Don Curry - Could have been ATG or simply overrated?

He was a great fighter for a few fights,but a bit of a comet due to weight problems.

 

at his best he was real gunfighter... Draw! too slow I got ya.
He had uncanny poise and balance, he was rare in that he had the ability to stand in front of an opponent and barely get touched, while attacking and countering with perfect shots.
He was versatile and very creative, a great combination puncher to body and head.
Earlier poster mentioned his great defence, and the 2 starling fights and the jones fight are great examples of an absolutely top drawer infighter to rival the best in history.
Had blinding speed and power and superb instincts. There were reports of curry being forced into doing the honeyghan fight when he'd wanted to call it off but full respect to honeyghan who was brilliant on the night.
I personally think that defeat, and the circumstances surrounding it, may have knocked the love out of curry and if you really don't love boxing I think you're pretty much finished at elite level.
But at his best he was dazzling, and pretty complete, not overrated at all one of the best technical fighters of modern times.

 

Fine fighter. Just a notch or two below the likes of Leonard,Hearns and Benitez,though.

 

His fall from grace was astonishing to me .. at one point he was the best pound for pound fighter in the world and on his way to superstardom .. he crushed McCroy .. then out of no where, in a fight that few even knew was taking place he essentially quits on his stool against Honeygan .. a loss that puzzled the world as well as shocked it .. many wrote it off as a fluke and predicted he'd upset McCallum and it was a terrific fight for four rounds but then Mike flattened him and he was never, ever the same ... I remember how smug the then retired Ray Leonard was after seeing the man that was supposed to replace him as the sports superstar flattened .. he just collapsed as a fighter ..

 

I recall a clip of Leonard after that fight, wasn't he doing what you lot call 'color' commentary, really put the knife into Donald, but oh so subtlely slipped in the knife real slow. All the false concern & how shocked he was, hoping that Donald was his heir apparent having annointed Donald himself, sad shake of the head ect ect, he could'nt wait to get to his room to bash one off.

 

As I said. His greatness was short lived due to whatever reasons - probably multiple. But I've never considered him overrated. In fact in the midst of that talent-packed welter weight decade his name often gets lost or overlooked.

 

And that's a crying shame, but so true, he's now relegated into Simon brown & Maurice Blocker bracket, Curry for me was absolutely brilliant, but the McCallam destruction was such a shocker, more than Honeyghan in some ways, damb shame, I expect it's down to the scribes of the day puting the knife in, never achieved potential ect ect, plenty backed him to dethrone Hagler such was his rating! He was an undisputed champion, and that qualifies him for the HOF in any mans language, that McCrory execution is one of boxing histories highlights, the left hook from hell!

 

Overrated is a word I wouldn't use for him, no. He's placed pretty fairly by most around here (and this is the only place I ever see him mentioned, so there ya go).

He was such a different fighter at 154 than he'd been at 147, and most of it was mental I'm sure, due to the Honeyghan loss. However, if you look at his fights at 154 even before Honeyghan, it wasn't the same guy. That measly 7 added pounds meant a lot, as he seemed far less powerful and his strength wasn't as pronounced. By late '85 his offense and strength were playing an increased role in his game and he was just steamrolling opponents at 147 with his arsenal. That came to an alarmingly abrupt end once he tested the waters against people like Hard Rock Green (who opted out early, sadly) and Pablo Baez.

 

Agreed. He is a man who in a few decades will likely be viewed as more of an obscurity rather than the rising star that was featured between 1983-1986. I think the biggest problem was that he wasn't made to fight above 145, yet couldn't keep his weight below it, so therefore he had nowhere to go.

 

Since his name was mentioned (for being a diva *****, which no fan ever denied :yep) - what does everyone think of Leonard vs. Curry h2h, best for best?

Obviously we all know SRL is greater, not asking that.

It actually would be most interesting for everyone to give their "best for best" reply (that is, SRL of 78-82 vs. Curry of the early-mid 80's) along with their "when they could have reasonably met" reply (that is, Leonard emerging from retirement to meet Curry, not Hagler...which places it after the Honeyghan loss but still before McCallum)

Or we can just call '82 a reasonable enough nexus of those concepts and say the version of each that fought Bruce Finch in '82 (Ray in February, TKO3; Donald in May, TKO4) had they fought each other instead.


I feel like there will be a lot of knee-jerk "Sugar was a class above" reactions but try and think of how it would actually play out (hate that I have to expressly patronize like that in Classic, but, you know, a few bad apples...) - not that a reasoned argument for that will necessarily come off as wrong, so long as it was reasoned out and not based on who rates higher on ATG lists.

 

Obviously if we were talking prime for prime ( which we're not ) Leonard takes it.. But after watching Leonard against Kevin Howard around 1984, I'd be apt to picking Curry by a close decision had they met between 1984-1987. The likely battle ground(s) would be either welter or Jr. Middle and I think Curry would have an easier time making those weights without killing himself. In addition, he had an element of speed that some of the older big boys like Hagler, Duran, and Hearns no longer possessed when Leonard eventually met them in the late 80's.. In addition, while Ray could crack, he didn't have the kind of power that McCallum and Honeyghan had nor McCallum's awkwardness.

 

I see a late stoppage for Leonard, but it's not easy.

The thing Leonard might want to play off of is how Curry fought in that sort of high-guarded shell type thing, and he'd spring forward with punches. He could sometimes over-extend himself that way and might get caught napping with some heavy counter shots from Leonard.

It would have been interesting to see how a strong, hard puncher like Colin Jones have fared with Curry down the stretch had his face hadn't fallen off in the early rounds of their fight. I wanted to see how a solid body attack would affect that high guard in the late rounds, but Curry practically had razors in his gloves that night and every time he met Jones in the trenches he sliced and diced him.

 

Thanks for the answer. :good

So you just don't see any chance for Cobra of 83/84/85/86 against Sugar of 78/79/80/81? You see it as being a stoppage with Curry getting a little too bold trading counter snipes in the pocket and paying for it, or going all fifteen stanzas with Leonard putting his stamp on most of them?

 

I think prime Leonard had everything Curry had and a bit more including better durability and power. He matched or even exceded him in speed too. Of course we're talking between the years of 1979-1982. Not 1984-1987

 

Yeah, cuts were never too much of a problem for Ray, were they? I can't think of when they were aside from Duran III and Hearns I.