Do you think Duran knew he was going to get blown up by Hearns?

Non of that proves your theory though that he was scared of Hearns. As your first paragraphs notes, it can manifest itself in different ways. This is absolutely true, but since we don't actually know for sure, one has to make the best possible or likely guess. Well, in that case, it wouldn't be that he was scared. The way he was acting was more indicative of NOT being scared than it was too be scared. Most people do complete opposite things when they are scared than the way Duran acted. As you say, sure one could still be scared and act that way, but that isn't typical nor likely. When I don' know something for sure, I tend to go with what is most likely.

 

If you want to see a scared fighter try watching Spinks before he fought Tyson.. I thought he was going to pee his pants..(well not really but you get the idea)

 

If you want to see someone who definitely wasn't scared of Hearns, check out the Benitez staredown:

https://streamable.com/3mc8

 

By the same token nothing you put forward proves he wasn't.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. All good.

 

My take on it is kind of in the middle. I think he was nervous simply because he knew the never trained properly to win a fight against the caliber of fighter he was about to step into the ring. He also may very well suspected that the ramification of that was getting KO'd. But l don't think he was scared of actually getting hurt.

 

Nice! It is becoming an over used phrase but it applies here, Benitez gave zero f**ks.

 

I absolutely agree. Duran's real fear was to be embarrased, Leonard figured it out.