Leonard's disgusting late eighties era

Fact is, in five fights with those guys, Duran was lucky to win ONE fight.

When you make a list that only includes those four guys, Duran is at the bottom.

He did the worst when they all fought each other.

 

Some of the American New York-based publications had Sugar 'Media Darling' Ray Leonard winning the fight apparently.
Well, there it is.

 

It actually does Leonard a disservice to have him winning that 1st Duran fight.
He showed his mettle losing over 15 rounds, putting on such a great performance and by coming back to challenge Duran so quickly to regain the title.
He admitted he lost and came back smarter and better.

 

Leonard's greatest fight was the Hearns fight in 1981.

It is perhaps true he never did much of worth afterwards. The Hagler fight was a remarkable comeback but not the true classic fight it's sometimes portrayed as, and I'm one of those who is totally unconvinced by it being a "win" (although I can't say Hagler was outright robbed of victory either.)

Quite amazing what Leonard managed to achieve in his first 4 or 5 years as a professional though.
It became a circus later on but at least Leonard had paid some dues early on. Nowadays, fighters have whole careers that are like a circus.

 

Priceless. What a 42 carat plonker you really are, travolt.

 

Riiiiiight!! So again, what are you on man? It is prescribed? I'm joking but half serious here. SRL NEVER hurt Duran in any of those rounds, and NOTHING like Duran hurt him. He was seriously hurt in 2nd and 3rd rounds. Name me the round Duran was seriously hurt. As I mentioned, the body blows duran was throwing were brutal, SRL didn't do nearly that kind of damage. You keep referencing the score cards... I'm saying WATCH THE DAMN FIGHT. The entire fight is on youtube. You don't need to go by what others say (who have their own inherent bias) YOU can watch it. You seem to think this is the first time a clear decision was closer on the cards than in the reality of most viewers. I know you aren't new to boxing, so why are you acting so surprised here. SRL was the poster boy, and Duran gave away the last 2/3 rounds feeling he was comfortable ahead (He was) and he still won. Since you seem to believe SRL could've won, I'd ask you to submit your card and show me the rounds SRL won that gave him the victory. Shouldn't be too hard.

 

The notion that it wasn't a close fight because Duran won a few rounds decisively and looked better after the fight is hilarious to me.

 

Any thoughts on the detailed round by round McGrain posted last year, where he awarded the fight to Leonard?

 

Competitive is fine, it was, what I'm asking you is... have you ever scored it for SRL? That is the pertinent question here. If you never have, that should tell you all you need to know.

 

This is spot on.

 

Please link me to that thread. I must've missed that one.

 

He was an all time great by 1982

Everything after that was to make $$$

I thought he beat Hagler in a close fight. And I wanted Hagler to win.

The second Hearns fight was controversial, but Leonard had already beaten him in the superfight in which Leonard unified the Welterweight title. The second fight was just to milk $$ from the public who remembered when Leonard and Hearns were great fighters in the early '80s. And he had avenged the Duran loss in '80. The third fight was easy $$$ for Leonard and a final big payday for Duran.

 

Yes, I have....By one point. There are a couple of very close rounds, that could go either way. Not much happens in the first, then Duran hurts SRL and takes control. But Leonard finds his footing and starts to come back and make a really, really good fight of it . Leonard and Duran start swapping rounds on my card from round six to round 12. Then Leonard closes stronger and sweeps the final three frames as Duran takes the foot off the pedal.

There are a number of extremely close rounds on my card. Rounds 1, 8, 12 and 13 are all won by razor thin margins (or could reasonably be scored even). So, if they all go to Leonard, along with the last two, and 6 and 10 (both of which I usually score Leonard), that gets him to 143-142. If a couple of them go to Duran, he gets the nod.

But even if I don't always take the path to a Leonard victory (and the last time I remember calling the fight for Duran by a point) I can still see it whenever I watch the fight.