Well, Somehow the 80's managed to slip past us without this matchup ever occuring. It's rather Ironic when you think about it, that we had fights like Leonard-Hearns, Leonard-Duran, Leonard-Hagler, Hagler-Hearns, Hagler-Duran, and Duran-Hearns, but never Donald Curry vs any of those guys. I wouldn't be surprised if this thread was started by someone else in the past, and if it was, then I appologize. As long as we're here though, what are your guy's thoughts on a fantasy matchup between Curry and Leonard, or for that matter, Curry against any of the other greats of the 80's? -Magoo-
Had Leonard stayed active he would have fought Curry after Stafford and Pryor. Curry had similar talent but his tools and intangiables were not on the same level as Leonards.
Ray could be a killer to the body as well as the head. Curry didn't have the firepower to dent Ray's chin. Nor could his chin have withstood SRL's power. From late 1982, until his upset loss to Lloyd Honeyghan in late 1986, Curry was considered by many to have been the best P4P boxer in the world, but ultimately, he was not an ATG like Leonard. Even during Donald's title run, Jun Suk Hwang dropped him, demonstrating that even at his peak, Curry's chin could be dented. SRL takes this one late, if it's peak for peak, but I wouldn't be surprised if Leonard ends it earlier.
Curry did have plenty of "firepower" to stop SRL inside 12 rounds...... My pick would be Curry by late round tko ......
Now you're simply trying to be the sort of Devil's advocate provocateur that only Froggy with the Funny Eyes can carry off well enough to get under people's skins! Nobody was ever able to drop SRL at WW, not Hearns or Duran. Ray wasn't decked until his miserable first comeback showing against Kevin Howard. How do you rationalize that a boxer who had to go the distance with Adolfo Viruet, Jun Suk Hwang, and Marlon Starling twice, without scoring any knockdowns, is going to be able to take out an opponent with 15th round and 14th round kayo wins against peaking ATG's Benitez and Hearns?
I agree that Curry isn't going to hurt Leonard that much, but to be fair i think Marlon Starling was even harder to hurt than Ray.
So you agree with Hearns, that Ray's bodyshots late against Tommy in their first match (which although in Hearns's own words were, "good, hard, clean bodyshots"), did not have a significant effect in slowing Hearns down, as Tommy emphatically claimed they didn't? (By the way, anytime someone says they agree with me about ANYTHING, I start to get very scared, and then begin to lose sleep! I'm far too gleefully irresponsible to shoulder the pressures of such burdens!)
That may very well be true. (Did Starling sustain an official KD in his career? I can't find any evidence that the Magic Man ever was.)
I wasnt privy to that interview, to be honest, but when watching Leonard in retrospect, i noticed that his dazzling fusilade of punches would be more flurry than in combination, thus less substance behind the shots landed. He always seemed more of a headhunter, than somebody who would work the body first. I always thought that (bodypunching) was one the major differences between Robinson and Leonard, in that Robinson would go in overtime to bang away to the body, where as Leonard would only use it sparingly
He couldn't use a body attack against Duran, because of the way Roberto slanted his body. Bodyshots are frequently colorless punches, unless they do significant damage, or are delivered from outside (where everybody can see them). The interview is one thing, but footage of SRL's actual body attack on Tommy is something else. (I'd have to review the footage to rediscover when Ray went downstairs.) Incidentally the most flamboyant showboating punch of Leonard's career may have been a bodyshot; specifically, his wind-up bolo punch to Hagler's breadbasket, which gave many the impression Ray was in complete command of that match (whether or not he actually was).