{"id":280811,"date":"2025-11-13T02:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/280811\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T02:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:17:08","slug":"roberto-duran-singled-out-one-man-as-his-best-opponent-after-facing-leonard-hagler-and-hearns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/280811\/","title":{"rendered":"Roberto Duran singled out one man as his best opponent after facing Leonard, Hagler and Hearns"},"content":{"rendered":"

With 119 professional fights to his name, Roberto Duran<\/a> had plenty of options when asked to choose the best opponent he ever faced.<\/p>\n

Across a 33-year career that began in 1968, Duran amassed 106 wins and world titles in four weight classes. \u201cManos de Piedra\u201d shared the ring with some of the sport\u2019s greatest names, including Ken Buchanan, Esteban De Jes\u00fas, Sugar Ray Leonard, Wilfred Ben\u00edtez, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Iran Barkley, Vinny Pazienza and H\u00e9ctor Camacho.<\/p>\n

Feared for his ferocity and ruthless artistry, the Panamanian became part of the famed \u201cFabulous Four\u201d or \u201cFour Kings\u201d, alongside Leonard, Hagler and Hearns.<\/a> And from that Hall of Fame group came the opponent Duran still regards as the best of them all when he spoke to The Ring<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say Sugar Ray Leonard because look at what he did in his career after he lost to me. It takes a lot to come back from defeat and Leonard did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s high praise from a man who once had little time for Leonard during their heated rivalry in 1980. In \u201cThe Brawl in Montreal,\u201d Duran dethroned the American star to win the WBC welterweight title.<\/p>\n

But in the New Orleans rematch, \u201cThe Super Fight\u201d, Leonard gained revenge.<\/a> After taunting Duran, particularly in round seven, Leonard\u2019s showboating finally broke the champion\u2019s composure. At 2:44 of round eight, the Panamanian turned away, quit and was believed to have uttered the words \u201cNo Mas\u201d that would forever be associated with the fight. Duran, however, denied ever saying that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With 119 professional fights to his name, Roberto Duran had plenty of options when asked to choose the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-280811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}