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

So he held off Leonard and quit to set up the third bout in which he would show who's the better fighter? Didn't really go to plan though as he was embarrassed even more in the rubber match.

 

Do you want me to also put up quotes where instead of throwing a party after the fight Duran was in tears of shame on the way to the hospital?

 

That's exactly what I feel, it just doesn't make sense to throw the fight for financial gain. He could have beat Leonard again and still have a third bout anyway.

Why go through a lifetime of ridicule just for a rubber match? Duran had a massive reputation, if anyone believes he would want the world to think he's a yellow belly then I don't know what to say to that.

 

Duran's manager

• Carlos Eleta told Bill Brubaker: "Duran exploded at that moment, not realizing what he was doing. He was so angry . . . because Sugar Ray was making fun of him. So, at that instance, in the eighth round, he said, 'To hellwith this fellow. He's making fun of me and I'm not going to fight anymore.' Stomach Cramps? Maybe that's true, maybe it's not. But Duran didn't quit because of stomach cramps. He quit because he was embarrassed. I knowthis. Roberto was crying after the fight when I took him to the hospital for a checkup. In the car, he said to me, 'I'm ashamed of myself. I never should have done that. That's not me. I am not proud of myself.' "

 

I have no idea of his finances, they could have been terrible. All I'm saying is that when millions of dollars, potentially hundreds of millions of dollars, are involved, strange things might occur.
I certainly don't think he planned to lose like he did, even if he planned to lose - and that's only a possibility. Nor do I think he forsaw such a scandal.

Yes, fair enough.
But none of these theories are entirely satisfactory. The idea that he quit for business reasons, or that he quit because he felt humiliated by relatively mild actions, or that his discipline completely went off the rails after 13 years of proven fighting and was unfit to defend the title at 147, or any other idea .... they all seem completely out of character and are easy to doubt.

 

". He quit because he was embarrassed. I knowthis. Roberto was crying after the fight when I took him to the hospital for a checkup. In the car, he said to me, 'I'm ashamed of myself. I never should have done that. That's not me. I am not proud of myself.' "

From how Eleta quotes Duran, it actually sounds like he was embarrassed because he quit, not that he quit because he was embarrassed

 

I'd say it was a bit of both tbh. Leonard well and truly messed his mind up which was a complete turnaround from the first bout.

 

He made a hell of a lot of money and will have made a hell of a lot of money had he won and given Leonard a rubber match.

The thought of this being premeditated is absurd IMO.

 

The fact of it happening at all is absurd.
A completely absurd occurence.
Every possible explanation is equally absurd.

 

Duran was a macho man, he was used to being the bully in the ring. It's a perfect case of the bully being clowned and embarrassed. His own manager stated he couldn't handle being clowned and blew his fuse. At the end of the day they had the third bout and Leonard clearly won. Duran proved how great he really was when he beat Leonard in Montreal.

 

Why do people talk like Leonard was dominating? It was mid fight and most people thought SRL was up a round.

 

"Not airing concerns in public" before the fight would be one thing. But when everyone involved with Duran is consistently effusively raving about his progress in camp and his preparation for the fight, and no reporters or observers are saying anything to the contrary--even in the immediate aftermath of the fight--it's a different matter altogether. When Duran quit, and every boxing reporter in the country wanted to know what happened, Brown and Arcel had every incentive to "lay their cards on the table" and mention any extreme training or health issues right away. They didn't. Instead, they were both utterly clueless about what went wrong and why Duran quit. They both insisted that he had been in great shape, physically and mentally, and that his camp had been nothing out of the norm.

Like I wrote earlier, it takes an imaginative, conspiracy-oriented theory and an unflattering view of Arcel and Brown's integrity to explain away all of that, imo.

PS -- I think people greatly exaggerate the difference between Duran in the two fights. If Leonard had moved as much in the first fight as he did in the second, I think Duran probably would have been down in the cards on that one too. As it was, Duran barely won the first fight and wasn't too far behind before he quit in the rematch.

 

You claimed Duran was "well behind". You were wrong. I pointed this out. There is nothing else to address. I hope this has cleared things up for you.