What happened to Donald Curry's career?

I think he did lose to Jacquot. Him and Davey Moore would have been another good fight as well.

 

A 1985 fight between Curry and Mugabi would have been AWESOME.

Both were peaking.

Curry had the better skills, but would have had less experience at 154 lbs. and Mugabi was very strong and had awesome power at 154 lbs.

Neither had the effects of their beatings at the hands of Honeyghan and Hagler, respectively.

That said, post Honeyghan jaded Curry did beat Aquino who beat Thomas who beat Mugabi.

And he beat Rossi who beat Aquino and Thomas.

So, in a way, a jaded post McCallum Curry proved to be better than Thomas and a post Hagler jaded Mugabi.

He was smart not to go after Hilton after the McCallum ko. He could have outsped Hilton to a decision, but he could have got caught, too.

It is basically forgotten that Curry did win a version of the 154 lb. title after the McCallum loss.

Other than Jacquot, he didn't really have a "bad loss."

He only lost to very elite fighters other than Jacquot and arguably Honeyghan - McCallum, Nunn and Norris. I am not counting his comeback loss in 1997.

 

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All very valid points....just seconds before losing to barkley ...tommy looked a million bucks .He had been so sharp flamboyant and fast all night he had torn barkleys face to shreds and i do beleive tommy would have had Iran pissing blood all night after those bodyshots...than the curry-mccallum like lapse and one punch kayo.......yet.....yet in retrospect just a year earlier in two others of his best performances tommy had also allowed two equally "big" strong men in Andries and Roldan to short circuit his brain with huge isolated punches....by the time Barkley did it...tommys chin and internal nerves had finally been worn down after so many years of burning the candle at both ends....no.....one cant obviously see curry doing that despite rocking the iron chinned mccallum and demolishing mcrory with two memorable shots.......still i think don would could potentially it...and more than that he could potentially be the first and only guy to "outbox" tommy.....all big ifs but this is a forum...and im fairly confident it could come to pass based on what a shot curry did outboxing nunn and mccallum for very long stretches and twice to starling...i think as a pure boxer curry was one of the very finest in history at his short peak...

 

Yes those are some of the guys i could see him beating if he stayed longer at 154...certainly a hilton fight when matthew was champ would have been a big "B level" mini superfight in 1988 ...Curry beating Mugabi in 1987 when he still had the title woulda been a very big statement as the press rated mugabi v highly.

We often talk of don curry in the mid 1980s, but few mention going into the Hagler fight, and even just after it, KO Boxing Magazine and World boxing magazines had John Mugabi in their top 5 pound for pound

 

A "peak" 160 Curry v kalambay would be a classic boxing match

Like nino larocca ,sumbu would get on his bike

 

Nino larocca was a good fighter but when he stepped into world class territory his European fight background it seems did not prepare him to fight aggressive top ten guys with skills. Good name drop

 

Yes I think you nailed it Tommys thrashing of Barkley in the first 2 and a half rounds was video game-esque.....he was putting on an almighty beating with no seeming thought that the v tough determined hard punching Barkley could hurt him.......it was terrible arrogance.......perhaps Tommy was thinking I took the best Andries and Roldan gave this guys a bum.......he was treating him as such.....both Barkley losses are unfair to Hearns in the respect of his hubris cost him in the first and than he takes the second v seriously but breaks his right hand and nose and fights the last 7 rounds one handed in a terrible gruelling fight no participant deserved to lose.

Yes Tommy had incredible heart, determination and will to win he still got up from Barkleys thunderous right.

Curry seemed to freak out at the sight of his blood in the Honeyghan fight, the swollen eye bothered him against Mccallum and the Nunn and Norris fights he basically quit and took a count when he got gassed.. Its a very harsh sounding indictment considering Don was already shot by than.........don was able to get up off the canvas v hwang, he dealt very well with the rough stuff of rosi....and he endured bald hard headbutts in 3 consecutive fights......but its fair to say he didn't have that tommy/SRL/Hagler kind of will to win and for lack of a better term heart in adversity.........although such a comment to a boxer with over 450 fights sounds incredibly wrong.

 

Kalambay is a another guy I wish had hit his hot streak at a slightly different time......Sumbu's 1987-1989 series over Iran Barkley, the undefeated Herol Graham and Mike Mccallum, and Dewitt and Sims were top level wins and he looked a fantastically mobile fighter who could counter brilliantly,physically strong and determined.....outboxing Graham and Mccallum are considerable feats..add to that a second win over graham and also steve Collins and Kalambay is a guy whose legacy is totally besmirched by the Nunn occurrence which I don't think would happen 9 times out of 10. I still wonder what would actually happen in a boxing match between Nunn and Kalambay.......Nunns perfect victory was an annihilation of sorts

 

That's the annoying thing-most people never saw a prime Curry.
One of the last good efforts of a past his prime Curry was vs Aquino who if nothing else was a VERY strong boxer and Curry dominated him.
Curry was a special boxer for a short period of time. He was 400 and 4 as an amateur.
Barkely would have gotten wreaked if he met a prime Curry.
McCallum fight? That swelling over Curry's eye was a result from a head butt. McCallum wasn't planning anything that lead to the knockout. He was being outboxed.
And a totally shot Curry was giving a prime Norris problems before fading even hurting Norris.

 

Lloyd Honeyghan happened.
Beat him up and ruined him.
McCallum put the nail in the coffin.
After that he was just competing as a second-rater for paper title honours.

 

I don't quite understand this post.

Nearly all, if not all, of Curry's pro fights were televised. I know all of them from his fifth fight on were. Fights one thru four may have been as well.

Everyone who followed boxing back then and had a television saw Curry before his prime, during his prime and after his prime.

He was a very good boxer. But I thought he was greatly overrated by the boxing press back then, most of whom just assumed he was the next Ray Leonard.

To me, the Ray Leonard-Donald Curry situation was kind of similar to the Floyd Mayweather-Broner situation. Many people (and some on HBO) were touting Broner as the next Mayweather until Broner lost.

Back in the 80s, "experts" were tripping all over themselves proclaiming Curry was the next Leonard ... even before Curry scored a win over a rated fighter.

Curry looked excellent beating some very ordinary-to-good welterweights. But he beat a total nobody to win a vacant welterweight belt (and he was floored in the process) and he pretty much lost to the very best he faced. McCrory was his most spectacular win, but Milton was in a similar situation in that many in the boxing press were touting him as the next Tommy Hearns. And McCrory, like Curry, was never as good as the fighters they were often compared to (in Leonard and Hearns).

I don't consider Curry any better than guys like Danny Garcia or Keith Thurman. Very good fighters. But not great fighters.

Asking "what happened" to Curry's career is like asking what happened to Broner's career.

Curry stepped up in competition and he lost. That's what happened to him. If he was a great fighter, he'd have won those fights. He wasn't so he didn't.