Right....many neutral, boxing people thought Duran would do to SRL, what he ended up doing, i.e. kicking his butt. SRL was thought to be ABC TV's Network fighter with Howard Cosell jumping on the bandwagon since Ali was basically finished.
Great fight. Great dominance by Duran who imposed his will on Leonard and didnt let him fight his fight. On that note I like the 3rd DeJesus fight better for some reason. Love the master class on Palomeno also.
Not high at all. Close, competitive fight between two great fighters but Leonard fought a dumb fight that negated his main advantages and there were few clean punches landed between them.
At least top 5, Sustained Greatness for the whole match. I would be hard pressed to name a better fight.
Duran was better. That is all. Leonard fought the way he was forced to. This story of not fighting his fight is getting to much play.
Duran beat him by four points on my score card and was a clear winner (and I happen to love Leonard btw). The Hands of Stone was relentless, not entirely dissimilar to FOTC. I didn't know this was Mike's favorite fight, I would have guessed FOTC.
Would be interested in seeing your scorecard some time. A bunch of us rescored the fight last year and most people had it even closer: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/fight-of-the-week-1-roberto-duran-ray-leonard-i.617596/
For sustained action over 15 rounds there's hardly an equal to this, this was fighting at an A+ level. I don't think you'd find a welterweight over the last 50 years who'd have heard the scorecards against Duran that night
