Donald Curry v Eduard Rodriguez...The Real Beginning Of The End.

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March 1986...a huge hometown crowd in Forth Worth,Texas watch newly crowned Undisputed Welterweight King Donald Curry score a 2nd round knockout than speak of Hearns or Mccallum.....Don looks like a boyband lead singer and has a beautiful woman next to him in his post fight interview.At 24 the sky seems the limit for the guy all the magazines consider the p4p King and future of boxing...lucrative fights with Hagler,Hearns or a showdown with the hottest contender in the world John Mugabi.

This Rodriguez fight never gets spoken of.We always talk of the Honeyghan shocker.....but in retrospect this was the fight where with hindsight it was clear Don was inexplicably slipping.

He looked awful....just awful.

This was the first time we saw the death of a defensive grand master and the transmogrification into that up close chin high face first style .He was constantly being caught by his awkward lunging 3rd rate opponents shots. Don also clumsily fell to the canvas in the 1st round. He wasn't looking his usual efficient meticulous self. He was in with a no hoper and his uncharacteristic wild swings paid off in the 2nd round as he laid out the bum for the 10 count.

In retrospect that's where Currys slide started.

I wish Richard M Murrieta was still around to give some answers as he is a Texas native....it seems to me like there was something more to it...than just managerial and weight problems....Curry fought like a man who hadn't trained.I don't know who that pretty woman was either.This was around about the time he was starting to live in East Coast nightclubs and Akbar Muhammad got his ear......it seems like there's a lot more to Currys slide than gets openly discussed.

It was mid 1980"s America...the kid had a brutally long amateur career ...sure...and in those days 24-25 could be like 32 now...but still......I just don't buy the "oh he moved up in levels and got found out" stuff......he looked awful vs Rodriguez who was a very inferior foe....like he had been pulled in for 5 minutes work from whatever he was busy doing....sure as hell didn't seem like doing what he had been doing to get to Undisputed champ...

Obviously he than got whupped by Honeyghan...the 3 consecutive fights of blatant Billy goat butts to his face didn't help none neither...but again he looked better vs Acquino,Rosi and Mccallum before his sudden and incomprehensible defensive deteriotion put paid.....

I dont wanna slander Don...or start gossip....but is there more to this story?.....was he involved in something?....I can understand a long career catching up...with reduced desire,motivation and stamina...but the sudden change from defensive master with cobra reflexes into a guy who moves his face in front of his gloves and forgets the defensive skills that got him through 425 fights....