The Myth-buster thread ***Duran-Leonard 1 WAS NOT CLOSE***

New Topic, Front Page, here's the OP:

Naz - Barrera has been dusted now, so we move on.



Hands of Stone vs The Sugar Man



Many people, particulalrly Leonard fans, continually say this was a CLOSE FIGHT, and that Ray fought the WRONG fight. Bull**** on both accounts. Duran drew Leonard into a slugfest, brought the fight up close, and out worked Leonard throughout the fight. Ray wasnt given the chance to fight his fight, and was out-muscled by the lightweight. Duran landed the better, harder shots throughout, and won 10 round to 5 on my card (145-140). Here is my rbr breakdown:



Duran – Leonard rbr



Round 1 – Close round with Duran forcing the action. 1-0 Duran



Round 2 – Duran round, hurts Leonard midway through. Good body shots. 2-0 Duran



Round 3 –Leonard spends 2 of the 3 minutes with his back on the ropes, Duran punishing him on the inside. Ray isn’t boxing the wrong fight, Duran is imposing himself on Ray, pounding the body. 3-0



Round 4 – Ray keeps the distance better for 90 seconds before Duran hits whim with a bomb. works inside. Ray having slightly more success, but the harder punches are coming from Duran on the inside. Much closer round, but still Duran for me. 4-0



Round 5 – Much better work from Leonard. His best round as he outworks Roberto. 4-1



Round 6 – Leonard again not doing enough. The combinations lack the force, and the majority are blocked by Duran on the inside. A couple of good single shots from Ray are nullified by Roberto’s work up close. But i’m feeling generous, Ray nicks the round. 4-2



Round 7 – Two best shots of the round were both left hooks, both scored by Duran. Ray’s body shots are not having as much effect as Duran’s left to the body. Again, the classier work is from Duran. 5-2



Round 8 – Duran misses with a wild right, and what’s this, he does a little dance to Ray! Quiet first 2 and a half minutes with both fighters taking a breather before Duran explodes with a right, driving Ray back. More body work wins him the round. 6-2



Round 9 – Naughty from Duran. Leads with the head and catches ray on the ref’s blind side, clearly bothers ray. But again, Sugar is looking sour as Duran outworks him clearly to win another round. The 135lb man is out-muscling the large Welterweight. 7-2



Round 10 – Duran gets bored of out muscling Ray on the inside, so out-jabs him instead. Boom, big right from Duran, he forces his way inside and works the body. Anyone else see a pattern here? Every time Duran comes in Ray flinches rather than punches. Ray lands a few good shots at the end of the round, but the damage has already been done. 8-2



Round 11- Finally another round for Ray! An absolute peach of a shot catches Duran coming in. An uppercut follows. Good action on the inside, with Leonard definitely getting the better of it. He needs more. Much more. 8-3 Duran



Round 12 – Frustration! After a good previous round, Ray concedes the initiative and allows Duran to outwork him. A left-right-left combo from Duran is the best flurry of the round. The better work on the inside again allow duran to nick the round, and looks very confident going back to his corner. 9-3



It is interesting that after 12 rounds, Ray has been out muscled by the lightweight, and beaten up on the inside. Ray has only won 3 rounds on my card. In comparison, Naz Hamed won 4 rounds on my card against Barrera after 12 (with 1 even), and that is considered a schooling. Can the same be said for this fight?



Round 13 – BOOM, big left from Duran tags Leonard. BOOM, big right tags Leonard! BOOM, another right! Ray is certainly showing his chin, but he is now out and out slugging with Duran. And he is coming off second best. Duran looks as if he lands 80% of his punches in that round. Good flurry at the end of the round by Leonard, but that isn’t enough to cancel out Duran’s good work previously. Great from Roberto. 10-3



Round 14 – Duran waves Leonard towards him at the start of the round, and Ray obliges, tags Duran with a hard shot. Very nip and tuck round, Duran perhaps landing more, but Ray comes on strong for the last 30 seconds, and we see the BOLO PUNCH from Ray. Nice. He even throws it GOING BACKWARDS AND HOLDING DURAN’S HEAD! Bonus points for cheekiness. He is getting beaten up, but still showcases his many talents. Good round for Ray. 10-4



Round 15 – Really good final round, but not for the action. Midway through, Ray throws a flurry of punches, and Duran ducks and weaves past them all. Leonard just can’t hit him! Duran sticks his chin out. ‘Hit me, hit me’, but Leonard cant. Ray does, however, land the better shots in the final stanza to take the round. 10-5



Ray puts his hands in the air to claim victory, which annoys Roberto. ‘**** you. You ****, I beat you, *****!’ he says in broken English.



145-140, 10 rounds to 5 in Duran’s favour. The proof was in Ray’s swollen and dejected face.



When hearing that one of the judges had it a draw, the ESPN commentator says ‘well, he must have showed up late and missed a dozen rounds. It was Duran all by himself and took the fight away from Sugar Ray Leonard.’





Can we dispell this myth once and for all?



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SwxhqOpA1M[/ame]



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZnsDfrnZjY&feature=relmfu[/ame]



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT1hknlqzIo&feature=relmfu[/ame]



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFt2vePFXHc&feature=relmfu[/ame]



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDq2rAP9CfU&feature=relmfu[/ame]



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u45xvjRSvAk&feature=relmfu[/ame]



Final part can be seen on YouTube.



Lets get everyone's thoughts on this, regardless on the bias commentary on this version in Ray's favour

 

Perhaps Myth-busters is the wrong word then, misconceptions would be a better word to use. How did you score this fight?

YES! This is what I was waiting for. I was having a dicussion with someone the other day, and I said the last time I scored it, i had it 10-5 Duran, to which he replied it was razor thin and that I was crazy. The fight was very competitive (as you would expect, when a bout involves two great fighters), no doubt, and i'm not saying Duran took Ray to school, but it was fairly clear on the cards, rather than being razor thin. Ray wasnt schooled at all, and remained punching until the end. But scoring on a round by round basis, the fight was fairly one sided IMO, with Roberto continually out working Ray, nicking round after round on the scorecard

 

I think the rounds were pretty clear to score in this one tho. I also take exception to people saying it was razor thin, which in reality it wasnt. Duran clearly won. He beat Ray to the punch, forced his fight, out- muscled, and outworked Leonard for the majority of the fight. It says a lot that Leonard's best rounds are 14 and 15, once Duran already had a massive lead.

Castilo - Floyd is a good one to revisit. Ive only watched it once, and I think I have Jose winning by a hair. That'l be the next topic :good

 

It really frustrates me when people say 'Ray fought Duran's fight', as it completely overlooks the fact that maybe, just maybe, Duran was good enough to draw Ray into a dog fight. He had wound him up all week before the fight, and Roberto simply forced his will onto the bigger man.

One of the greatest wins in boxing history IMO

Yup, one judge had it 147-147 I think, which is complete crap. I think Don King later said that judge probably scored Pearl Habour a draw