Well you'd certainly have to be Duran hater to this that the No Mas fight is more memorable than is victory over SRL. In my mind they pretty much cancel each other out, which in itself is a shame. One thing about Duran he wasn't a fighter who subscribed to the rule that boxing is about hitting and not getting hit, to him it was let's fight until only one of us is standing.
That's why he was a flawed and struggled against guys who used movement. Not my fault he can't cut the ring apply educated pressure to stop it. Instead he gets frustrated and quits. Not a Duran hater but I dislike his fans who make excuses for every Duran loss.
His statement is wrong, but so is yours. He did use educated pressure and he had one of the best aggressive defenses in recorded history. Leonard was just the better man that day.
Fair enough, a loss is a loss is a loss, but you are singling out one fight out of 119 and extrapolating a bunch of generalities that I don't think exist. I've seen plenty of fights where he's tracked down a fighter and destroyed him. Watch the Pipino Cuevas fight for example or Ken Buchanan fight. You don't compile a record of 103 wins if you can't fight various types of fighters.
I'm bringing it up because it is the topic of this thread. He also struggled with Benitez who beat him and in the SRL rematch because of movement.
That is correct, my statement was based on the comment that Duran would much sooner fight in a phone booth instead of a huge sized ring. But he had excellent defensive. One poster (the Iceman) John Scully said it best, Duran's the only fighter he's seen that if he were in a phone booth and both guys were trying to knock each others head off, he'd not only come out the winner, but he'd look like he wasn't even in a fight. Why? because he had great defensive where he was roll with a punch, or slip it, but not back up, so he was always ready to counter. Angelo Dundee pretty much said the same thing, he said he does a lot of cute thing in there and doesn't get hit nearly as much as my spectators think he does, otherwise he'd look a lot worse after a fight. That and a great chin made him a tough customer.
You can bring it up all you want, all I'm saying is one fight over a 30+ year career doesn't define ANY fighter. You can play all sorts of games along these lines. Yes Benitez beat Duran, and Duran beat both SRL and Moore both of whom beat Benitez. Duran lost to Hearn's and beat Barkley, who beat Hearn's twice. So you can spin this all kinds of ways, but that doesn't change the fact Duran's in most people's top 10 ATG p4p list. Something neither Pac nor Mayweather have a hope in hell of achieving. And finally there's not wrong with getting out boxed by both a prime SRL and a prime Benitez they're both very elite boxers in anyone's books and in the case of Benitez, Duran was fighting far about his natural weight and for that matter there's nothing wrong with losing to Hagler and Hearns either. They too are extremely elite fighters.
Duran expected Leonard to give him another brawl in the second fight like they both did in the first one but Leonard changed his style. Leonard knew that if he fought Duran like he did in the first fight he would be beaten again. So, Leonard boxed him and tried to humiliate him. Duran then got frustrated because he couldn't hit Leonard like he wanted. Finally, he quit before getting more frustrations. That's exactly what happened. However, their third fight was garbage! It should not have happened.
:deal bravo! Too many ppl that don't know what they're talking about on here are discrediting a top 10 Atg. The guy started at 135 and even at 160 after his prime weight and prime years he beat the champ, he beat SRL at his weight class and even though he lost fights like you said he wo many more, the guy was phenomenal and ppl choose 1 fight to discredit his 100+ fight career
Duran went 15 rounds with Marvin Hagler a real middleweight, a great one. Duran was tricked into fighting Leonard in a rematch without time to train. Duran was out of shape, had bad cramps. Duran beat Iran Barkley, who was much bigger than Duran. Barkley knocked Hearns out. Hagler knocked Hearns out. Most don't know it but Duran took the Hearns fight with only two week of training, but he badly needed the money. Duran used to party way too much. If he had been like the Klitschkos and stayed in shape, he would never have lost a fight. Duran was the greatest lightweight ever. Gil Clancy pointed out Duran's great defense. I saw Duran work the speed bag with his head. He jumped rope like I had never seen. I loved his 15 round fights against Esteban De Jesus.................
I read years ago that Leonard was connected with the Gambino family, don't know if it was true, but Vegas back then.....................