Editing Roberto Durán (section)

===Light middleweight and middleweight===
{{main|Wilfred Benítez vs. Roberto Durán|Roberto Durán vs. Kirkland Laing|Roberto Durán vs. José Cuevas|Davey Moore vs. Roberto Durán|Thomas Hearns vs. Roberto Durán|Marvin Hagler vs. Roberto Duran|Iran Barkley vs. Roberto Durán}}

He took some time to recover from that fight and gained even more weight to contend for the [[World Boxing Council|WBC]] [[Light Middleweight]] title, but losing in his first attempt at a championship in that division on January 30, 1982, against [[Wilfred Benítez]] by a 15-round unanimous decision, this after having defeated Nino Gonzalez and [[Luigi Minchillo]], two rated Light Middleweights, both by ten-round decisions in non-title bouts. Durán was also to lose his comeback fight in September 1982 in Detroit. [[Kirkland Laing]], from London, shocked the boxing world, producing the type of display his talents promised yet he so rarely produced, taking the split decision. After being relegated to a 10-round walk out win over Englishman [[Jimmy Batten]] at [[The Battle of the Champions (boxing)|The Battle of The Champions]] in [[Miami]], Durán signed with promoter [[Bob Arum]]. This marked the beginning of a comeback in which he beat former world champion and now hall of famer [[José Cuevas (boxer)|José Cuevas]] via a fourth round knock-out, which earned him a second crack at the light middleweight title, this time against [[World Boxing Association|WBA]] Champion [[Davey Moore (1980s)|Davey Moore]].

The WBA title bout took place at [[Madison Square Garden]] on June 16, 1983, which also happened to be Durán's 32nd birthday. The still inexperienced Moore (12–0) was game through the first three rounds, but by the 4th, Durán said he knew Moore couldn't hurt him, and an onslaught began.<ref name="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1120968/1/index.htm">He That Was Lost Has Been Found, ''Sports Illustrated'', June 27, 1983</ref> The pro-Durán crowd at ringside cheered as Durán relentlessly punished Moore. By the end of the sixth round, Moore's eye had swollen shut and he was floored near the end of the seventh. Finally the fight was stopped in the eighth round as Moore was taking a horrific beating and Durán won his third world title. After the victory, Durán was hoisted up in the air as the crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to a sobbing Durán.<ref name="Boxingfanatics.com">[http://www.boxingfanatics.com/duran2.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080414181800/http://www.boxingfanatics.com/duran2.html|date=April 14, 2008}}</ref>

Durán later fought for the World [[Middleweight]] Championship, meeting [[Marvelous Marvin Hagler]] in Las Vegas on November 10, 1983. During the fight, Duran broke his hand and lost in a very competitive fight that went the full fifteen rounds. After 13 rounds, two of the judges had Durán one point ahead, and the other judge had it even. Hagler fought tenaciously to win the final two rounds and get a unanimous decision victory. The judges' scores were 144–142, 144–143, and 146–145.  Despite the loss, Durán became the second man to take Hagler to a fifteen-round decision ([[Vito Antuofermo]] was the other) and the only one to do so while Hagler was the world champion.

In June 1984, Durán was stripped of his Light Middleweight title when the WBA did not approve of his fight with WBC Champion [[Thomas Hearns|Thomas "Hitman" Hearns]] and took away recognition of Durán as world champion the moment Durán stepped into the ring to box Hearns. Durán again made history in the fight, but this time it was the wrong kind. Hearns dropped Durán twice in the first round and as he rose to his feet after the second knockdown, which ended the round, the former champion did not know where his corner was. Hearns went on to knock Durán down a third time in the second round and the fight was stopped, marking the first time in his career that Durán had been knocked out in a fight (the "No Más" fight was officially recorded as a technical knockout, because Durán quit). Durán then retired for a second time, but changed his mind over a year later, and was back fighting in early 1986.

Durán did not contend another title fight until 1989, but made the shot count when he won the WBC Middleweight title from [[Iran Barkley]] in February. The fight is considered one of Durán's greatest achievements, as the 37-year-old former lightweight champion took the middleweight crown, his fourth title. In a tough, back-and-forth fight, Durán knocked Barkley down in the eleventh round and Durán won a split decision (118–112, 116–112, 113–116). The bout was named the 1989 "Fight of the Year" by ''[[The Ring (magazine)|The Ring]]''.