Nah, bull****. Leonard held a gun to his head and threatened to pop a cap in his ass if he didn't fake an illness and leave the ring. This wasn't caught on tape...Leonard had his handlers edit all available footage.
you have a legit point about king. however, you have to fault duran as well for getting so fat when he wasnt fighting. you remember, he used this same excuse when hearns smashed him
Nah, bull****. I heard that Leonard was force feeding Duran during the weeks leading up to the fight...Duran would have resisted, but Ray had his wife and kids held hostage.
Nah, the reason i never elaborated is because i've posted on it countless times. The whole thing about what happened in the rematch is so exagerated it's ridiculous, but that's what happens when you're talking boxing folklore. The early exchanges in this fight are developing off the same sort of exchanges as the first fight, both men standing off one another and trying to get off, in the first fight Duran does better and dictates the nature of the fight because of tat, in the rematch, Leonard does so. In about round 7 he starts to make fun of Duran etc, and in the next round Duran quits because he was losing. People make out like Duran got into the ring and Leonard started pulling tongues at him in round one and he just watched him for eight rounds. I'm not denying he wasn't fully prepared or whatever, but i'm choosing to give weight to the non-speculative part, as always. Also, no need for the patronising bull**** about me needing to do my research, you'll find i know mine.
Why? Duran quit. Not only did Leonard beat him twice, but he lost to Hearns, Bentiez and Hagler. Not only are these the best boxers he faced. He somehow considered better in the pound for pound sense than all three.
Personally I'm of the opinion both fights were pretty dominant showings from either man and scored both fights widish from memory. That puzzles fans, the lack of a definite conclusion to who the better man was. Its a shame there wasn't immediate rubber match to decide it once and for all, whoever won that would claim ultimate superiority. But the Hearns fight became the fight in demand and Duran's popularity plummeted after quiting
Yeah, Leonard said he didn't want the rematch, would've been great as well. Boxing politics i suppose.
Not prime for prime but I think it gets underrated, Duran had just beat the Barkley who beats Hearns, Hearns had just beat Leonard. In retrospect its all too easy to say 'Duran was way past it and didn't stand a chance' while ignoring the past years results. Now it seems to count for nothing