{"id":298734,"date":"2025-12-04T15:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T15:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/298734\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T15:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T15:07:07","slug":"roberto-duran-says-one-man-stands-alone-as-the-greatest-of-all-time-hes-the-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/298734\/","title":{"rendered":"Roberto Duran says one man stands alone as the greatest of all time: “He’s the best”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roberto Duran<\/a> regularly features on lists of boxing\u2019s all-time greats \u2014 but who does \u201cHands of Stone\u201d pick as his own number one?<\/p>\n

Duran, a natural fighting machine and one of the sport\u2019s most intimidating figures<\/a>, was a force of nature at his peak. Historian Bert Sugar rated him eighth on his famous list of boxing immortals, placing the Panamanian alongside giants such as Muhammad Ali<\/a>, Joe Louis and Henry Armstrong.<\/p>\n

Across an illustrious career, Duran won world titles in four divisions, though many believe his reign at lightweight was his true peak. His dominance at 135lbs is so widely respected that he is frequently cited as the greatest lightweight of all time.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview, YouTube outlet ES News<\/a> asked the boxing legend who would win a fantasy fight between Sugar Ray Robinson<\/a> and Floyd Mayweather Jr<\/a>. Duran did not hesitate.<\/p>\n

\u201cSugar Ray Robinson.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed for a reason, Duran kept it simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the best. [The number one in history?] Sugar Ray Robinson is the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson and Mayweather were separated by several eras, but Duran\u2019s pick is no surprise. Sugar topped Bert Sugar\u2019s own rankings, while ESPN and The Ring have also previously named him the greatest fighter who ever lived.<\/p>\n

Other legends \u2014 including Muhammad Ali<\/a>, Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Leonard \u2014 have spoken in similarly glowing terms. Robinson was singled out from a young age as a special talent, excelling as an amateur before carrying his speed, power and impeccable timing into a professional career that brought world titles at welterweight and middleweight.<\/p>\n

His r\u00e9sum\u00e9 remains loaded with victories over fellow greats such as Jake LaMotta, Carmen Basilio, Kid Gavilan and Rocky Graziano.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roberto Duran regularly features on lists of boxing\u2019s all-time greats \u2014 but who does \u201cHands of Stone\u201d pick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-298734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}