All the anticipation leading up to it. All the news EVERYDAY in the regular newspapers and on the news (of which there was only ABC, CBS & NBC). The Fighter of the Decade that had just passed vs the heir apparent for the new decade. The fence between them at the early week weigh in. Unlike Hearns or Cooney or Holmes etc, these were both fighters who were known for yrs and yrs. The greatest line of all in Pete Axhelm's article in "Time", "if they were in another profession, Leonard would be the young, engaging reporter telling about the natural and aesthetic effects of Mt. St. Helens eruption. Duran would be the volcano." 71-1 vs. 27-0. Old school vs new school. To this day, besides Ali-Frazier, which it oddly mirrored, it was by far the bigggest and best matchup of my lifetime. I remember sitting on my front steps that morning of, daydreaming about the night & fight ahead. How could the new champ overcome the wrath and sheer pitiless fury of the great F I G H T E R whom over the last 9 yrs we had marveled at and shared so much. Our own pocket Jack Dempsey, he to correct the wrongs of the world and smite down the cool kids and stuck up emboldened in our lives. You lived vicariously thru the fighter you supported in this fight and as you got yr stuff ready to go to the closed circuit showing you felt trained to help out fistically if needed. Such a great week and night. And the fight lived up to the hype. The best welterweight title fight I ever saw in terms of action, punches, will and the highest level of contestants. No other fight ( especially the next yrs fight w the tall guy) ever came close. Plus, after this fight the myth spell was broken, one was defeated and another satiated; never to look that small physically or fight with his 13 yr ferocious style again (would become a counter puncher). Can't believe 40 have gone by soooo fast. Love 'em or hate them, but remember the night and what boxing was when it stopped the world to watch. SUGAR RAY LEONARD VS. ROBERTO DURAN. 15 rounds. Montreal's Olympic Stadium, Quebec, Canada. Where were you. Give me YOUR memories of THAT night please.
I don't altogether agree. I'm constantly learning fascinating stories of boxing in the olden days, and so are lots of other people. I've already found out I don't like talking about fantasy fights with several people. I mean let's face it, who wants to be verbally attacked like someone wants to take your neck off for saying Tyson would floor so and so with left hook rather than the right uppercut? or something along those lines. Fantasy fights are more challenging though. At least with real fights there's far less arguing can be done. I think the allure of fantasy fight discussions is that everyone can reason everything out to turn ANY fight into a WAR, when really a lot of them would be quick and easy KOs or slow-moving yawners. I mean, who's ever started a thread on Eddie Machen vs. Johnny Nelson?
It was awesome. Two prime greats going toe to toe for 15 rounds. A couple of days after the fight I went down to the local cafe with my dad. There were a bunch of regulars in there who had been around boxing for decades, the sort of old coots who were loathe to give credit to anyone who fought after 1960 ("Joe Louis woulda knocked that Clay's 'ead orf!"). Even they were raving about the fight.
I saw the fight on what was called back then, closed circuit television at an auditorium .I believe I paid the incredible sum of 12 bucks. The general casual fan opinion seemed to be Sugar Ray was going to win , generally I think because Ray had been really promoted to the public as the golden child of boxing. I'd seen Duran many times and I picked him even though Leonard was younger ,bigger and faster. The fight was conducted on an A+ level by both men, in my lifetime I've never seen anything near that again. The closet would be Arguello Pryor and Ali Frazier 1 in my opinion.
$20 for me in Cincinnati. Pryor destroyed richandhuffs hero Carl Crowley in 20 seconds on the undercard. The New York writers and William Nack were all for Duran. Me too. I won bets. It was the last time Duran looked tight and small, but ferocious. Leonard is the only 1 who faced THAT Duran. I had Duran winning 11 rds then and 11 rds now. Easy fight. Really it was the culmination of a decade of greatness and violence for Roberto and after the fight he was never seen again. A thicker counter puncher w/out the hell-bent for leather attitude emerged from the chrysalis. Great night. Thx for sharing yr memories.
