Donald Curry - Retrospective

No, Oscar also won genuinely big fights with Whitaker, Chavez, Gonzales, and Ruelas, to name a few.

 

I agree with the theory that his prime was too short. However, I think if he'd have been able to pull off the win against McCallum, I'd be willing to make an exception because he was absolutely brilliant in his prime. Just needed that marquee win against McCallum IMO.

 

The weight-making thing is an AMATEUR'S EXCUSE.

Yes, I read that KO magazine article too, the one that came out after Honeyghan whipped Curry.
So, Curry built his whole welterweight reputation while battling the scales ? Okay, so how come it's an excuse when he loses then ?

It's just favouritism to only listen to the excuses of certain fighters because they are "rated". I mean, c'mon people, EVERY FIGHTER has an excuse for losing. And weight-making is right up there on the top of the list of ready-made excuses.

 

Did any welterweight really put pressure on Curry like Honeyghan did ?

I mean, really put educated pressure on him, using speed and lots of movement and throwing fast hard sharp combos, constantly moving.
Curry seemed to be caught out by Honeyghan's no let-up style - and this was a skilful quick version of Honeyghan, not the arrogant brawler he became after his big win over Curry.
Honeyghan was too quick for Curry, ducked most of the punches early on and countered with is own hard shots.
Curry looks the same in the first round as he came out against all his opponents, but Honeyghan was quick and aggressive and committed with the counters.

Curry handled the styles of Starling, Jones and McCrory, but Honeyghan fought him in a complete different manner, put a different test on him. And Curry failed the test.

 

definitly true. a style like that is severely disrupted by rushes.

 

I think Donald just falls short of being considered great.If he had beaten Honeyghan in a rematch and capped off that fight with McCallum, probably.Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.

 

I wonder sometimes if not enough credit is given to Honeyghan for his victory. As if the scales beat Curry and whoever was in the opposite corner was allmost irrelevant.

 

in this case i'd still rank starling higher , despite that h2h curry was slightly better. and yes , i'd pick a prime curry to beat honeyghan convincingly and don't forget also that honeyghan was smart using his head against him that also effected the result, and yes , i saw that fight.
i will rank curry higher than honeyghan despite the on paper outcum of their fight.

 

I personally dont believe Don could have gone much farther with McCallum even if that particular shot not landed. His eye (I forgot which) was badly swollen. Mike probably could have polished him off by ten

 

You cant rank Starling higher if Done beat him the first time with a flu and the second time much more convincingly


Curry was his master even as Lloyd was Curry's master. Weight or no weight, there's no way he could ever last 15 with Lloyd. Maybe 12 rounds by some miracle

 

and KO'd norris and nunn and stopped james toney and beaten michael moorer at a 172 catchweight , why not ?

 

i talked about the headbutt.
the weight is another thing.
they should have had a rematch at 154 or better : at some catchweight between.

 

Agreed.

I don't doubt that Curry might've struggled to make weight against Honeygan, but he struggled to make weight for EVERY title fight he had. What reason is there to think that he was any more "weight drained" against Honeygan than he was against, say, McCrory? It's only because he lost that it's assumed he must've been more "weight drained" than he had been in previous fights.

Agreed here too. Fighters like Starling, Jones, and that Asian guy he won the title from (I forget his name, and I'm too lazy to check boxrec) all pressured Curry, but Honeygan had a different kind of unpredictable attack that mixed movement and slugging with sneak right hands. I don't believe any of Curry's prior fights prove conclusively that he was capable of handling an attack like Honeygan's.

That raises another good point:

Curry was given every chance possible to redeem himself from the Honeygan loss and regain his prior status in the sport. He had title shots against McCallum, Rosi, Nunn, and Norris, and lost all but one of them; and the title he won from Rosi he quickly blew to that crude Frenchman.

Agreed. I thought Honeygan just outclassed him. I don't think there's a heck of a lot that can excuse that when the losing fighter is considered right smack dab in his prime.