After Duran quit: (11/27/1980): "All that partying after he won in Montreal, and then those midnight snacks even after he was supposed to be back in training," lamented 83-year-old handler Ray Arcel. "His weight got up over 170 and didn't go back down until September. Nevertheless, we had enough training time. That wasn't a problem. By the last 10 days, Duran was fine. He's had to lose a lot of weight many times in his (72-2) career."
Kind of interesting that Brown and reporters had no problem admitting Duran was overweight a week before the first fight... Bob Elliott Jr., “Duran Appears Overweight While Leonard Overtrained,” The Ottawa Citizen, June 13, 1980 The evidence is now in front of the boxing public--Roberto Duran is overweight. And so a week before Duran and Leonard meet in the World Boxing Council welterweight championship bout at Olympic Stadium, Duran has his waist line to worry about in addition to Leonard. “What’s he doing training in woolen long johns and long sleeves,” asked Dundee, as Duran began his daily workout at the Paul Suave Arena, before 1500 paying customers. […] Where is Duran now? Obviously he is over the 147-lb welterweight limit but how much? He’s a couple over,” admitted Brown later before departing to his camp’s downtown headquarters at the Bonaventure Hotel. “But I don’t get what all of the fuss is about, he’ll get down, he has a lot of hard training to do,” said Brown.
Again, as my earlier post asked, is this really something new in the combat sports world? You do realize even after people win or lose, they let the public in on an issue they had during training camp that they didn't mention during the build up of a fight. This a very common practice to continue building up the fight and acting like they are in the best shape of their lives. Repeating it over and over, and then after the fight, even if he won... "yeah guys, I messed up my knee pretty bad, and couldn't gym work 2 weeks before the fight. I don't like making excuses and didn't want the other team to know I might have stamina issues, so I kept quiet about it." Are you telling me you don't see this as happening all the time in various combat sports. This is the first you would've heard of such a thing?
I watched Duran for decades, after he moved to welter and higher he constantly gained weight over 180 to 200. During the Hearns fight listen to Tim Ryan talk about Duran coming down from over 190 pounds. This is common boxing knowledge
Hearns came down from 180. What is the big deal if that is the case. I didn't know Tim Ryan was in Duran's corner.
It's interesting that Duran could put 34 pounds or more and then take off 36+ pounds in 7 months. They should have been using him for Jenny Craig. 70 pounds minimum added and subtracted over 7 months and a few days. 10 plus pounds a month. If 100% accurate the weekly breakdown of his weight would be fascinating. It'd go on substantially faster than it came off.
Was the fact that Duran had to work hard to make weight the first fight common knowledge at the time? Ironic that the first fight gets presented as Duran being at his physical and mental best, despite those documented issues.
I think it's pretty obvious Duran struggled with making weight on a regular basis no matter what division he fought in.
I missed this reply. I think you missed the point. What Arcel says after the fact is pretty much consistent with all the news stories I presented from before the fight (maybe give or take a few pounds). Definitely doesn’t fit the various Duran was in the 180s/190s/200s, Duran didn’t have a good camp, Duran wasn’t in shape or ready for the fight stories. Duran started getting his weight down months before the fight and he was in excellent shape by mid-November. Just like all the articles I quoted said.
This is exactly why I talk about Duran and mention his excuses. It is as though the excuses keep him from losing, yet somehow his fans seem to think the excuses means that somehow he would have won had he not had the excuse. And many of these fights were onesided, so they really take away from the legends who beat him. Benitez,Hearns, Leonard.
So nobody ever comments on a fighter's weight issues or appearance before a fight? People certainly did before the first Leonard-Duran fight, and before some of Duran's later fights. And I think it's meaningful that all of the pre-rematch commentary was completely consistent with what Duran's trainers said immediately after the fight. It's really hard for me to fathom that people around here don't recognize Duran's obvious motivation to make up excuses after the fact. He disgraced and humiliated himself, and for a while it looked like his career as an A-level fighter might have been over. He had to cry and beg for people like Bob Arum to take him seriously again (according to the Bobfather, anyway).
But that's not true though is it. We have Arcel saying after the fight that Duran had trouble making weight and he was looking to postpone the fight. You have Arum's comments about Duran getting out of the pool etc etc. So my point is, trainers and fighters often come up with injuries or issues after the fight that NOBODY knew about prior to the fight. The same people prior to the fight say things like... "I've never been in this good of shape in my life... than after... I couldn't do much sparring or cardio work because I hurt my knee.... Umm Well, how then could you be in the best shape of your life? I'll ask again bud, how you ever seen a situation like the above? If so, and I'm sure you have, why do you put any value on comments prior to a fight? We know often times they'll act like all is okay and everything fine, but come out later and say he suffered an injury or a staph infection etc etc. Which is exactly why I pay little attention to pre fight talk.. could be true... could be bs right?