No Mas 35 Year Anniversary

Time flies. Duran's time as a truly elite fighter ended with Duran/Leonard I. That was the pinnacle.

Here, Leonard clearly has the gameplan of moving and boxing from the outset, and Duran lacks the fire of the first fight.

It is debatable whether Leonard would have won the first fight if he employed this strategy from the first bell, but win or lose, it would not have worked as well as it did here. Here, Leonard moves and Duran follows him around, without the fire and aggression he displayed in the first fight.

 

Hard pressed to ever find two fights with this type of highs and lows. Some have called the SRL win the greatest win in boxing history (I'm not one of them btw, but it certainly belongs in the mix) followed by one of the most humiliating losses in boxing history.

 

True, but he came back in a big way even though past prime and against bigger and younger fighters.

 

Ya I can see by your other responses regarding Duran how this must keep you up at nights. atsch

 

I suppose we should be grateful for this fight. Has to be the most discussed bout on this forum. Nauseatingly redundant though it is, it still never fails to turn up the temperature in this place.

 

Perfectly put, S:good

 

35 years, i must be getting old. I rate Duran one of the best ever naturals. I've got to say I was rooting for him and was disappoined but I just put it down to a moment of madness. I don't think he was in the same shape or as focused as he was for the first fight. Imagine how we'd look at him now if he's of just packed up after that first fight. Everything he done after that was post prime, mentally as well as physically and out of his natural weight class. He still showed us moments of magic.

 

Floyd got a lot of **** for barely throwing anything against Pacquaio. Yet Ray threw far less punches against Duran here- in fact if the fight would've gone 15 he still would have threw less than Mayweather did in 12.

Not a truly awe inspiring performance. You want to see Duran get outboxed go watch the Benitez fight.

 

Actually the beauty of Duran is that his spirit never broke. He was a legend in Panama, they even had a Robero Duran day for him, then after he lost this fight, his two long time trainers Arcel/Brown quite, and he couldn't walk the streets anymore and basically stayed in his house. Even King left him and there were numerous calls for him to retire, but despite all that, he essentially said **** you all, and he started his come back which resulted in him winning the jr middleweight title, almost beating Hagler, and beating Barkley who had just KO'd Hearns in his previous fight.

An amazing accomplishment all told.

That aside I was just ****ing with you Kevin ( or MrKool if you prefer) , don't take it personally.

 

Actually I for one, really enjoyed those moments of magic at the higher weights. When he was trained and focused, he was probably the best fighter I've seen in my lifetime, and I'm in my early 50's, so that covers a lot of ground.

 

same as me, early 50's. :good

 

The night that started the journey for Duran from 'mere' great to a legend.

By the time the Barkley fight had finished eight and a bit years later, arguably the greatest redemption story in sports had been told.

 

Ray Arcel was truly scared by this result and he was never able to reconcile it. Shortly before the bout he said he had come to the place of viewing Duran as the greatest fighter he had ever trained over Benny L., a statement he later modified because of Duran's quitting.

 

That's one way to look at it. You can also say it is the beginning of the slide because Leonard I was the pinnacle. That was peak Duran. Moore and Barkley were good fighters, but not legend makers.