Colin Jones was an interesting comparison when we look at Donald and Milton, yet it is not always these types of comparison's which matter.
Leonard was another level up from Donald Curry imo. Leonard is the kind of talent that comes around once a generation. Curry, as good as he was, wasn't quite that level.
Donald is an enigma. His career was different than most. If you look at his before Honeyghan career he was as good as any great ever was, and then after that it all fell apart. We expected him to move up and beat McCallum convincingly. He was that good, yet he was always changing his mind on moving up or not, and yet that is blamed on Leonard and not Curry. The falling apart thing is what baffles me. A lot of guys have weight issues and in his excuses. Lloyd did not get the credit he probably deserved. I think maybe he had a little issue with the weight and he had a death in the family, which is always tough and I feel for him, and I didn't know he had a death in the family until years later and that would be hard to fight if you are distracted. I think he should have postponed the fight if he had so many issues. He was so good people figured he would stop Lloyd in 3 rounds. I think I remember that. He was thought of as that solid in 1986.. But Lloyd was strong and undefeated and Curry took him for granted. And Curry fought two fights which were DQ fights before Mike. His decision making was a little rushed when he moved up and when to move up. Whose fault was that?
I'll meet you somewhere around halfway. Bumphus was after Curry - McCrory. Starling did have one of his strange off days against Vilella but beat Floyd Mayweather Sr and the up and coming Simon Brown before the Curry - McCrory bout. My point of contention is that Curry and McCrory weren't "clearly the best two welterweights at the time". Plenty still would have liked Starling over McCrory (or certainly not rated Milt clearly above him) and in reality McCrory didn't even prove himself "clearly" better than Colin Jones. It's a shame we didn't see McCrory - Staring actually.
Ray Leonard stabbed someone in the back? That sounds out of character. I don't believe this. I refuse to believe it. Put dem Strawberry Margaritas down .
I don't believe that. I watched quite a few of Mccory's fights before he got in the ring with Curry. He never impressed me. Where some saw a comparison to Thomas Hearns baffled me then, and now lol .
I think the Colin Jones fight ruined his rep. But pre-Jones McCrory, though not the natural talent Curry was, could have beaten him in early 83. A real close fight probably, and it should have happened had Emanuel had his thinking cap on.
Curry is getting sold short here. I think he would have been very competitive against SRL prime for prime. DC's prime was brief, sure, but then so was SRL's (1979 - '81). I am confident SRL would have beaten McCrory and Colin Jones, both good fighters. I am not confident he would not have walked through them the way DC did. Donald made the pair of them look like amateurs. I don't find DC engaging or charismatic. But what a fighter he was for a short spell! The poise, the accuracy, the power.
Milt could box really well but they had this burning desire to make him another Hearns. I think he might out work Starting and get a close decision because Starling at times could be so erratic. I could see Milt with his height and jab piling up points on Starling.
He did didn't he? That left hook he flattened Melt with was a thing of beauty - slipped the jab and BOOM. And how he dismantled Nino was crazy. Nino could really move around the ring and was very fast. Curry just cut the ring off and just beat him down. I remember one sequence where Nino was trying to hit Curry with a bunch of punches and Curry slips them all and counters with a left hook to the body. Curry was a beautiful fighter to watch. They still tell stories about when he was an amateur boxer. They say he was so good that people would feel sorry for his opponents or when a boxers trainer would find out his boxer was matched up with Curry the trainer would cringe. Curry beat Davey Moore in the amateurs and as an amateur Davey Moore was a very big deal.
No you have it wrong. When they were thinking of fighting Hagler Trainer and Leonard were thinking of any obstacles that could possibly get in the way of the potential fight. Curry had just cleaned out the welterweight division and was unbeaten. At the time most people had either Hagler as pound for pound the best or Curry as pound for pound the best. Curry started talking about just moving up to Middleweight and challenging Hagler and everybody started getting excited - the two best pound for pound boxers squaring up against one another. One hadn't lost in years and the other had never lost. So Curry hired Trainer as an advisor. At the time Gorman was Curry's manager and anyone that ever knew Gorman will tell you he's a straight shooter. So Curry was having a very big problem making Welter. So Gormans plan was to have 1 or 2 bouts at Jr.middle and then challenge Hagler. But Trainer advised Curry against it and told him he should stay at welter thus removing the one potential roadblock to Hagler vs Leonard. This lead to a heated argument between Gorman and Curry and a falling out. And lets remember at the time of the announcement of Hagler vs Leonard most everyone felt it was a complete mismatch. But who else was left for Hagler to fight? He already had beaten Hearns and Duran. Gorman years latter even said Leonard screwed Curry out of a Hagler fight but he also blamed Curry for listening to Trainer. And like I said Gorman was a straight up guy.
Life on the line it would be Leonard. Curry was an enigma and I’m not sure we ever saw how good he was actually was. But the way I see is Curry didn’t fight anyone in the league of Leonard or the guys Leonard fought with, not by long shot. Don did fight some good fighters himself but not of that calibre. But we could argue the calibre and merits of the opponents, but the question is who would win if both them fought and I would imagine this one would be in their absolute prime. If Curry is being underestimated on the basis of the ending of his career and the argument is still prime for prime could Curry beat Leonard, I can’t see it. If Curry didn’t fulfil his potential and we didn’t have the chance to see it, and Curry was indeed the class of Leonard and that generation at his very best and it a big if. Then that fight is going to get tough and it’s going to become a battle, it could become a war of attrition, and I don’t think Curry had it in his DNA to beat Leonard in a war, we never saw Curry win a truly epic battle against an elite operator. Leonard for all of his criticism in his prime years was involved in some wars and although didn’t always win, didn’t ever truly fold, and at prime he was never outclassed, he was beaten but never truly outclassed. I just don’t see anything in Curry to suggest he could outclass Leonard, so if Curry belongs in that generational talent conversation it becomes war and I can’t see Curry being able to outlast Leonard over a 15 round fight.
