Duran of Montreal vs Leonard of the rematch

C'mon, I dig Duran as much as any fanatic can, but Duran is simply too short and naturally smaller than Leonard. Duran only won in Canada cuz Leonard negated his attributes. Duran being in-shape cannot outbox an in-shape Leonard in a 20 X 20 ring, or bigger... Leonard is too good of a boxer and too quick for the raging and powerful Duran, who is also a step too slow all through the bout...

Duran was tuned at 158 in Vegas come 1989 and had just beaten Barkley in the fight of they year, but then he and Leonard put on a stinky sparring session on PPV in which Leonard won on points cuz Duran seemed content to merely go all 12 rds without getting hurt... Oddly it was Leonard who was cut-up in the end, while Duran looked clean and fairly unmarked...

MR.BILL:deal

 

Duran makes Ray fight his fight and owns the second half, wins a ud.

 

Ray would beat Duran everytime out after the first fight. He fought differently in the rematch and rubbermatch. And Duran did not do anything to Benitez, who had a similar style to Ray -sort of. Duran only beat Ray as the only great he ever beat . He lost to all the other greats he fought.

 

Leonard learned from his experance from their first fight. We have to assume that if this is suposed to be the first time they fought that Leonard knows not to go toe to toe with Duran.
I see Leonard out boxing Duran. Staying away and frustrating Duran.

 

Leonard wins by a couple points, same way he was winning the rematch by a couple points.

If he boxes and uses his speed of hand and foot diligently, Duran just never puts him in the hole he put him in the first time around.

And yes, its still Duran's fault he came in out of shape for a damn defense. He couldn't hack it, and quit. Perfectly legitimate L.

 

Has anyone seriously said that Leonard was "green" at that stage?

 

According to the scorecards, yes. But according to the scorecards Duran came close to winning against not only Hagler but also Benitez.

I don't think I had Duran winning more than one round max in the rematch. Not that Leonard did an awful lot either. Strange, unsatisfying fight.

 

Agreed, it wasn't close, if Leonard lost any rounds it was because he didn't do much not because Duran was having success

 

I thought Duran looked pretty bad against Viruet actually.

 

Leonard did ****-all in New Orleans & Duran did even less, shame on both of them.

Duran would always beat any version of Leonard on a level playing field & Leonard camp knew that, hence the $9million BAIT for Nov 80 re-match instead of January/Feb 81. If Leonard was that confident about beating Duran why not wait till Jan/81. Leonard was mentally scared by the hammering he got at the hands of Duran in Montreal. The leonard camp (Janks Morten) said it's Nov80 take it or leave it or we'll go for Cuevas instead & King said we'll take the $9Million as long as it's paid in ADVANCE.

It even showed up more so by his retisense to even engage a private weight contracted Duran in Dec89 when Leonard again showed his lack of fighting spirit with regards to Duran after publicly stating to all in attendance at the Mirage presser that he had unfinished biz with Duran & would'nt run & was going out for the early KO. What happened??? Leonard ran around the ring again for 11 rounds until the screaming of the crowd embarrassed him into engaging Duran who sliced Leonard open sending Leonard back into reverse gear at warp speed & the crowd screaming BULL****!! BULL****!! BULL****!! & all the celebs walked out.

Leonard feared Duran & rightly so as he knew he could never beat him as he tried his very best in Montreal & still came out well beaten & never at any time did you ever think during that fight that Leonard was going to be the winner & going by that tepid showing by Leonard in New Orleans the Montreal Duran would have got a wide UD no problem.

H2H man 4 man P4P DURAN will always beat the likes of Leonard & Montreal proved that 1000% Duran had Leonards number & Leanard knew it & so did his camp:deal

 

Leonard would never have beaten the Duran who showed up in Montreal that night,no matter what tactics the Sugarman employed. It would have been closer than their actual fight,but every now and then a fighter is simply a force of nature in the ring. Ali in Zaire '74. Frazier in New York '71. Same applies to Duran in Montreal 1980.

 

Indeed, I think is the belief of MAG.

 

I think i would favour Montreal Duran, his relentless pressure was incredible.

 

i always find it strange when people say 'leonard wins every time if he fights his own fight'. is it not equally likely that duran wins every time if he fights his own fight? (note, i don't agree with either of these statements)

it seems that to make these generalisations, there must be some fundamental misunderstandings about styles, and about what the styles of duran and leonard actually are.

1) 'boxers' don't automatically beat the stronger in-fighter if they impose their gameplan

2) duran was not simply a strong in-fighter

3) leonard was not simply a slick boxer

4) leonard's typical style was exhibited in the first fight, not the second

finally, it is not as simple as choosing to 'fight your own fight'. boxing isn't that simple. you can't just turn up and say 'today i'll box and move, he'll never touch me, i'll win a wide UD, nothing he can do about it'. maybe this is possible against a crude fighter, but duran was far from crude. although i'm starting to think that some see him this way...

 

Yeah? I was beginning to think it was just an urban myth floating around here that people actually believed that.