Duran Had A Party In His Dressing Room After The 2nd Leonard Fight

^Class

 

What is a convincing explanation tho? Nothing would be accepted at this point. Well you'd accept a fix but it wasn't a fix.

There is enough out there on Duran as a person and fighter as well as endless testimonies from many close to the event to make informed deductions.

 

Again one needs to look at it from Duran's perspective. Leonard started the heavy taunting in round 7 and ramped it up from there. Not much later Duran was out of there.

Late in the seventh, Leonard threw the most memorable punch of the night. Winding up his right hand, as if to throw a bolo, he suddenly snapped out a left jab that caught Duran flush on the face . . . Having made a fool of him, Leonard continued taunting Duran mercilessly. He stuck out his chin, inviting Duran to hit him. Duran hesitated. Leonard kept it up, moving, stopping, mugging. Leonard scored again with a hook and two right hands. At the bell, Duran seemed to smile as he walked back to his corner. Three minutes later the fight was over.

 

You’ve mentioned all types of conditions that weren’t mentioned in the actual post, so I’m not sure what any of this has to do with anything tbh.

And even then, that’s only one form of an expertise and its reliability all comes down to the credibility, objectivity, analytical abilities, and reasonableness of the “expert,” whether he actually had access to the best information available then, whether relevant new information has become available since, etc. And when it comes to discussing a specific fight, I’d much rather chop it up with a smart, open-minded 20-year old kid who’s watched the fight and any other relevant fights in the recent past than someone who’s reciting opinions based on 40 year old memories and decades of the suspect “everybody knows” gossip and stories that a lot of classic boxing fans seem to think are the epitome of boxing knowledge.

But like I said, to each his own. Happy holidays.

 

Thanks.. Happy Holidays to you too !!!

 

To the best of my knowledge, round-7 was the only round in which Leonard taunted Duran with his showboating.
Round-8 was somewhat of a dull round, in comparison.

So, looking at it from Duran’s perspective, one would have to consider that he was still smarting (extremely so) from round-7, after more than 2 minutes of round-8. Because, nothing of the antics Leonard showed in the 7th round was apparent in the next round.

The pace had slowed. Leonard was working the perimeter again. Duran was plodding forward again - until, the ending came. All-in-all, it was every bit the anticlimax.

 

Duran had also had a pretty unsuccessful 6 rounds prior to that. He'd chased Leonard around and had very little success. He knew by round 8 it definitely wasn't going to be his night. Perhaps he was tiring badly as he claimed as well. No Mas was a culmination of things as i said well earlier. At the end of the day no amount of excuses are enough tho.

 

A great many are simply going to pluck out what they want from everything, depending on how much of a fan of Duran's they are, i think. I try to make something from everything we have to go on but there are a lot of conflicting stories.

 

Duran wasn’t that far behind and Leonard was not putting on a master class - although, it was clear Duran wasn’t having his best night...

However, all of that aside, I think @mcvey ’s original post provides an equally likely alternative to all the other reasons one might have considered for why Duran quit...




...he simply had a party to go to

 

If only that were true LOL

Interestingly Duran also acknowledged it was " a different Leonard from the first fight - boxing this time, not flat footed as he'd been before". "He'd done his homework".

Duran knew he wasn't going to catch Leonard or stop him given he didn't wilt a bit in the first fight despite the tremendous pace. So it was a long drawn out affair/loss or a short one.

 

Those are Duran’s words? He must have forgotten that Leonard only fought flat footed in the first fight because he made him.

 

That's Duran's exact quote yes.

 

They are.

He also writes, in the very next sentences of the same page of the same book (I Am Duran), “At the end of the [first] round [Leonard] landed a right, but he didn’t hurt me and I just smiled. But already I was feeling weaker: there was no way I was going to last fifteen rounds, or have the strength to knock him down. I was going to have to find another way out of the fight.”

 

Doesn't read well does it. He's flat out saying he quit in order not to get stopped. I'm not sure it was this bad.

 

Given the context Duran already provides, in earlier pages, about him not feeling well, prior to the bout, he’s saying he was done before the fight started and realised this with near certainty by end of the first round.