I have the fight dead even through 6. A few thoughts. The commentators are ridiculous. They're really trying to overhype and oversell the action, which is a shame because it's a compelling fight without the hysterics. Like Ferdie carrying on about basic punches to the body caving in Leonard's ribs. Duran swept 2 through 4 on my card but didn't do nearly as much damage as the commentators suggested, which became clear in rounds 5 and 6. I still don't see any reason whatsoever to believe the story that Leonard didn't move more because his head was in a cloud for three rounds. The obvious problem with that story is that Leonard moved even LESS in the rounds following the supposed head cloud. He probably moved more in Round 4 (especially early on) than in 5 and 6, where he was as flat-footed as ever and spent a lot of time with his back against the ropes. The big difference is that Leonard broke out the heavy punching and fireworks that he only used late in the preceding rounds much sooner in rounds 5 and 6. I don't see any difference in Leonard's footwork or mobility that seems attributable to a punch that landed in the middle of round 2. Whether his head was cloudy or not, I don't see it having any impact on his footwork, which is better explained by his and Angelo's pre-fight comments about standing up to Duran and showing him who's boss. Just my personal theory but tbh I think Leonard got scared in there and fought conservatively because he was afraid of getting clipped on the chin again by unexpected punches. I think he thought that he'd have an easier time avoiding Duran's onslaughts, and it scared him when he didn't. He spent the new few rounds getting his confidence back and finding the heart to fire back more. Just a theory. R1: Leonard (very close) R2: Duran R3: Duran R4: Duran R5: Leonard R6: Leonard
To me it wasn’t so much about his movement as his punching. His punches were not sharp and lacked bad intentions. He threw a few of his trademark flurries that look cool but do very little damage.from the end of 4-6 he seems to be digging in deeper to his punches especially his body shots, which are a little underrated. Interesting that similar to me (I had the first round even), you have avoided even rounds, where the judges had 19 out of 45 potential scoring rounds even or an avg of 6+ each.
Yeah, the judging was strange. Two of them gave the first round to Duran, which I can't see. Another had rounds 1,4,5, and 6 all even.
I wonder if they felt the pressure of a big fight and having thier decisions scrutinized, and reacted tentatively? Especially the judge who scored 10 even rounds I almost gave the first to Duran, but neither guy did a whole lot. Not sure I see giving it Ray? But to each thier own
Forgot about this part of his pre-fight interview, where Leonard admits that he had previously lied to the media about his health: https://streamable.com/egequ
C’mon bro! You can’t start a fight of the week thread and only review 6 rounds in 5 and a half days. If you are gonna spearhead this, you at least gotta review the whole fight.
Does anyone else have a scorecard tucked away? Even an older one. What do you guys think about even rounds? Do you score them often? Why were there so many in this fight, in particular the judge who had 10 of them. I really only felt there 4 that were close enough to warrant even rounds.
Sorry, it's been a crazy week! And I was hoping to hear from other people. But I just scored round 7 for Leonard (close round though), so I actually have Leonard ahead 4 rounds to 3 through 7.
We can do that in a week I am sure! Lol good call Or if we do some obscure Asian flyweight Flea can join in and school us!
I just scored Round 8 even. I felt that Leonard narrowly won almost all of the round, but Duran appeared to even things up (and possibly even stole the round) with that right hand lead in the final seconds. Was hard to tell the impact of the punch because of the camera angle though--Ferdie definitely exaggerated it, just like he exaggerated one of Leonard's punches earlier that round. I could see someone scoring that round either way. Seems like the kind of round where I might change my mind back and forth if I rewatch it some more. So I have Leonard up 4-3-1 through 8, but it could just as easily be 4-4 on my card.
Tried to watch the rest but kept getting distracted and a bunch of the second half rounds were so close that you really need to pay close attention to figure out how to score them. Several razor close rounds; a very competitive fight. The people who insist that Duran just dominated and destroyed Leonard would probably find the fight very eye-opening if they ever bother to rewatch it...
I would not say he dominated but I still found it clear and comfortable. I had Duran by 2 and feel he coasted the final 3 rounds. The judges have it similar. So after 12 rounds Duran was up about 5 rounds on cards. SRL would have needed a KD to have a shot...very clear and convincing
Which rounds did you feel were indisputably, undeniably Duran rounds? Rounds that would have been outrageous to score for Leonard? From reading your writeup, it seemed like you thought it would have been reasonable for someone to score rounds 10, 11, or 12 for Leonard. A 2-point fight where you award all 3 very close swing rounds to the winner doesn't seem very clear and convincing to me.
