exactly but i think there is a comparison to be made 4 kings said it brilliantly. any doubts about duran's courage were answered when he came out for that second round against hearns. he knew what would happen and took it like a man you can beat duran, you can knock duran but to disrespect him like leonard did is different
This might be true...can't recall any fighter of his caliber blatantly quitting in a fight. I mean not quitting from body language, not feeling hopeless from a battering and purposely being counted out etc...Duran willingly threw up his hands and resigned in the middle of the ring.
Can you imagine what ESB would have been like after the fight. I bet alot of peoples impression of Duran would have changed.
It was more of Duran being fed up about SRL's antics in the ring. Its no excuse, but SRL chose to clown around and frustrate Duran, rather than actually fight/box him.
Definitely disgraceful, quitting is almost always disgraceful if you ask anyone i'd say duran regrets it more than anything he's ever done in his life
Leonard's clowning was just annoying and could see anyone being fed up with that...but he let Leonard do exactly what he was trying to do, which was to frustrate him. Which caused him to commit the ultimate boxing sin. He played right in to Leonard's hands and folded. To anyone who plays basketball, I'm sure you know what its like covering the showoff showboats that do more dribbling and **** talking than playing. But would you walk off the court because the guy you are guarding was doing too much fancy **** and too many tricks instead of just playing ball? I cover dudes like that all the fkin time, its annoying, you want to smack the **** out of them - but that should make you play harder, not let them frustrate you in to giving up because that means they won the mental game over you.
I agree. There's no excuse for Duran quitting. I wish he didnt. It sure did tarnish his image to an extent, but he will ever be known as a legend who did so much to not let that overshadow his accomplishments.
I really don't get why people defend Roberto Duran. I really don't. He quit rather or not he said the words "No mas" or not he quit in the eighth round of a 15 round fight. It shows it is not within him to deal with adverse situations.
Not something I hold against him really considering his body of work. Like others have said, he didn't quit because he was getting beaten up, he just got sick of playing Leonard's game and he had his pride. Personally I think they should have with held his purse though.
He should have dived out the ring or tried to get hit with an illegal shot, maybe fake a low blow or a rabbit punch like todays 'Warriors'