What do you personally make of the No Mas fight?

Good post.

Duran is one of my favorite fighters, but I am sick of all the revisionist comments here trying to vindicate Saint Duran.

Truth is Duran screwed up big time, simply like that. He was not professional. He partied hard. He didn't train seriously. He didn't take SRL seriously. He expected this to be Montreal II, but SRL didn't oblige.

I can't stand SRL but seriously, how can we blame a guy for fighting a smart fight? What do we expect? To see SRL standing idle and trading punches with Duran? Seriously?

SRL fought a smart fight. Duran was unable to figure him out, and he quit out of frustration. That's it.

 

I think the fight was fixed.

 

No myth was broke at all. You could have 1 year to prepare for a fight... That doesn't mean you use the year to do so. Duran by his and other admission was out of shape and grossly overweight when he started training camp. It's well documented.

 

Shock horror, it's no surprise to here a fighter come out with a long list of excuses after he his beat. Leonard fought this fight like he should have done the first time around.

 

Leonard became the man and fighter he was the rest of his career, in that fight.

A showboater, and cherry picker. A lot of flash and less substance.

Duran saved us all the dishonor of watching that fight. Leonard was not going to fight Duran, he was going to outfox him, but thereon lies the issue. Boxing is a sport of fighting, not gamesmanship.

Leonard, as great a he was, lost a lot of respect that night. Not so much as Duran perhaps, but neither fighter walked away looking better from it.

 

Complete utter rubbish....

 

A lot of boxing experts have always said that boxing is as much a mental thing as it is physical.

Duran got into Leonard's head before their first bout - Leonard got into Duran's during their second.

 

I watched a live promotion, and the fight was added on closed circuit as an extra attraction.My reaction was that Duran couldn't handle the antics and humiliation from Leonard and just said f*ck it!

 

Utter nonsense!

 

Its my opinion. Your welcome to yours.


Leonard antics were not the moves of a fighter, or a champion.

I would say Leonard came to showboat, and Duran came to fight. And yes, mental games are VERY important. But you have to back it up with the gloves.Like Ali, Like Liston, Like Foreman and like Duran.

Leonard turned less a fighter that night, and more a clown. ( albeit a extremely great fighter as well)
I have less respect for fighters who clown and showboat, it is also the one thing I do not like about Max Baer.

 

I don't think Duran would have quite if he was just being outboxed, I think it was the taunting that made him decide to say **** it. Absent the taunting I think SRL would have won by decision and the fight would have went the distance. But, while there are no excuses as to why Duran lost, he was not the same fighter as the Montreal Duran, even Leonard said as much.

 

That about sums it up, although if this was still the version of Montreal Duran, he still might have won.

The months and months of partying and having to loose 50lbs prior the fight took it's toll on Duran, and he really didn't want to fight that night. He fought only because he was contracted to do so. And as Leonard himself said, Duran didn't have the same amount of strength and the punches never had the same impact as they did in the first fight.

But that said, it's mostly on him, because he never should have allowed himself to get so out of shape, knowing that a rematch was in the works.

If this alone was the story, Leonard would have won by decision, but the added humiliation of being taunted during the fight, just put him over the top and he finally said I don't what to fight with this clown, which later morphed into "No mas".

And the reason Leonard's till ****ed about this fight to this day, is because he feels he never fully got the credit he deserved for this win, because of the way it ended.

 

Leonard would have taken it over 15 had Duran not quit,yeah. Was fairly close up to Roberto walking,but Leonard was always one step ahead on that night.

 

That Duran, regardless of how highly esteemed he is in this forum and elsewhere, either:
1. Didn't take the title that seriously, or for that matter, his role as a fighter...to prepare diligently for a title defense against a formidable in SRL, and no matter if he beat him the first time, he had to deal with him again.
2. If Duran really did overindulge, or whatever way he dissipated himself prior to the fight,...it revealed a ***** in his armor as a fighter and as a champion.
3. If Duran was not in bad shape for the rematch, then his deficit was obviously of a mental/heart nature, as Leonard was definitely on his game and was far more effective and was doing a real number on Duran.