Why do people rate Donald curry so highly?

Dont go you really made a great thread put forward some excellent points and ..i learnt a lot off you...like the olympic trials tv thing.

The forum will be a poorer place without you!

 

Donald wasn't intimidated by Honeyghan- nobody even knew who he was.
I agree you can tell from the first round Donald is off.
Mills Lane in his book claims Donald walked around at 180 pounds in between bouts and got on him about taking better care of himself.
At one point EVERYONE wanted Hagler vs Curry- two pound for pound fighters.
Leonard recommended an advisor to Curry. The advisor told Curry he should stay at welter.
Gorman didn't agree. Neither did Reyes Currys trainer.
But Donald didn't listen and stayed.
If the weight wasn't an issue then why did he move up? Better yet why was he already thinking about moving up(vs James Green)?
The drugs I don't know. Its known around his hometown he got carried away and did use drugs but I'm not going to say he did.
Alot of people told me he was a simple man who couldn't handle the limelight and often was easily persuaded into things by people.

 

Whose career would you rather have, Curry's, or that of his nemesis Starling?

Curry unified the welter titles, but he didn't really stabilize them the way that Hagler was doing at middle. He lost to Honeyghan shortly after beating McCrory. Starling never unified the belts, but at one point the champions were Starling and two guys he'd beaten (Breland/Brown), so he was pretty clearly the best welter in the world at that point, not that different an accomplishment from Curry's.

Starling did this fairly late in his career. Despite something always breaking his momentum (sometimes something of his own doing), he never let it affect him as a fighter and fought at the same high level for pretty much his whole career, even if he was inconsistent from fight to fight. Curry, on the other hand, never seemed to recover from the Honeyghan loss. He always looked shaky afterwards, even in picking up another world title.

At the end of the day you have one guy with a 45-6 record and one with a 34-6 record. The guy with 45 wins is Starling. They both beat some good fighters (Breland/Honeyghan/Brown is probably as a good as Starling/McCrory/Rosi), but Curry's in the hall of fame and Starling doesn't seem to have a whole lot of support. From that I'd conclude that either Curry is a bit overrated or Starling is underrated.

 

Donald Curry came after the Sugar Ray Leonard era, he was very technical quick fighter, with a good defense, and a good right hand. He continued to fight against the good fighters like Marlon Starling, Nino La Rocca, Colin Jones, and Elio Diaz. He culminated his dominance with a title unification win over Milton McCrory in 1985. He was on his way to a potential match against World Middleweight Champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler, but that momentum was stopped by a hungry fighter named Lloyd Honeyghan in Sept 1986.

 

Curry getting into the HOF was years overdue.. .I think it'll take some more years but Starling will follow. Starling deserves it on merit...

He beat Breland,Honeyghan,Brown,Ayers.

I think another 6-7 years he gets in.

And Breland will follow after.

 

Once they let guys like Barry McGuigan into the HOF...they set a certain marker.....

But does than a Lloyd Honeyghan get in?

Curry,Rosi,Blocker,Bumphus,Hatcher,Vaca..he beat 6 world titlists and was undisputed,and Brit,Euro,Commonwealth champ.

3 of the guys he beat ...beat Starling 4 times....vaca knocked breland out....

But if you let breland and honeyghan in than maybe you let brown in.........i think just such a scenario will play out but over 10-12 years not immediately.

 

Someone asked whose career would I rather have Curry or Starling? Hard to say. I wouldn't have wanted that knockout loss to McCallum but Curry stands out more and look who is in the Hall of Fame. Curry.

 

Since you think you know so much about why the 80s welterweights who came after Leonard, Hearns, Benitez, etc. weren't much good then how about explaining why that when Leonard came out of retirement the first time he chose to fight welterweight Kevin Howard. He could have easily chose to fight Curry, Starling, McCrory who were the top welters at that time but no, journeyman Kevin Howard who never even came close to earning a shot at the title. Curry and Starling at least, were eager to fight Leonard and said so but for some reason Sugar Ray wasn't having it.

Leonard after having been out of action for about 2 years and still being in his 20s did end up stopping Howard in about round 9 I believe, after getting his bell rung and knocked on his bottom with a clean shot from Howard. Who did Leonard fight next after "retiring" again and taking off three years that time? Marvin Hagler, that's who.

 

Our young George knows his Donald Curry alright. He should never have gone through with the Honeyghan fight he was weak as a kitten. Dave Gorman wanted him to drop out but Akhbar Muhammad insisted he fought.
As for Don fighting Marvin Hagler ? Blame Ray Leonard for why he didn't. he took Dons fight when he was supposed to be retired & advising Don

 

where's @Mark Dunham , when we need him most ?? Thoughts please Mr Dunham .. set these people straight in this thread will ya

 

And yet some people considered El Chapo-Bramble to be the biggest upset that weekend lol I never considered Chapo-Bramble an upset tbh, the only thing that surprised me was how fast Chapo took care of things; I thought Bramble was going in 14.

Honeyghan-Curry well that one I couldnt see if it was in front of me!

I think the thing was Curry was so superior to everyone else! He was sensational for the 3 or 4 years his run at the top lasted. But seeing his fights now he was a bit flawed...just a tiny bit.

 

Besides all the excellent stat analysis by the knowledgeable folks here, I think the main reason Curry is in the HOF so far ahead of Starling & the rest, is because of his phenomenal skills of course & because his style was so exciting. Even though he didn't quite pack the wallop of a Hearns type, he was still amazing to watch at his best & I'd pick him against all his contemporaries provided he was in proper condition.

If anyone can look at that Honeyghan loss and not see he was obviously lethargic & weak, then they should watch more of his fights.