Put yourself in Sugar Ray leonards Place

[rightsideup]

In the recent documentary leonard said No Mas haunted him. He was annoyed by the fact that people seem to give him more credit for his courageous effort in the brawl for Montréal than the New Orlean's fight. I know some of our forum member's whose perspective on most topics I agree with have pointed out that montreal was leonard's best performance. My personal thought's are it is right up there and does exceed the no Mas fight.
In Montréal he fought a primed Atg and was stunned in the second round and said it took two rounds to recover. Ray fought his way back and lost a close decision. Duran has no one to blame but himself for No Mas but his management took this fight because it was the highest payday and he was so undisciplined that they thought he would lose to an inferior opponent.

My personal thoughts are montreal, hearns 1 are leonard's best fight's
What do you ThinK?

[Ben Bolt]

The odds were all against Duran in the 2nd fight, he wasn't really prepared and the desert ring was definitely to his disadvantage.

Still, I believe in styles make fights, and that the style of the natural heavier SRL would have handle Duran any day as long as SRL didn't revert to the tactics of their 1st fight. I.e., SRL wasn't necessarily a greater fighter than his Panamanian foe, just that Duran's style suited him.

I also go with SRL's greatest moment being the victory over Hearns. And always a question; if it had taken place under today's 12-round limit, who had won? Had SRL been able to make his rally earlier, and would it been mighty enough to lead to victory?

[billeau2]

At that time in history you had the middle divisions chock a block with...not great fighters, not superb fighters.....you had ElITE fighters and when these guys fought in my opinion any one of them could win at any time provided they seized an advantage. The first Duran fight was close and tough and in the second Ray saw that Duran was had been a little lazy, and thats that... When Hagler fought hearns he saw that if he just could be a little stronger a little more aggressive and make sure Hearns always knew where he was in the ring.....well the rest is history.

You do not fight the cobra on one leg master Mongoose! Truly elite fighters make you pay when you lack. Anyone not bringing their A game was game....And Duran's problem was not his talent or how he measured up against Ray.

I should also say: for the sake of contrast the hearns Duran fight is a good one... No way he was getting past Tommy's pike on a glove!

[rightsideup]

The odds were all against Duran in the 2nd fight, he wasn't really prepared and the desert ring was definitely to his disadvantage.

Still, I believe in styles make fights, and that the style of the natural heavier SRL would have handle Duran any day as long as SRL didn't revert to the tactics of their 1st fight. I.e., SRL wasn't necessarily a greater fighter than his Panamanian foe, just that Duran's style suited him.

I also go with SRL's greatest moment being the victory over Hearns. And always a question; if it had taken place under today's 12-round limit, who had won? Had SRL been able to make his rally earlier, and would it been mighty enough to lead to victory?

I think Ray would have rallied if it was 12 because Dundee was in his corner and ray had the heart. Tommy became the boxer in that fight but I think he was weakened because he was growing out of the welter division.

[SBleeder]

I'm not willing to downplay Leonard's performance in New Orleans just because Duran may have come in underprepared. Duran had exactly as much time to prepare as SRL.

With that said, I rate Leonard's wins over Hearns and Hagler slightly above his first win over Duran. His loss in Montreal was an exceptional performance, however.

[soul_survivor]

It's weird that 5 months is thought of as "short" by some people, Duran had plenty of time to get ready, it's not as if the rematch was sprung on him. There have been so many excuses made for Duran in that rematch but at the end of the day he didn't have as much machismo as many thought he did and he himself thought he did. He was brought crashing down to earth by a superior ring technician. Even Duran's own management were tired making excuses for him and have said he simply quit cos he didn't want to fight anymore.

Leonard's greatest night will always be his come back from behind stoppage victory over a great in Hearns. And the night that he made the great, brutal, powerful hagler throw and miss like an amateur.

[Scott9945]

It's weird that 5 months is thought of as "short" by some people, Duran had plenty of time to get ready, it's not as if the rematch was sprung on him. There have been so many excuses made for Duran in that rematch but at the end of the day he didn't have as much machismo as many thought he did and he himself thought he did. He was brought crashing down to earth by a superior ring technician. Even Duran's own management were tired making excuses for him and have said he simply quit cos he didn't want to fight anymore.

Leonard's greatest night will always be his come back from behind stoppage victory over a great in Hearns. And the night that he made the great, brutal, powerful hagler throw and miss like an amateur.

You make good points about the over excusing of Duran. But no reasonable person would deny that Duran was in subpar condition and hardly the same animal who had fought in Montreal. You can see that in the first minute of the fight.

[rightsideup]

Duran's window for beating leonard had a lot to do with Age. In the first fight he still seemed to retain his lightweight quickness and although he had some memorable wins vs Moore, and Barkly and did fairly well against hagler he did not retain that underated quickness of his 20's.

[JOM'S]

I do not know about this superstars but what should be haunting him was the first fight, IMHO if SRL did not fight Durans fight the first time he would have won...

[soul_survivor]

You make good points about the over excusing of Duran. But no reasonable person would deny that Duran was in subpar condition and hardly the same animal who had fought in Montreal. You can see that in the first minute of the fight.

Duran was slightly underpar , I agree but that's 100% Duran's fault plus SRL ddi everything the opp of their first fight. H e made Duran work and he couldn't no excuses for quitting. **** quit and Duran was a *** that night no doubt about it.