Yeah but you're mentioning this asif Duran being out of shape somehow validates him quitting. There's a huge difference between fighting your heart out and quitting. SRL proved he can dish it out but also take it. Duran showed that he can dish out but not take it.
Angelo Dundee deserves some credit here they pressure Duran into taking a quick rematch. Duran was drinking and eating and drinking soda pop and hanging out at a well known drug-dealing hang out Victor's Cafe in N.Y. They gave Duran an ultimatum to fight quickly and he was drained and unfit before the fight. Leonard was mocking him and he had no speed of foot or hand and felt like he had zero power. The Duran of June and November where 2 different men. SRL and Dundee deserve credit for the strategy and Duran never was as good as the June version of himself at 147, although he had a few flashes of greatness with his win over Barkley and his fight with Hagler an ATG middleweight Champ.
Duran was making more money for the rematch than he did for the original. I don't understand how he could be less motivated to come to the fight in shape.
Nothing to do with motivation in the normal sense, Durans an inigma, it's his lifestyle & he proberbly thought he'd have no problems getting back into shape & the fact his management & Don King already had the $9Million wired into a Panamanion bank.......All Duran's management had to do was to get him through the ropes & the cash was released.......There was uproar when the louisanna commision found out. It's now illegal & quite a silent whispers went out after what happened that the fix was in.
I subscribe to your out-classed notion, rc. But it went beyond that, SRL mocked him, was makin' a fool of him. Hands of Stone was too macho -- too arrogant to endure that; and without a thought to the consequences, he basically said FU 'n walked.
If I were a world class boxer and my opponent was mocking me while easily beating me. The last thing I'd do is quit and give him the satisfaction. I would be frustrated this dose not mean that I'd quit. It was the 8th round of a 15 round fight. Who knows what could happen over the next seven rounds. I don't see how any self respecting person could have done what Duran did. Especially in light of the fact that he was being Mocked and being made a fool of By Leonard.
Duran at best, rc, was a barely-contained volcano. Leonard baited him. He saw red. End of story. There was no thought process involved.
Read up some. And this is no excuse for Duran. You're paid to come and fight, you better show up ready. But Duran had been paid to show to fight for 11 years or so and he really liked to party, was just crowned the King of Panama after Montreal... well, **** happens.
8 mil for the second fight, nearly six times more than he made for the first fight and probably the most he made his entire career for one fight. And yeah, Duran must have enjoyed the new King of the World status he achieved, and a nice juicy payday to continue that lifestyle would certainly entice me to at least stay under 200 pounds. That's interesting about how Duran got his payday, Duranimal, I'd actually never heard that. Just sorta goes to show how shady King was during his heyday. Still, like I said above, if 8 mil can't motivate, then Duran is definitely one weird fellow.
No I'm not. It was a completely unjustified, disgusting act. I don't even think being out of shape validates him losing - him being outboxed. Leonard changed his tactics and Duran lost. And I give Leonard full credit for that win, like you do. The difference is that you refuse to be consistent: You do not give Duran credit for what he did in Montreal, because "Leonard fought the wrong fight". Somehow, excuses are valid for Leonard but not for Duran. And I'm the one that's biased?