The best fighter who did the least training.

Yeah, when he was so supremely gifted...and when he fell to earth so suddenly, and became mortal, he was thrashed by guys like Matthew Hilton and Davey Moore...two guys who wouldn't have had even a slim chance of beating him in the years '76 through '82.

 

I think I can remember someone saying to me that Harada had lax training habits and a love of the high life, hence the reason for him moving up to bantam. I'm not sure though.

 

Joey Giardello

 

Yeah Mantequilla just said that in a Harada thread I made last week.

I wasnt aware of this..I thought he just moved up because he was young and still filling out. But it was to much sake and women by the looks of it.

 

Well , if Duran was that stupid that he didn´t train for the second fight against leonard he can only blaim himself that he lost. however I can´t imagine a top pro to be that unprofessional for an upcoming fight, it´s easy to say "I didn´t train much" when you lose.
I know about a tennisplayer, probably the best in the world ever, who always had some pain somewhere after he had lost a game, but never when he won
I bet Sugar Ray spent all his days on the beach before the fight and he won cause he was faster and smarter
IMO
The predator

 

The point is that Duran let himself go so much in celebrating his win in Leonard I that he wasn't anyway ready for Leonard II, only 5 months later. That was where SSL was so smart with the timing of II.

Duran must have trained bloody hard to get down to 146 again. But his preparation was anything but ideal, and the result history.

 

it wasnt that he did not train, but by leonards own admission, he knew that duran would not have enough time to get into top condition.

 

That's where Leonard and Trainer were smart, they made sure Duran had enough time to eat and drink himself out of shape ,but not enough to steadilly get back in.

 

ah, perhaps and then SRL didn´t use the same fightplan in the second fight as he did in the first.
The Predator

 

Id be interested to see how that gameplan would have held up against a far more focused and in shape Duran from the first fight.

Ray was doing a hell of a lot of moving, a lot of clowning and taunting but not much punching and certainly not a lot of landing until the last round and half.

15 rounds of that amount of crazy movement..which despite what some people say, was not Leonard's usual style, not to that extent anyway...against an animal like Duran, who knows how that would have ended up.
Roberto always found a way to catch up to backfoot fighters when at lightweight.

 

Duran takes responsibility for getting an ass whooping in the rematch. The better man won that night. :good

 

James "Butthole" Douglas was often a lazy slob who entered the ring.....

 

Well, insight is 20/20 and, frequently, memories are manipulated and deformed to fit. But, if what this guy writes is true, then Leonard's manager was a real hustler:

"In August, Janks Morton called Leonard and told him to get back to the gym. He told Leonard that Duran was blowing up like a balloon. Morton recalls telling Leonard, "Listen, this guy (Duran) is getting fat. I'm told he's around 180 and climbing. Why don't we get back in the gym for a few weeks and begin thinking about Duran again. You can meet him again this year and we both know you can beat him, even on his best day. We'll see just how soon the fight can be made. How 'bout it?"

Leonard, a fierce competitor, had heard all he had to hear. His month of sulking and depression had come to an end.

"Let's go to work," Leonard said. "I've got a score to settle with Duran."

 

Anyway, if this is true, Duran can't only blame himself for his defeat :twisted:


"Three days before the bout, Leonard checked his weight in the morning. It was 147. Duran also checked his. It was 157. As he stepped off the scale, Duran wore a confused, dismayed and disoriented look, as if he were snapping out of a hypnotic trance. In Spanish, he said, "No es posible!" ("This is not possible!") The reality of the situation finally hit him. He had to lose 10 pounds. He had to do so in 72 hours. Given Leonard's superb physical condition and Duran's lack of it, Duran's chances of victory were reduced to microscopic, at best. When Duran's entourage took over to "help" him reduce weight on Friday, they were all but returning the belt to Leonard's waist and restoring the crown to his head.

Convinced by a member of his entourage that he had to rid himself of water weight, Duran took a diuretic -- given to him by another entourage member -- on Friday. Within a short while, Duran's rocket scientist buddies had him believing that it stands to reason the more diuretics one takes, the more water -- and more weight -- one can lose. With that ingenious thinking and logic, Duran began popping one diuretic after another.

If that wasn't bad enough, yet another Duran lackey, undoubtedly a nutritional consultant to dozens of major corporations, world leaders and top athletes, suggested to Duran that he refrain from eating anything until after Monday morning's weigh-in. You read it right. Monday morning. Seventy-two hours of eating nothing! This genius reasoned to Duran that he was in great shape and that taking off 10 pounds over the weekend would do his body no harm. Duran was told that not only would fasting help him lose weight, but cleanse his body, as well.

"I wanted to kick each one of their asses," said Brown. "My one real regret is that I didn't, and I should have!"

Duran questioned the intelligence of such a plan, but realized, short of having a leg amputated, 10 pounds would not melt off over the weekend. Not losing those 10 pounds, not making the welterweight limit of 147, would mean forfeiture of the WBC title. The rules were simple: If Duran came in overweight, the fight would still go on. A Leonard victory would make Leonard the champion once again. However, if an overweight Duran won, the WBC would declare the title vacant. Duran had to lose the 10 pounds. He was in a situation and in a place he had never been in before. Duran was trapped in a corner."