The Myth About Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran

Leonard would have got back in the ring with him the next day.

 

Leonard wears those facts on his sleeve for all to see, he's said many times he pushed for the Duran rematch to be made as soon as possibly could be made as he knew that with Duran getting paid exponentially the biggest purse in his life in Montreal, he'd be in party mode for some time before he got back in the gym.
Against Hagler, he watched his every fight until he saw slippage enough to where he felt he could win against Hagler.

Leonard tells these stories like its a badge of honor that he did that. I dont know if Leonard realizes he's taking away from the achievment when he knowingly positions himself to fight a fighter who's no longer at his best.

 

If every fighter who wasn’t in peak, perfect condition quit … most fighters would have quit at some point or another in their careers.

 

Christian Giudaces Hands of Stone discussed Durans team worrying he would party his way out of the title and hurrying a rematch before Roberto imploded and lost to someone else first

I think it's a cheap excuse that Leonard alone rushed a rematch. Plus what great fighter wouldn't want an immediate rematch off such a difficult defeat

 

After the first Duran fight, Leonard went to Hawaii to get away from it all and was contemplating retirement. After being there maybe a week he went for a run on the beach and made up his mind that he not only wanted to fight again — he wanted Duran again. So he called his attorney Mike Trainer, and told him to make the rematch.

So whatever the narrative, Ray made up his mind before Duran could have gained too many pounds and instructed his guy to get the rematch made.

 

No.

 

Thats not how it went down and Leonard himself has told the story many times. He called Mike Trainer and told him to offer Duran whatever it takes for the rematch to be made at the earliest possible date knowing that Duran had a history of partying away and ballooning up in weight with his fight purses.
Having just made by far the most he's ever made, Leonard knew Duran would be in party mode for some time before he got back in the gym.
A smart move by Leonard yes, but to me it also takes away from the achievment as we know Duran was'nt nearly in the same shape he was in Montreal.
The Duran from Montreal was in such great shape he was willing to die in the ring to walk away with what he came for.
A fighter who's not in great shape never gets in that type of "willing to die in the ring" mode.

Whats that old saying that relates to fighters? "Fatigue makes cowards of us all."
Yes Duran was stupid and it was his fault he was'nt in the same shape as he was in Montreal, but the point is that Leonard himself has admitted that Duran in New Orleans was not the same Duran he faced in Montreal.
Its cut and dry that simple.

Leonard to Trainer: Offer Duran the most he's ever made, if he turns it down, offer him more.
Thats what happened, Duran got offered an amount he could not turn down, and if you think Leonard's team did'nt threaten Duran with "Its happening on this day or of the offer of the table" then you dont know how the powers that be in boxing operate.

What needs to be understood here is that up to the Leonard fight in Montreal, Duran had'nt even sniffed what making real money in boxing was like, so he was'nt going to turn down the ammount of money offered to him at that time no matter what his predicament was.

 

Have you considered that Duran just made a stupid, spur of moment decision (like a guy who goes to buy a bag of chips and ends up attempting a robbery)?

He had plenty of fight left when he quit.

 

What you're saying is probably true but I don't see how it refutes what divac said. His argument and yours don't seem mutually exclusive.

 

I think he’s reading too deeply into the reasons for Duran’s quitting. Duran probably fought other times in similar or even worse shape before the rematch even happened.

It reminds me of how Montana Love tossed that guy over the top rope recently. Like Duran’s fight, it was an impulsive decision that happened out of frustration in fights they were losing but not that that far down in. The guy Love fought was being dirty and Leonard wasn’t engaging enough.

 

Leonard himself has admitted that he called Trainer like 2 weeks after the first fight, while he was still in Hawaii, and said get me Duran as soon as possible.

Duran in Montreal was in the best shape a man could be. Two weeks later he was still in great shape. If he choose to keep partying for months on end, even if Leonard expected him to do that, the real point is that Duran didn’t have the discipline necessary to sustain greatness.

Did he not think he would ever defend that 147-pound title? They fought five months later and this wasn’t in the days when guys fought twice a year. Was he going to wait til January? March? Sit on the title for a whole year?

As pointed out, his own management and training team thought he’d come in half-assed against a nobody and lose the title for peanuts if he didn’t fight Leonard again — if ANYTHING would have made him train seriously and get ready, it was a career-high purse in a rematch with Leonard … beats the hell out of showing up unmotivated and REALLY out of shape and having Randy Shields or Pete Ranzany taking the title off him for a couple hundred thousand dollars.

For the entirety of Duran’s career, the tactic was ‘get him back in the ring as quickly as possible’ so he wouldn’t lapse further out of shape. Yet for this one fight, all of a sudden a 5-month span between fights isn’t enough? Do you think if they had signed the fight for January instead of November that Duran would have (a) started training at the same time and worked out like a man possessed, or (b) kept partying for a while longer because he knew the fight wasn’t imminent? What in his entire history says he needed MORE time between fights when from the start of his career it was ‘get him back in the ring ASAP’?

Duran knew the rematch was being negotiated. He spent six weeks training in Miami before arriving in New Orleans for the rematch. Before that he trained in the Catskills. There’s a thread with links to contemporary sources that chronicle all of this. The ‘he was 300 pounds and lost down to 147 in two weeks’ type narrative is hogwash. Was he in as good a shape as he was for Montreal? No. But he was in shape.

But let’s get down to brass tacks: Why did he quit? He wasn’t exhausted, keeling over to catch his breath. He wasn’t battered and beaten to pieces. He wasn’t even far behind on the scorecards. So why did he quit? How is that on anyone but him?

 

Actually, it was ‘we want the fight this year’ (first fight was in June, not exactly ridiculous to not wait more than six months … how many six-month layoffs between fights had Duran EVER had) and they made him the offer to give Duran more money than he could turn down … but if he did turn it down or didn’t want to fight that year, Leonard was going to fight Cuevas instead.

Duran and his people could have chosen to let him waddle into the ring against a Randy Shields in January or February or March half-ass prepared and watched him sleepwalk to an upset loss and watched while Leonard fought Cuevas or they could take the money and fight Leonard again.

Frankly if Duran wasn’t injured (he wasn’t), it wouldn’t have been out of line to strip him of the title if he was in no shape to defend it by the end of the year. Most champions defended around four times a year in those days, some (including Duran at lightweight) even more.

 

This has the ring of truth to it

 

Fighters so often have excuses after losses or poor performances that it’s hard to take them seriously. Duran had a lot of them.

From what I can find, the negotiations for the rematch had been on and off for awhile, probably just ironing out the details.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...rematch/80b5da9c-735b-49de-8cee-50776e5262f9/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...rematch/a440c07e-f43d-4dda-92d2-5f83746d2bbe/

The time between the two fights was the longest inactivity (5 months) Duran had in his career at that point. I’m sure he partied a lot, but the extent of how fat he got and how weakened he was to make 147, I’m guessing is exaggerated.

I thought he was pretty competitive in the rematch, which made his quitting more bizarre and bad.

There is a big narrative about how Leonard got sucked into a brawl in Montreal, but I really don’t think he was that much out of his usual style. Ray was versatile and fought in different styles, but usually was at his best when he would box flat footed. Unfortunately for him, Duran was all over him. I don’t think Ray changed his style in the first fight. His changed his style for the rematch and Hagler fight.