yeah but on this thread the question was who gave him the toughest fight. Is it debatable, and in all honesty what if it were not Duran or Hearns at all? What if it was Benitez? Which could have been. I heard that Ray could not go the post fight celebration because he was so sore.
And what do you base that off? the rematch? A motivated Duran was a level above the short window of a SRL with only 40 fights to his name … A SBW beat a top 3 welter off all time at his best weight .. use perspective my friend
Perspective: He was a teen when he was at 122. A jr. welter just beat the light heavyweight champ then. Leonard intentionally fought aggressively. Duran had trouble with hoxers.
The answer is clearly Duran. Hearns did give him tough fights as well, but Roberto beat him up more and actually won. Though I do score no. 2 to Hearns.
Ray struggled in both fights against Hearns. They were both life and death fights, and their fights were almost a decade apart and several weight divisions apart. That tells me Hearns was a tough match no matter when they fought, or at what weight. In contrast, Ray had an easier time out every time he fought Duran. It wasnt even like Duran dominated in the first fight, i actually thought the first fight was damn competitive, despite the experience gap. Not disputing the win for Duran, just saying it wasn't a dominant victory. The next two fights were clear wins for Leanord. That tells me Leonard learned everything he needed to know about Duran the first time around, and once he did there was no turning back
Duran clearly won the first fight, and more importantly put a hurting on SRL in that fight, much more so than Tommy did in any fight with SRL. So when someone says toughest, often times it has to do with your feeling after the fight. You may get a victory, but if you're hurting/sore... you're likely going to say that was a tough fight. Further, in zero of the fights with Duran did SRL really ever hurt Duran, and certainly no where near how hurt Hearns was at various stages of both fights. Again that plays into your feeling about what the tougher fight was. SRL always knew he could hurt and take Hearns out, he did it once, and almost again the second time. I don't think he ever got the feeling with Duran, and again, that can go towards your feeling about how tough a fight was or will be. I'm sure none of them were walks in the park, but one has a clear victory over the other where he puts a hurting on the guy. The other has a morale victory in that people thought he was winning fight 1 and probably should've won fight no. 2.... None of which in my opinion trumps the former.
Duran was out of shape for the second fight. Even Leonard admits it. Duran won the only fight where they were both in their best condition. Ray had an easier time out, even though he lost? It's also bull**** that the first fight was scored close, almost all the hard punches and best work was by Duran.
He floored him twice in the 2nd fight and clearly won the fight as easy as saying Duran beat SRL in 1 … much more is a over the top for me … cheers KuRuPT oh and McVey I guess I had your quote locked and loaded because it's freggin' hilarious to me !! and welcome back
Well, I already said that I scored it for him as well. Though, imo it wasn't as clear as the Duran win. Remember, Hearns was badly hurt in that fight, a few times. That fight goes another round, SRL likely TKOs him. At no point, in any fight, did SRL ever hurt Duran the way hey hurt Tommy. That matters imo Cheers surf
