Was Lloyd Honeyghan’s victory over Donald Curry at welterweight a flash in the pan victory?

no excuses needed.

Curry is the more accomplished of the two, no doubt with his defenses but the fact is, his opposition was weak and that includes Starling, McCrory, la Roca....

They were an unimaginative lot with no fire and basically brought in just to lose

it wasnt until Lloyd that he faced a real challenger, strong, well conditioned, and motivated

this does not describe the same fighter who faced Starling otherwise, Starling would have once again been overmatched

 

Lloyd looked impotent to me otherwise, he'd have punched right thru his guard

trust me, Starling was NOTHING!

 

I've seen enough of Starling to know that he was impotent and VERY overrated

 

RUBBISH!

 

Amazing that you are so harsh on Don yet bestow such greatness on Terry Norris whose opposition was routinely former welters who were on the slide (Curry himself, Leonard, Taylor, Blocker, Brown - whoops) as well as a handful of Jr middleweights who were no more inspiring than Curry's opposition, far from it.

We'll never know if Terry would have had 'problems with bigger, more powerful fighters' as, despite ruling over the Jr Middles for nearly seven years and with a talent-laden middleweight division just six pounds away, Norris never ventured out of his comfort zone, preferring to call out smaller fighters like Chavez.

Look. I don't blame him and looking at the state of Terry now, he made the right call. But you need to be fairer when you evaluate other fighters (specifically Curry and Leonard) if you are going to give Norris so much leeway. And you might want to use some of the circumspection you claim the boxing press of the 80s lacked when you say that Terry was some lb for lb great of his era. Had he moved up and beaten a few of the likes of McCallum, Nunn, Toney, Parks, Hopkins, Jackson, McClellan, Kalambay you'd have a case but, as it stands, you're making a leap of faith that those of us who saw faded former welterweight Simon Brown knock him out just aren't prepared to make with you.

 

Can you elaborate on what you saw so much of to know Marlon was impotent?

 

he had no fire. he stood around too long while letting the opponent hit him. rarely initiated an attack

He just stood around with his guard held high. it's a miracle he ever beat Mark Breland

He was a passionless fighter

 

I'm more lenient towards Norris because he defeated so many established fighters

Curry never beat ANY

Count 'em; curry is a four time loser against the reputable elites including Honeyghan, Norris, McCallum, & Nunn

In the first, he was broken down by the raw power & brutality of Lloyd

knocked stiff by the bigger man McCallum. When Mike put the heat on, Curry proved he couldn't overcome an elite and this time, weight was NOT AN ISSUE

so that excuse was gone!

Had another chance vs Nunn and again came up short. Nunn too tall, too big, and too good

Norris had a field day with Don and the second Don became aggressive and tagged him hard, Norris opened up and ended it, proving he could have put The Donald away any time he wanted

Now look at Norris when presented with HIS opportunities: flattened Mugabi in one

overcame the pressure of a big fight when facing the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard, the odds, AND the naysayers

Norris proved his stock in that fight, with a PHD performance, showing a mastery of the sweet science that had to be seen to be believed, on a night that the student became the master and the master got schooled

He made it look easy

several defenses followed and the following year, another brilliant dispatch of fellow speedster Meldrick Taylor, rightful conqueror of of Julio Cesar Chavez

Whereas Julio struggled like crazy and needed help at the last second by a referee, again, Norris made it look easy

make a mistake in the ring against Norris and you're DEAD!!

Donald Curry doesnt have ANY of these kinds of name opponents, no classic battles, his legend a mirage, a product of media hype, his opposition like nameless caricatures in boxing trunks

 

Can't remember where, but I read somewhere Curry saying that he didn't have problems making weight but just hadn't trained much before the fight.

 

The love for Norris here reminds me of a certain poster.

 

His wannabee manager said this -

• Akbar Muhammad said Curry weighed 168 pounds six and one half weeks prior to the fight. Then his grandfather's death caused Curry to lose concentration. "His weight went up to 157, 158. He told me, 'I don't think I can make the weight.' He wanted to pull out of the fight," Muhammad said. "I told him he was a professional and had an obligation to meet."

S.I. - That wasn't surprising since he had burned down from 168 pounds to meet Honeyghan. Curry was not himself because part of him had been left in puddles on the floor of a gym. What remained might easily have been deposited on the floor of the ring in the fifth round, which saw Honeyghan punishingly regain control.

Apparently Curry was 11 pounds over with 10 days to go.

I believe Curry said he'd never before felt weakened from dropping weight but did this time.

 

Yes It was a fluke.

 

Wish I could find where Curry said that the weight wasn't the problem but the poor training. Of course, he could have been meaning that he didn't have trouble making weight per se, but the poor training meant he had this time. His walking around wight was probably quite a bit over 147.

Of course, he did move up directly afterwards. Even Williams, who was a huge WW, avenged his defeat before moving up.