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

He only opted to fight Hearns and Benitez aggressively because they were outboxing him (Benitez to a lesser extent but he did take the middle rounds)

Not taking anything away from Duran here, he was awesome in this fight but he was way too willing to stand and trade even though he was coming up second best.

 

Show me or name me any fight pre too new orleans or after where SRL fought any different. Go watch, SRL/Larry Bonds & SRL bruce Finch + Ayub Kalule.

Read this:yep


http://www.thesweetscience.com/article-archive/2010/7636-the-fifth-god-of-war-roberto-duran

Since then, Leonard’s loss to Duran has been cleverly spun, re-packaged, and sold at a reduced price. It’s time to find our receipt and exchange a fable for the facts. And the facts begin with this: when both fighters were at their best, Duran was better.

 

Its different when he was fighting inferior opponents though, if you can come forward and win that way 95% of boxers will. He tried to outbox Benitez and could'nt so switched up and became more aggressive. Then afterwards when he was getting soundly outboxer by Hearns he switched more aggressive to change the flow of the fight.

Against Duran he was incensed by Duran prior to the fight and instead of seeing he was loosing fighting this way he just continued to come forward with the exact same tactics throughout and continued to lose throughout. Sure, he may have learnt a few things from this fight and it it made him a better fighter coming forward into his career but he never even attempted another strategy in this fight. Had he adopted the same tactics in the second fight he would have lsot again imo.

 

You should put this in the Classic so we can get the rest of the pricks such as MAG1965 coming up with his classic that SRL was still GREEN at the time

 

I favour Duran also personally although I will say there is not a lot between them

 

No way did he attempt to outbox benitez...HE COULD'NT!!! It was always rays plan to drag benitez into a close quarters toe 2 toe scrap & over power him:deal

I suggest you read that article as thats the truth of the matter. In the 2nd fight SRL just ran away. I recall at the time that the majority of the press castigated SRL as a fraud who lacked the required intestinal fortitude to be an ATG if pocking yer tongue out an opponant & tuanting where pre-resquisets for stardom NOT!!! Hence Hearns was the pick to beat Leonard by the majority of the scribes of the day & fans alike. But SRL showed he did have the required intestinal fortitude when he snatched victory from the jaws of certain defeat in the 14th.

I don't think you've seen much of SRL's fights, as i said HE'S ALWAYS FOUGHT THE SAME WAY & that was to overwhelm his foe's with blistering multi salvo's once he's got the 1st counter on target then it's an all out assault. SRL never adopted those leg it tactics again, not until he went in with Hagler.

I've heard about 20+ versions of Montreal from SRL/Dundee & it changes with every year. In truth SRL wanted no futher part of Duran period, it was only his manager/trainer janks Morten that told him to get Duarn back in the ring quick seeing he's porkied up too obscene levels & offered $9MILLION in ADVANCE which in todays money is proberbly around $50million + & Don King said YES!!!

 

Isn't that just the same thing though, when i say Leonard fought Duran's fight I give Duran the credit for that as he was the one who wound him up and kept him where he wanted him pretty much the whole fight. Whether it was Rays or Robertos fault the fact is Ray fought to Roberto's pace and style.

 

Well fair enough, I normally use 'Leonard fought Durans fight' in reference to the fact that he was drawn in but maybes that's a northern slang way of doing things. I certainly give Duran credit for the first fight though rather than saying Leonard din't box to his best or best strategy etc - but then again I don't think many people disagree with that.

 

I think Kelly exposed his style also. Naz got properly outboxed in spells in that fight

 

Duran/Leonard II and III weren't close either

 

Watch the 2nd round. Duran's feints and Fitzsimmons shift took Leonard out of his game.

Ray would always bide his time, wait to make an adjustment. Against Duran he couldn't. By the time he was getting back into it, he'd run out of rounds.

Masterful performance by Duran, who cut the distance way too efficiently for Ray. We know that if Ray had clowned around he'd have won. Duran beat him up in Montreal.

10-5 Duran, every time for me.

 

He liked to wait. Duran was in no mood to give him a chance.

 

Tired, but hardly getting 'battered around'.

 

I agree with Vano's scorecard, I had it the same.

A bigger myth is that "No Mas" was completely one-sided & Leonard was dominant. It was actually fairly close until Duran got fustrated with the show-boating