It was made for Leonard to get "closure" about the entire No Mas saga because he has been struggling with not getting the recognition for winning the rematch that he felt he deserved. The same producer that made thr doc about Collins and Resto did this. Ray actually flies to Panama at the end to try to get Duran to tell him why he quit in New Orleans. Duran was at peace with it after so many years. They even stand in a boxing ring. Duran just Hey man were friends is the important thing, life is good. It was all Leonard. At the end Duran looked like a retired warrior who moved on with his life and Leonard looked small.
Did anyone actually quote him as saying that before the fight though? If so, please send me a source and I'll add it to my timeline in the original post right away.
Quick question to a point you made, which I'm not sure was even intended. If it had been years since he had that long off between fights, couldn't that cause the problems they were trying to avoid by having him fight more often? It seems to me, anything out of the ordinary, especially for someone who was known to blow up some in between fights, could negatively impact his training/preparation, no? I don't think it's so much of, he needed more time, as much as it is, he had too much time (and no bought in-between as you mentioned); or at the very least, the condition he came in at, and time he had left to prepare, wasn't optimal. In my view, regardless of how great a shape he was or wasn't in, the bottom line is, he equally lost because of his mental state. I believe he was overconfident, felt like he figured SRL out, and that it would be much the same. He probably thought SRL was weaker mentally than he was, and was already beat, when in fact, SRL was prepared, ready and confident. That lost him the fight as much as his physical condition, or time he had to prepare.
Duran was just beat, He looked so out of shape that he was behind by one point? He physically did not look any different- Sometimes you just have enough.
I found this REALLY fascinating piece on the Leonard-Duran rematch from someone who had as much of an "insiders" view as anyone. (From this account-Duran was simply in no condition physically or mentally to fight a peak trained and conditioned Sugar Ray Leonard.) https://nyfights.com/new-york/no-mas-forty-years-later
