Strangest thing you have seen in a fight

I’m not going to argue with you. It’s only what he told me. And he wasn’t/isnt a person to lie. A hard guy still doing 100 mile bike rides well in to his 70s.
I’ve googled this a bit more and from what I can gather it is extremely rare but possible for the eyeball to be knocked from its socket.
Do you say that it’s physically impossible, then ?

 

And Duran didn’t want Leonard to fight his best game plan in Montreal. He did everything possible to make it a street fight leading up to it. How is that different? He did not say ‘I want you to stick and move and box and I will show you it won’t work against me!’

On the day of the fight in New Orleans, it was Ray Leonard who was seen (by many, including sports writers covering the fight) going out for an early run day of fight before the weigh-in because he was over the limit and needed to shave something off. So he wasn’t at his peak either, I guess — how can you run a few miles day of fight and cut weight for the weigh-in (with no day-before weigh-in then rehydration) and be peak? You cannot.

It’s’ always excuses for Roberto. Oh, he was sick when he lost to DeJesus. Oh, he was fat when he lost to Ray. Oh, he didn’t sleep good in training camp for Wilfred (because they had to lock him up in a prison colony so he wouldn’t go party and eat like a pig). Oh, he didn’t train for all those other losses.

Goldilocks, thy name is Roberto.

People say Ray rushed him to the rematch, but it’s actually (at five months) one of Roberto’s longest times between fights. There’s a thread somewhere with actual links to press reports of when and where Roberto is training, how far out the fight was announced … he had plenty of time to be ready.

And you and others like to use what Ray said about wanting to get Roberto back in the ring because he was partying, YET you never acknowledge what else Leonard said: He went to Hawaii after the first fight. He was thinking about retiring. He woke up after a few days there and went on a run on the beach and felt good and called his guy Mike Trainer and said, ‘Get me Roberto Duran again. I don’t care what the money is, I don’t care about any of the details, make the fight as soon as possible.’

Now did Duran gain 100 pounds in a week after the first fight, lol? Trainer made the call immediately and negotiations for a date, place and purse were underway. If Duran chose to ignore that and play Porky the Pig … that’s a flaw in his character.

 

The optic nerve doesn’t have a bunch of slack. The eye will either bulge out and a fighter will instinctively turn away and push it in, or the nerve would rip and the eye would end up in the floor (sci fi scenario).

 

Roberto Duran was never the same fighter after Montreal, He had climbed the mountain, he was now rich with the accolades pouring in lauding him as the best in the world. oh he had some more incredible moments, but the beast that beat Leonard was never seen again.

 

I wouldn’t argue that it’s a flaw of his. He did his magnum opus ie beat the bigger younger stronger champion and was clearly listless in the rematch.
If you see the interviews with Howard Cosell not long after the fight Duran has already packed on the pounds.
Leonard was one of the best thinkers in the ring ever and he couldn’t touch Montreal Duran.
There are even interviews of him admitting Duran stopped him from doing what he wanted to do. So it wasn’t like he admitted he fought the wrong fight or whatever, he couldn’t do what he wanted to do because he was up against a better boxer.
Leonard was outboxed from the outside, outfought on the inside, out swaggered and outmanned.
Yet you seem to be pushing the Leonard defence league policy of, ‘well if only Ray had danced a bit in Montreal he would have won easy’
Well why didn’t he then?
He tried to do that and got feinted in to defeat by the superior fighter.

 

I read the same. Not much slack. Sounds like it’s possible though however rare. So maybe not BS

 

Nah, I’m making no excuses for Leonard losing in Montreal.

He lost fair and square, just as Roberto did in New Orleans.

I’m saying if we’re going to give Roberto a pass for his (quitting) loss like many do because, as the narrative goes, ‘he didn’t want to fight Roberto at his best,’ then why not do the same for Ray since Roberto did not want Leonard fighting his best game plan in Montreal — he wanted a scrap and did everything he could going intothe fight to lure Leonard into one. So why one and not the other.

Only Duran and Tyson get the Goldilocks treatment (“loss doesn’t count because he wasn’t ’just right’” lol) and it’s puzzling to me.

Go back and look at the Montreal fight. Duran won but it’s closer than most remember. Ray finished stronger (Emanuel Steward remarked on this) and closed the gap a bit late. Duran beat him but he didn’t take his soul the way Leonard took Roberto’s soul in New Orleans.

 

It was wider for Roberto than many remember. Duran knew he’d already won and eased off in the last couple of rounds. Trolled Ray in the 15th and Ray still couldn’t hit him

 

Toluco Lopez v Juan Ramirez - watch to the end. It's only 7 minutes. One can only shake their head.

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Ray still won many of those later rounds. Duran took his foot off the gas because he was tiring — find me a lightweight fight where he didn’t try to close the show after beating up a guy … you cannot.

And that ‘trolling’ is what lit the fire under Ray to humiliate Duran with his bolo jab and otherwise clowning a legend who could do nothing but look on helplessly before quitting. Ray kept those receipts.

Let’s also not forget that Roberto cried for a third match for years and finally got one the fight after beating Iran Barkley and Ray boxed his ears off.

 

Course he was tiring, he’d been beating up on Ray Leonard for 12 rounds and was a natural lightweight.
Ray boxed his ears off because Durans legs had been gone for about 5 years. And I will say again that I don’t believe Duran could beat Ray again at the age he was, doesn’t change the fact that he spanked him in every boxing department when they were prime.
And you seem to be forgetting the nature of the first fight. ‘Duran made Leonard brawl with his taunting’ hardly.
Duran taunted Ray sure but the first round was as much of a measuring contest as any fight ever. A brawl it wasn’t.
‘Can you believe Duran is boxing him’? Said the commentators.
Yes and he would any time they’d fought prime for prime and got the better of it.

 

Duran landed more jabs than Leonard despite having supposedly the weaker jab and shorter reach.
Landed more right hands, Leonard didn’t land a significant right hand on the whole 15 rounds.
Landed more hooks, the only time either was hurt with a hook was when Duran hurt Leonard early.
Cut Leonard off and put him in the ropes time and time again despite Leonard having the supposedly better footwork.
Leonard was hurt several times and made to back pedal, Duran despite being hit clean a couple of times was never wobbled.
Duran bossed the outfighting, the infighting.

Leonards fans somehow believe he reached nirvana running on the beach in Hawaii when the hard facts are Duran was half the fighter in the rematch.

 

Years ago we had an up-and-comer in Chicago named Rocky DiFazio, who was making headlines across the city sports pages. So they bring in a kid from out of town named Jimmy Carter (not kidding). I saw it replayed later that night on the news with Carter in the studio. Carter had all kinds of pent up anxiety for this fight because he nails DiFazio within the first few seconds and sends him down. The problem here is that Carter follows him down, and on his knees starts pummeling Rocky. The ref DQ's Carter but Rocky waives the DQ and insists on continuing, which the ref agrees to. But an irate fan throws a chair at Carter, hitting him in the neck, incapacitating him, so the Ref lets the DQ stand. On the TV later that night Carter explained how "DiFazio waived the DQ, so technically, I was disqualified for getting hit with a chair."

 

Duran had plenty of time to train for the rematch. Five months isn’t enough time to gain 100 pounds and lose it, lol. All accounts from his camps were that he was on weight well before time and looking good.

Then he quit, and thus was born the Roberto Duran Defense League.

Ray came with fire in his eyes the second time, just as Roberto did the first time, and made Roberto look like a chump.

To me, that makes them even. Nothing in five months changed about Roberto’s legs, and we saw later vs Hagler and Davey Moore and Pipino and Iran Barkley that the Duran whom Leonard made quit was still formidable — the Defense League is always quick to point out the visual of Roberto’s body composition in New Orleans vs Montreal (as if he was pot-bellied, lol) … but Roberto looked at least as fit and ready for Ray II as he did for Palomino, and in none of the fights listed above (some of his greatest performances) did he look like he did in Montreal either.

Hmmm.

 

Virgil Hill v Adolpho Washington - Washington has a cut. Not too earth-shattering, but between rounds (I think around the 8th) an over-zealous cameraman wants a better look at the cut and accidentally rams the camera into his eye splitting the cut wide open causing the fight to be stopped then and there. Called a Technical decision win for Hill. Should have been a 'no-contest'