I've heard lots of reasons for how and why he faded out quickly. Did Curry have too many amateur fights which caught up to him and wore him down sooner than expected? Was he weight drained? Did he encounter a bad style he couldn't adapt to that night? That was really the best fight Honeyghan fought in his whole career against the top dog at the time, (or so many thought). I was shocked as a kid when I heard the result of this fight. I guess many like myself at the time, had high hopes for him and were looking forward to big potential fights against Hearns and maybe even Hagler. Watching the fight on youtube he looked completely listless and did not get off at all.
To me, on that night, Curry was perfect for Honeyghan. Not sure if he was weight drained or took him lightly, but it doesn't matter, Honeyghan was up for it and no one was standing in his way. I used to like Honeyghan, I liked his style.
It was a mixture of struggling with weight, underestimating Honeyghan, bad training camp, his grandfather passing away, Honeyghan having the right gameplan, and Curry not being mentally prepared to be pushed hard. With all that said I'm one of those that thinks that a highly focused and serious Curry would have been a different story. Curry on a much better night could have beaten Honeyghan IMO.
Honeyghan was never better. He showed the fighter he could have been, his fundamentals were sound that night, he was disciplined, moved well and of course the power would always be there. All too soon though he fell back into being sloppy and ragged he never really fought that well again. Having said that Curry had been struggling to make the weight for a while, maybe his preparation could have been better and he simply underestimated Honeyghan.
It's funny how boxing works isn't it, Honeyghan had a good style against Curry. But against Starling a fighter Curry beat twice, Honeyghan was totally shutdown by Starling and lost in one sided fashion, a case of "styles make fights".
It's very identical with Bernard Hopkins, Jermain Taylor, and Kelly Pavlik. Taylor beats Hopkins twice, Taylor gets beat by Pavlik twice, and Hopkins shuts down Pavlik. Styles do indeed make fights.
Curry wasn't " shot" but he clearly wasn't his best. With Personal issues, training issues ( weight drained) along with overconfidence being major factors in the results of the fight against Honeyghan. Plus Honeyghan fought at his absolute best, it was a recipe for disaster for Curry, and it was.
That's what I love about boxing. That unpredictably about it. By rights, Honeyghan should destroy Starling, but in reality he gets schooled.
Going into the fight Donald Curry was the number one pound for pound fighter in the world .. people were laughing at Ray Leonard for testing the waters and saying he'd come back and fight him ... then he loses in a shocking upset and was never the same again ... I have never seen a fighter drop as fast .. even when Jones lost to Tarver he was older and weight drained and dissipated post whatever he took to blow up to 200 to fight Ruiz and come back down .. Curry lost it in one fight in his prime ... an all time shocker ..
It’s possible that curry wasn’t ideally prepared and struggling with his weight. But I can’t take away the victory from Lloyd Honeyghan. Donald Curry was a true unified champ who was undefeated and in his 20’s and Honeyghan convincingly took him apart
He wasn't shot. A shot fighter wouldn't have gone on to beat guys like Rosi and Aquino - not great fighters, but solidly good ones. He might have been weight-drained, but plenty of fighters have won contests after struggling to make weight. I don't think that one factor all by itself can explain the loss to Honeyghan.
To be honest, I really believed that Donald Curry took Lloyd Honeyghan very lightly, figuring that Honeyghan was just another typical European challenger for him much like Colin Jones was in Jan 1985. Honeyghan sure surprised all of the boxing experts on Sept 27 1986, even at the ring center stare out, I think that he intimidated Curry, who must have felt that this guy is for real and is a very hungry prepared challenger. It was total domination for Honeyghan from start to finish. Curry's mind was solely on getting a chance at World Middleweight Champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler who had an upcoming date with Sugar Ray Leonard on April 6 1987.
There is no way Curry was shot but he was struggling with weight.However this should not distract from the fact Lloyd gave him a good old fashioned thrashing.All these excuses for Curry are used to take credit away from Honeyghan for what is the greatest ever win by a Brit abroad
