How much does "No Mas" hurt Roberto Durans legacy

A lot, Duran is suposed to be the toughest guy in the world. That's at least how his fans/suportors cast him. Its easy to be the toughest guy in the world when you have a willing victim in front of you. However, when the other guy dosn't play his role. Than we see how tough you really are. Ray Leonard did not play his role and when he did in the first fight. The judges simpily decided Duran was better. Duran did not beat Leonard, he did not bully him or embarse him in their first fight. He was merrly awarded the victory. In the second fight Leonard made adjustments. He fought on his terms not Durans. When faced with adversity Duran crumbled, he quit.
Outside of his one win over Leonard. Duran never won when he stepped up.

 

Tough to answer. On one hand, outright quitting a fight in the middle of the bout when he still had plenty of fight left, and still plenty of rounds to try to change things around, is disgraceful, does not demonstrate the heart, toughness and intestinal fortitude in the face of adversity you would like to see from a great champion. On the other hand, look at Duran's overall body of work. He did so much before that, and so much after, that you have to give him a pass to a certain degree, or at least place a bad night into perspective and into the context of an overall fantastic career. He is human, after all.

 

Without No Mas, Duran goes down in history as merely a candidate for a top 50 all time slot, rather than top 10 Great, he surely is.

Without No Mas, you would not have the amazing redemption stories against Cuevas, Moore and Hagler.

Then when all seemed quite on the Duran front, one final bit of brilliance happened one snowy February evening in Atlantic City...

 

:deal

It must be 26 years ago i made my new girlfriend (now wife) sit & watch the 2nd fight along with a few mates, she was there to fetch & serve the booze & grub. Like most women my misses hates boxing, i've made the mistake of taking her to vegas for a fight & she's just sat there watching what other women were wearing to see if it clashed with her outfit.

Anyway like all the girls comments you showed it too, my missis pretended to be paying attention along with me & the lads as i was spewing abuse at Leonard, well it shows how much attention she paid as when she went out to get me a refill & came back in & another fight was on, her words were to me were after i pushed her for an opinion about duran walking out the ring, she said this: In all honesty i don't know why you are getting so worked up & defending him as all he did was run around the ring, i thought you said he was meant to be a fighter, we all looked at her & she said whats up, this duran's the black guy is'nt he?atsch She just shrugged her shoulders & ****ed off back into the kitchen.

Problem here on classic is simple, the majority now absolutly **** all about Leonard & even less about Duran:bbb

 

Hey, at least she knew that it's called a ring where the black guy named Duran was running around in.:good

 

Duran live(d) by his own rules. No Mas affects his legacy about as much as SRL fighting like a plain fool against Duran in the first fight affects his legacy. They're both ATGs, and they both put it all on the line, all the time.

 

An anomaly in his career. Sure, it hurts but he is still top-5 all time in my book. It happened right at the very end of his prime or just after. It was a loss, plain and simple. And he had beaten this man who beat him.

Does Liston get crucified for quitting twice against Clay?

 

I think he does, especially from the casual fan, who may not have seen him in any other fights, or been aware that he was somewhere in his mid 30's.

 

"No Mas" doesn't mean moose **** anymore in 2011..... Why the **** not?? Because, Roberto Duran fought for another 21 years and added two more world titles that were legit at 154 & 160 pounds in 1983 and 1989.... Anyone still holding the '80 "No Mas" affair against Duran is a shear hater....

Same goes with any ******* whining that Vital Klit is a quitter cuz he quit while ahead against Chris Byrd in 2000 due to a serious rotor-cuff injury.... C'mon, V.K. has done a whole lotta' ass-kickin' since 2000..... Haters need to focus and smell the coffee on the stove brewing....

MR.BILL:hatbbb

 

Come again'? :huh

 

Not that much, IMO.

If that had been the end for him, it would have been a poor swan-song, and his legacy would definitely have taken a hit.


But I don't think one anomalous event in a great and lengthy career will have much impact.


He subsequently earned redemption with a great win over Davey Moore, a competitive loss to Hagler, and a great, great win over Barkley.

His legacy is secure.

 

OK. Fair point.
I should have said Duran's ranking doesn't seem to suffer anywhere near as much as those others, in spite of the fact that we all know all about his **** losses.
Duran manages to get handed a pass on it anyway, whereas others don't.

Duran routinely gets rated in the top 5 or top 10 p4p all-time greats around here. If anyone put Chavez or Holyfield anywhere near their top 5 there would be a **** storm.

 

Well with all these fighters they are judged by their entire body of work, not just one fight. Duran's body of work just happens to place him in at that level. One has to believe that he'd probably get at least another ranking spot, perhaps two, if the "No Mas" incident never happened.

I would venture to say that the higher ranked you are, the more scrutiny a fighter gets and issues such as these that move a fighter down when trying to pick between say Ali and a Duran or any other fighter ranked close to Duran.

 

Not at all ... everyone knows it was a stupid reflex action ... he went to finght for many more years and never gave an inch ... he won titles and performed brilliantly against much bigger, younger and stronger men for fifteen years after that fight ... to me it's one stupid night ...

 

As a matter of fact Liston WAS crucified for his two quit jobs vs Ali. Go and research the times back then when those two fights took place. Liston was pilloried for quitting in Miami...called a "dog"..by most ex boxing champs and writers of the time. As a matter of fact, it still hurts his legacy..despite the regard Liston gets from some fans today..they just weren't around at the time when he quit on his stool and when he took his suspicious swan dive in Lewiston the following year. Even in most debates in this forum, doubt is often cast on the quality of Sonny's heart and the tell tale traits of a bully who quits when the going gets rough is often brought up as well.