do.”
Those two bouts provided Atlas with enough insight into how a match-up between Duran and Mayweather would have unfolded, as he ultimately determined that Duran would have come out on top.
“I’m going to go with Duran pushing the fight, in control and being the boss, a little bit. I’m not saying that Floyd is going to be relegated to just surviving, but a little bit more surviving than fighting and at the end of the day, I’m going to go with Duran by unanimous decision.”
Despite winning just one of his five fights against his fellow ‘four kings’, Mayweather named Duran as the best of the famous quartet, labelling him as ‘the greatest lightweight of all time’. The respect has not always been mutual, with Duran often saying Mayweather would not have survived in his era.
