Joe Calzaghe vs. Roberto Duran is a fantasy fight that has been speculated by boxing fans over the years.
Calzaghe is a former long-time super-middleweight ruler, holding world honours at 168lbs for over a decade. He claimed victories over the likes of Mikkel Kessler and Chris Eubank Sr, before then heading to light heavyweight and defeating Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr.
As for Duran, he was a four-division world champion, winning world titles at lightweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight, but did compete as high as 175lba during his legendary career.
He was one of the ‘Four Kings’ alongside Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns, with the group involved in epic battles with one another throughout the 1980s.
One man who has given his take on how a Calzaghe vs. Duran fight may have gone is two-weight world champion Nigel Benn, who held gold at middleweight and super-middleweight in his career.
Speaking to The Sun, Benn revealed that he would have backed the Welshman to have defeated Duran, along with the rest of the ‘Four Kings.’
“Old timers will tell you [Calzaghe] would never have lived with Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler or Tommy ‘Hitman’ Hearns. I disagree — Joe would have beaten them all. How many fighters would love to finish with a record like Joe’s? Outside of Wales, I don’t think he got the recognition he deserved. Forty-six fights unbeaten is a heck of an achievement. I don’t think we will ever see his like again.”
Another fighter that Calzaghe has been linked to over the years is Carl Froch, and some of boxing’s biggest names have already predicted how that may have gone.
