When Keepin' it Real Goes Wrong: Duran vs Leonard 1

This is what A + level fighting looks like ,look at the pace of the fight .Spence, Brook ,Thurman , Pacquiao, Khan, Porter ,Crawford all would have wilted under either man's assault and never heard a decision.

 

On point as usual Mr.R, the fight game has regressed so much in the last 20/25 yes. It's so sad to see what's called championship boxing today. And all across the sport. From Heavy to Fly.

 

To be fair, Duran vs Leonard was a exceptional case where you had two ATGs fighting each other when both were at or close to being in their primes.

Today currently there are some good matchups out there if they can be made. The likes of Golovkin vs Alvarez, Mikey Garcia vs Vasyl Lomachenko and Roman Gonzalez vs Naoya Inoue but obviously they can't be compared to a superfight between two ATGs like Duran and Leonard.

 

Great work! But don't let @KuRuPT read this... "From the opening bell it became clear that Ray intended to slug it out with Duran. Ray was known for his ungodly fast feet and side to side movement. But not here, not tonight, not against this man. Duran had gotten so deeply under Ray's skin that Ray was determined to stand and throw for as long as it took. But Duran was as slick an inside fighter as ever lived. This is what Duran wants and he got Ray just angry enough to give it to him."

 

I believe that was a bullshitz story made up after Ray lost, who didn't Duran curse and provoke before fights in the 1970's?Angelo Dundee was in Leonards corner, did he ever tell Ray to move ,run change tactics? No! They thought that making the smaller guy fight and by pressuring him Duran would run out of gas against the biggest fighter he ever had to go 15 rounds with. I recall Jake LaMotta saying the same thing.

 

I don't remember what Dundee said between rounds, tbh.

But anyway, I agree to an extent. Even though it had been 9 fights and two and a half years since Duran had fought at lightweight, Leonard and his team seemed to think he had size and strength advantages that they could exploit by standing toe to toe and slugging with Duran. But I still don't doubt that the fact that Duran had acted so classlessly to Leonard and his wife made Leonard want to prove his manhood, and maybe led him to stick to the flawed strategy when it should have been apparent that he'd be better off moving more.

 

"From the opening bell it became clear that Ray intended to slug it out with Duran. Ray was known for his ungodly fast feet and side to side movement. But not here, not tonight."

hmmm...really?

https://streamable.com/ypqhg

https://streamable.com/mo1jy

https://streamable.com/y1064

https://streamable.com/2yfah

 

Yep. https://streamable.com/k0a0

 

Contrasted with:

https://streamable.com/9f58 (Hearns)
https://streamable.com/325p (Duran II)
https://streamable.com/uzi1 (Hagler)
https://streamable.com/dcor (Green)
https://streamable.com/2vbr (Geraldo)
https://streamable.com/araq (Mando Muniz)
https://streamable.com/spn4 (Gonzalez)

 

I don't see intent to slug it out and not use movement. This is offensive fighting that we see Wlad utilize, coming forward but not swarming, intent to launch punches from a comfortable distance, not exchange.

Here's the difference. I'm not the one claiming Leonard did not do something. Leonard tried did many things in this fight, and he certainly tried side by side movement and fast foot work. If you claim Leonard did not do something, but you can produce minutes of clips of him doing it, then you are wrong and that's that. More horizontal movement from the Sugar Man:

https://streamable.com/ebmsi


You are ****ing nuts if you think Leonard's plan was to trade punches and not use any sort of movement to escape punishment and control distance. Leonard had a huge reach and height advantage and certainly tried to stalk from range, like I said..he tried many things in this fight. I won't deny any of it.

 

This fits right at home here. https://streamable.com/ypqhg

And this... https://streamable.com/f3hdc

And all this just from Round 1

 

I don't see how "Ray choose to slug it out with Duran" is any less of a strategic misstep than Duran blowing up between fights. Either way the better prepared man won.

 

I agree, unlike the many folks around here who seem unwilling to acknowledge that it was a strategic misstep.