Don Curry.....What Went Wrong?

[BritishBoxing92]

I was always impressed by Curry, he was just awesome at his peak, he seemed to have all the tools of the trade...And then some.

The highly respected British commentator Reg Gutteridge described him as a 'Sugar Ray Leonard without the showboating'.

His decline was attributed to him having numerous 'Personal Problems', can anyone shed any light on this matter?

Thanks in advance guys.

had a substantial amount of title defences from 1983-1986 then when he lost his first fight it went south for him losing to the likes of mike mcallum , terry norris and michael nunn and various others along with the problems you mentioned maybe he mentally did not have the same confidence when he was undefeated in the ring. and then with the retirement after the norris loss he came back in 1997 and won against gary jones and then lost his next fight then left the sport for good...same story different fighter and different problems

[TBear]

[COLOR="Red"]
No problem, i hope you didn't get the impression i was being sarcastic with my reply, i just wondered if you wanted me to expand on my opinion.

I almost thought so, but not too much bothers me and it is all cool. I disagree with what you originally said as I watched Leonard's, Hearns' and Curry's whole careers from the begining but I usually would rather avoid most debates here. Everybody has the right to their opinions. I can respect that they are often different.

[OLD JUD]

had a substantial amount of title defences from 1983-1986 then when he lost his first fight it went south for him losing to the likes of mike mcallum , terry norris and michael nunn and various others along with the problems you mentioned maybe he mentally did not have the same confidence when he was undefeated in the ring. and then with the retirement after the norris loss he came back in 1997 and won against gary jones and then lost his next fight then left the sport for good...same story different fighter and different problems

I agree with you about losing (Some?) of his confidence, then moving up against the bigger guys wouldn't help either.

I almost thought so, but not too much bothers me and it is all cool. I disagree with what you originally said as I watched Leonard's, Hearns' and Curry's whole careers from the begining
but I usually would rather avoid most debates here. Everybody has the right to their opinions. I can respect that they are often different.

I saw most of their fights, good eh?
Oh to have guys of their calibre around today.

[Pastrano]

Agreed. And Honeyghan had only a fraction of Curry's talent, i saw quite a few of Honeyghans earlier domestic level fights and he looked awful in some of them.



No problem, i hope you didn't get the impression i was being sarcastic with my reply, i just wondered if you wanted me to expand on my opinion.




Two of the best fights to demonstrate his all round talent.
Try and find his fight with Roger Stafford. A first round TKO win, and Stafford was no mug, he had caused the '1981 Upset of the Year' (According to Ring Magazine) by beating former Welter king Pipino Cuevas, Stafford went on to take McCrory the full ten rounds.

Back in the early 80's the 'Golden Boy' of the welterweight division was McCrory, the critics ranked him as the natural successor to Leonard, in fact a few critics branded Curry as 'Boring'!

There was a school of thought that reckoned Curry might have been on the slide even before he turned pro, due to the phenomenal number of amateur fights he had. So there you have it, if he hadn't have burned out he might have been good......

McCrory had two close world title fights with the hard as nails Colin Jones, Curry was the only man to stop Jones, and he did it in style.

I don't agree with that. Honeyghan had more talent than that. Its just that he was more of a natural fighter rather than boxer like Curry. He had some impressive showings before the Curry fight. He koed 32-1 Gianfranco Rosi in 3 rounds in Italy, among others. Rosi has since only been koed twice, first time in '94. Even Curry couldn't ko him, he won by corner retirement. He also defeated Stafford, by TKO 9.

[OLD JUD]

I don't agree with that. Honeyghan had more talent than that. Its just that he was more of a natural fighter rather than boxer like Curry. He had some impressive showings before the Curry fight. He koed 32-1 Gianfranco Rosi in 3 rounds in Italy, among others. Rosi has since only been koed twice, first time in '94. Even Curry couldn't ko him, he won by corner retirement. He also defeated Stafford, by TKO 9.

Curry may not have KO'd Rosi, but Curry had seen better days when they met. You forgot to mention that Curry had Rosi down once in 2nd, 4th and 8th and down twice in 7th.
Honeyghan was at his peak against Rosi and Stafford, but he was unable to defeat Stafford in the spectacular style that Curry displayed.

Honeyghan look pretty average against Cliff Gilpin in a domestic title fight, and Lloyd Hibbert gave him problems too, and lets not forget the humiliation against Adrian Dodson in his last fight eh?

[Pastrano]

Curry may not have KO'd Rosi, but Curry had seen better days when they met. You forgot to mention that Curry had Rosi down once in 2nd, 4th and 8th and down twice in 7th.
Honeyghan was at his peak against Rosi and Stafford, but he was unable to defeat Stafford in the spectacular style that Curry displayed.

Honeyghan look pretty average against Cliff Gilpin in a domestic title fight, and Lloyd Hibbert gave him problems too, and lets not forget the humiliation against Adrian Dodson in his last fight eh?

His LAST fight. You said it all there. He totally bottomed out after that loss to Starling. Thats why he was so lousy vs Breland. His comeback was nothing to write home about either.

[OLD JUD]

His LAST fight. You said it all there. He totally bottomed out after that loss to Starling.
Thats why he was so lousy vs Breland. His comeback was nothing to write home about either.

Agreed. Starling crushed him mentally and physically, Yet Curry stood toe to toe in two fights with Starling and beat him at his own game.

[Dynamite76]

Curry let his idolization of Ray Leonard ruin his career.Plus, he didn't have the best chin.See the Jun Sok Hwang fight.

[BRITISH LlON]

For the very brief time he was on top, Donald Curry was the best fighter I have seen in my 30 years of watching boxing. Do not confuse that with me saying he's the greatest.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3sx22tZ98M#t=15m23s

[SBleeder]

Curry, before the Honeyghan shocker, was about as talented and skilled as anyone I've ever seen. I think that loss simply debilitated him mentally to the point where he never really recovered. I also remember reading at the time about a ******* problem, but I'm not sure if there's truth to that.

If he hadn't tailed off, he might be talked about as a top 10 or top 15 ATG P4P.