Tonight is the 30th-year anniversary of this fight that until today got more questions than answers still. It was one of the most bizarre endings in boxing history that I have ever seen. I ask what really happened on that Tuesday night in New Orleans, LA? What really happened?
Some say that the great Roberto Duran threw the fight for a third match. Many said at the time that fight was fixed, since Duran's 8-million dollar purse was already in Panama City, Panama.
Some say that he was frustrated, fighting a clown that was beating him to the punch. That the great Sugar Ray Leonard now "fought his fight" and that his speed and elusiveness put Duran crazy.
Some say that Duran did not train as well like he did in Montreal, Canada 5 months earlier, where he looked magnificent.
So many theories and opinions. And the last one of them all, Duran claimed that he had "stomach cramps". Many of his most loyal fans did not believe him. How could someone like Duran quit in the middle of a fight when he was only losing by 2 points in 2 judges scorecards and by one point by the third judge?
Did Duran really said "No Mas" or was this was a commercial ploy by the late Howard Cossell of ABC? How did Cossell knew Duran said "No Mas". Did he knew Spanish?
After this fight, Duran was never the same monster. Maybe his prime ended here. You cannot have a prime forever. At some point, you got to lose it. That happened to every great fighter.
What are your thoughts of this fight that still I have more pain inside when I watch it. I watch this fight every year to see for an answer, but, I cannot. I don't take nothing away from Leonard, he fought brilliantly, and in that night, I believe he would have beaten any great welterweight in history, including, the originial great Sugar Ray Robinson. But, Duran? what happened?
And 30 years has passed, and this fight was never been mentioned or replayed on ESPNClassic or other boxing special channel. I ask myself why?
Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
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elmersalsa
- Heavyweight
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Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
They don't replay a lot of Duran's fight on ESPN Classic, I ask myself why.
Duran/Leonard 1,2
Duran/Barkley
Duran/Hearns
Duran/Hagler
any Lightweight footage should be shown also.
Duran/Leonard 1,2
Duran/Barkley
Duran/Hearns
Duran/Hagler
any Lightweight footage should be shown also.
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Goodnight, Irene
- Heavyweight
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Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
It's a little late for that.BarryWashington wrote:I have to interject and state that the Duran from Montreal would NOT beat SRR on his best night. Duran was awesome, but, let's not overrate him.
I'll try to respond to the context of this thread in another post.
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
After he beat Leonard, a truly amazing feat, his huge ego went off the scale. I believe Duran got something like one-fifth of Leonard’s purse for the fight but it was still a lot of money. He was the great underdog who had climbed the mountain.
I think he realised in that fight that he had cheated himself by believing he could beat a man like Leonard without having prepared with the Spartan-like intensity he did for their first fight.
Reports suggest he couldn’t make the weight, took diuretics like sweets and gorged himself before the fight. A reporter in Duran’s dressing room described how Duran relieved himself and came back out of the toilet not really understanding what he’d done by quitting. Didn’t appreciate that all the acclaim he’d built up would now be turned against him. In that moment Duran thought there’d be a 3rd fight but he couldn’t see that his legend was broken.
He didn’t quit because of stomach cramps. How do I know this? Well, he wouldn’t have quit, stomach cramps or not, if he’d have been winning. He wasn’t ready in body or mind and he made a fool of himself.
I think he realised in that fight that he had cheated himself by believing he could beat a man like Leonard without having prepared with the Spartan-like intensity he did for their first fight.
Reports suggest he couldn’t make the weight, took diuretics like sweets and gorged himself before the fight. A reporter in Duran’s dressing room described how Duran relieved himself and came back out of the toilet not really understanding what he’d done by quitting. Didn’t appreciate that all the acclaim he’d built up would now be turned against him. In that moment Duran thought there’d be a 3rd fight but he couldn’t see that his legend was broken.
He didn’t quit because of stomach cramps. How do I know this? Well, he wouldn’t have quit, stomach cramps or not, if he’d have been winning. He wasn’t ready in body or mind and he made a fool of himself.
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elmersalsa
- Heavyweight
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Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
Tuesday night, November 25th, 1980...2 days later, I cried my ass out. I saw the fight again in the 30th year anniversary, and still I cannot believe Duran's actions. 
:( :( :(
:( :( :(Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
..barry..i think the original post meant that it was leonard, not duran, who would have beaten the real sugar ray that night. just as wrong, of course.......but just clarifying...
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elmersalsa
- Heavyweight
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Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
Anybody that is good could be any other great figther in any given night. You never know what could happen in the ring. To me, the great Kid Gavilan beat the great Sugar Ray Robinson, but, Robinson was given the nod.BarryWashington wrote:I have to interject and state that the Duran from Montreal would NOT beat SRR on his best night. Duran was awesome, but, let's not overrate him. I'll try to respond to the context of this thread in another post.
I believe guys like the greats Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran, would have beaten Robinson. Why not? Those guys were terrific fighters.
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
Would they beat him? I'm not sure
Could they beat him or were they capable of beating him? On their best night, sure. Robinson has losses on his record to lesser fighters than Leonard or Duran.
Could they beat him or were they capable of beating him? On their best night, sure. Robinson has losses on his record to lesser fighters than Leonard or Duran.
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turn2stone
- Heavyweight
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Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
somewhere in my collection i have a vhs tape called 4 (or 5) Kings or something like that and it reviews and replays parts of leonard, hearns, duran, benitez (and hagler fights.)
anyway, despite my poor memory, i believe the leonard-duran II parts only shows a still and the narrators just does a voice over describing the events. at that time i just thought it was some sort of licencing issue.
anyway, despite my poor memory, i believe the leonard-duran II parts only shows a still and the narrators just does a voice over describing the events. at that time i just thought it was some sort of licencing issue.
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
gllgimesh...i'm interested in to whom SRR lost as a welterweight who were lesser opponents than leonard or duran. please name them as i can't find them in any record books. thank you.
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
My thoughts: Cosell was the first to mention the phrase 'No Mas', Duran actually said something along the lines of "I don't want to box with this clown" (the Spanish equivalent).
Everything points to it being a quit out of frustration. He didn't train as hard and was living the playboy lifestyle, which was almost unheard of for Duran prior to Leonard I. Leonard didn't fight Duran's fight like he did in the first, Duran couldn't get into range and was being picked off and taunted. You don't beat Leonard by chasing him, or at least it makes it almost impossible. It's hard to believe that he would quit for purely those reasons but I just don't think a man like Duran could handle being disrespected like that and be unable to respond. The almost nonchalant wave of the glove suggests to me like the poster mentioned above that he didn't understand the gravity of his actions, and was hoping for a rubber match for which he would be better prepared.
Everything points to it being a quit out of frustration. He didn't train as hard and was living the playboy lifestyle, which was almost unheard of for Duran prior to Leonard I. Leonard didn't fight Duran's fight like he did in the first, Duran couldn't get into range and was being picked off and taunted. You don't beat Leonard by chasing him, or at least it makes it almost impossible. It's hard to believe that he would quit for purely those reasons but I just don't think a man like Duran could handle being disrespected like that and be unable to respond. The almost nonchalant wave of the glove suggests to me like the poster mentioned above that he didn't understand the gravity of his actions, and was hoping for a rubber match for which he would be better prepared.
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
I believe Mexican referee Octavio Meyran said that Duran uttered the now famous words "No Mas". Leonard wasen't even showboating in the 8th rd.
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
I had heard that as well. While I don't believe it either, I have had several days in the bathroom where I wouldn't have minded if someone would just come and put me out of my misery. I cannot imagine getting that horrible of cramps and trying to fight. It would be impossible in my mind. Even if it didn't happen here, I bet there have been some fighters who have been terribly cramped up/bloated during a fight from weight drain and then re-hydrating. It must be horrible.Ezzard wrote:After he beat Leonard, a truly amazing feat, his huge ego went off the scale. I believe Duran got something like one-fifth of Leonard’s purse for the fight but it was still a lot of money. He was the great underdog who had climbed the mountain.
I think he realised in that fight that he had cheated himself by believing he could beat a man like Leonard without having prepared with the Spartan-like intensity he did for their first fight.
Reports suggest he couldn’t make the weight, took diuretics like sweets and gorged himself before the fight. A reporter in Duran’s dressing room described how Duran relieved himself and came back out of the toilet not really understanding what he’d done by quitting. Didn’t appreciate that all the acclaim he’d built up would now be turned against him. In that moment Duran thought there’d be a 3rd fight but he couldn’t see that his legend was broken.
He didn’t quit because of stomach cramps. How do I know this? Well, he wouldn’t have quit, stomach cramps or not, if he’d have been winning. He wasn’t ready in body or mind and he made a fool of himself.
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
if i may.
1. no mas is the most overrated fight in boxing history.
2. in and interview srl stated very clearly that seeing duran
highly over weighted after the first fight was the determining
factor to make the rematch asap, so that duran would struggle
to make it. then a very clever sugar ray frustrated the worn out
duran for some time until the guy just blew it.
that's it. he made a big mistake, should have been ridiculed
publicly for some weeks and then forced to settle things by
entering the ring in the final of a trilogy. pretending that "no mas"
was a cardinal sin that banned him from the rematch is pretty
ridiculous to me. at the time of the fight duran was 71-1,
wbc champ and had beaten the guy in front of him already.
if anything was clear ... roberto duran was not a coward.
3o years later it is a waste of time to cry over this little footnote
on a great career. the only thing it proved was that roberto duran
had bad judgment regarding the public, but that is about it ...
1. no mas is the most overrated fight in boxing history.
2. in and interview srl stated very clearly that seeing duran
highly over weighted after the first fight was the determining
factor to make the rematch asap, so that duran would struggle
to make it. then a very clever sugar ray frustrated the worn out
duran for some time until the guy just blew it.
that's it. he made a big mistake, should have been ridiculed
publicly for some weeks and then forced to settle things by
entering the ring in the final of a trilogy. pretending that "no mas"
was a cardinal sin that banned him from the rematch is pretty
ridiculous to me. at the time of the fight duran was 71-1,
wbc champ and had beaten the guy in front of him already.
if anything was clear ... roberto duran was not a coward.
3o years later it is a waste of time to cry over this little footnote
on a great career. the only thing it proved was that roberto duran
had bad judgment regarding the public, but that is about it ...
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
That's it. My point is simply that there's a good chance he did have cramps. But had he been beating Ray up he would have continued.jrc26 wrote:I had heard that as well. While I don't believe it either, I have had several days in the bathroom where I wouldn't have minded if someone would just come and put me out of my misery. I cannot imagine getting that horrible of cramps and trying to fight. It would be impossible in my mind. Even if it didn't happen here, I bet there have been some fighters who have been terribly cramped up/bloated during a fight from weight drain and then re-hydrating. It must be horrible.Ezzard wrote:After he beat Leonard, a truly amazing feat, his huge ego went off the scale. I believe Duran got something like one-fifth of Leonard’s purse for the fight but it was still a lot of money. He was the great underdog who had climbed the mountain.
I think he realised in that fight that he had cheated himself by believing he could beat a man like Leonard without having prepared with the Spartan-like intensity he did for their first fight.
Reports suggest he couldn’t make the weight, took diuretics like sweets and gorged himself before the fight. A reporter in Duran’s dressing room described how Duran relieved himself and came back out of the toilet not really understanding what he’d done by quitting. Didn’t appreciate that all the acclaim he’d built up would now be turned against him. In that moment Duran thought there’d be a 3rd fight but he couldn’t see that his legend was broken.
He didn’t quit because of stomach cramps. How do I know this? Well, he wouldn’t have quit, stomach cramps or not, if he’d have been winning. He wasn’t ready in body or mind and he made a fool of himself.
I don't think Duran ever looked tight again. Even against Hagler he was fleshy. Of course you couldn't move up so easily through the weights back then as there weren't so many PEDs around.
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
30 years later it's easy to say that Leonard should have given Duran a 3rd fight immediately, BUT alot of that comes from looking at Duran's later performances against Cuevas, Moore and Hagler which obviously hadn't happened yet. In 1980 people weren't clamoring for a rematch, they were asking wtf did Duran quit. When Duran came back 9 months later, it was obvious that he had eaten himself out of another weight class.
When you win a razor thin decision in a Fight of the Year, it's a real good rule of thumb to make sure you're prepared for the rematch, and Duran knew that.
When you win a razor thin decision in a Fight of the Year, it's a real good rule of thumb to make sure you're prepared for the rematch, and Duran knew that.
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SaadOffTheDeck
- Heavyweight
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Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
I'd put Duran from Montreal 50/50 against Robinson and close to 90/10 against Leonard.BarryWashington wrote:I have to interject and state that the Duran from Montreal would NOT beat SRR on his best night. Duran was awesome, but, let's not overrate him. I'll try to respond to the context of this thread in another post.
Edit: Actually, Leonard could improve just a bit and get a lame decision. The judges had the actual fight much closer than it was in the ring.
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
So much of the first fight was about round 2. Duran catches Leonard, almost drops him and Leonard clings for dear life. How Leonard wasn’t deducted a point for holding in that round…
Ray then said that it took him 3 rounds to come to properly at which point he’d already been beaten up. He wasn’t ready for Duran’s speed and accuracy on the outside so took it to the trenches where he could compete.
But for me the 2nd round is everything in that first fight. It meant that Duran was always in control. It was the most significant moment of Leonard’s career before the comebacks. He took the shot and showed remarkable survival skills. The shot came when they were boxing at range…
With that kind of timing Duran has as good a chance as anyone against any of the great welters. Robinson was 147 for most of his close fights with La Motta. Duran was much more skilled than Jake, at Jake's game, but he gave up considerable size. I think it's a very close fight.
Ray then said that it took him 3 rounds to come to properly at which point he’d already been beaten up. He wasn’t ready for Duran’s speed and accuracy on the outside so took it to the trenches where he could compete.
But for me the 2nd round is everything in that first fight. It meant that Duran was always in control. It was the most significant moment of Leonard’s career before the comebacks. He took the shot and showed remarkable survival skills. The shot came when they were boxing at range…
With that kind of timing Duran has as good a chance as anyone against any of the great welters. Robinson was 147 for most of his close fights with La Motta. Duran was much more skilled than Jake, at Jake's game, but he gave up considerable size. I think it's a very close fight.
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
I think we need to go back and check Jake LaMotta's weight in those fights before we start comparing Duran.
I thought Duran v Leonard I was a razor thin decision. If it had gone to Leonard (and there were a few veteran fight reporters who thought Leonard won) it wouldn't exactly have made the top 100 worst decisions of alltime in my opinion.
When I look at Duran v Leonard I, I always ask myself what it is I'm not seeing that others are, because that fight has so many rounds that are almost too hard to call. To create a very hypothetical scenario, I could really imagine if a guy who was 5-11 205 fought Vitali for the title. If the little guy simply went toe to toe and couldn't be backed up for the first 5 rds, I could envision alot of guys on this forum having him up 5-0 on the basis that he's doing the impossible. That's honestly how I see Duran v Leonard I. Guys giving 50-50 rds repeatedly to Duran on the basis that Leonard has enjoys every possible advantage.
I thought Duran v Leonard I was a razor thin decision. If it had gone to Leonard (and there were a few veteran fight reporters who thought Leonard won) it wouldn't exactly have made the top 100 worst decisions of alltime in my opinion.
When I look at Duran v Leonard I, I always ask myself what it is I'm not seeing that others are, because that fight has so many rounds that are almost too hard to call. To create a very hypothetical scenario, I could really imagine if a guy who was 5-11 205 fought Vitali for the title. If the little guy simply went toe to toe and couldn't be backed up for the first 5 rds, I could envision alot of guys on this forum having him up 5-0 on the basis that he's doing the impossible. That's honestly how I see Duran v Leonard I. Guys giving 50-50 rds repeatedly to Duran on the basis that Leonard has enjoys every possible advantage.
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
Other than a cagey 1st round Duran dominates the first third of the fight. Even Leonard agreed in a radio interview. After that it's nip and tuck with each man shading a round here and there. But I don't think it was razor thin. Hearns-Leonard II was closer.
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Ambling Alp
- Heavyweight
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Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
First I want to say that Duran deserved the decison. Duran fought a great fight and gave a typical performance. But yes, there were several close rounds. If you give the majority of them to Leonard you could concievably give him the decison. Of course on this Forum many people routinely give any reasonably close round to Leonard's opponent and so in this fight have him losing badly.Seamus wrote:I think we need to go back and check Jake LaMotta's weight in those fights before we start comparing Duran.
I thought Duran v Leonard I was a razor thin decision. If it had gone to Leonard (and there were a few veteran fight reporters who thought Leonard won) it wouldn't exactly have made the top 100 worst decisions of alltime in my opinion.
When I look at Duran v Leonard I, I always ask myself what it is I'm not seeing that others are, because that fight has so many rounds that are almost too hard to call. To create a very hypothetical scenario, I could really imagine if a guy who was 5-11 205 fought Vitali for the title. If the little guy simply went toe to toe and couldn't be backed up for the first 5 rds, I could envision alot of guys on this forum having him up 5-0 on the basis that he's doing the impossible. That's honestly how I see Duran v Leonard I. Guys giving 50-50 rds repeatedly to Duran on the basis that Leonard has enjoys every possible advantage.
Leonard fought a stupid fight, given the opponent; though he was still competitive. In the rematch, he fought his normal fight and showed how to beat Duran. Should have done that the first time.
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SaadOffTheDeck
- Heavyweight
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Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
Ezzard wrote:Other than a cagey 1st round Duran dominates the first third of the fight. Even Leonard agreed in a radio interview. After that it's nip and tuck with each man shading a round here and there. But I don't think it was razor thin. Hearns-Leonard II was closer.
Leonard/Duran II was closer than Leonard/Duran 1. That is always overlooked by the contingent that leonard fought the wrong fight in the first one when he had no choice in the matter. Ray showed his guts and I gave him the last 2 rounds to make it look closer. 9-6 or 10-5 is spot on. No way leonard gets that decision without an agenda.
Tommy got stone cold robbed.
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Goodnight, Irene
- Heavyweight
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Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
Hearns did get brutally robbed in that rematch with Leonard --- even Leonard conceded as much.
No way was Duran-Leonard I more clear-cut than that.
No way was Duran-Leonard I more clear-cut than that.
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elmersalsa
- Heavyweight
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Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
Leonard NEVER fought the stupid fight the first time around... He always fought that way...He was so surprised of how Duran made him miss using angles. Duran was in perfect shape that night and he was not about to be denied. In the second fight, Duran to me, looked very lethargic and very unsure of himself from the opening bell. I think he was in AN OFF NIGHT. I TRULY BELIEVE that even if Leonard would have gone toe to toe with Roberto that night in fight #2, he would have beaten Duran, anyway. He was quicker, and looked very good. Even in the exchanges, Leonard looked better.Ambling Alp wrote:First I want to say that Duran deserved the decison. Duran fought a great fight and gave a typical performance. But yes, there were several close rounds. If you give the majority of them to Leonard you could concievably give him the decison. Of course on this Forum many people routinely give any reasonably close round to Leonard's opponent and so in this fight have him losing badly.Seamus wrote:I think we need to go back and check Jake LaMotta's weight in those fights before we start comparing Duran.
I thought Duran v Leonard I was a razor thin decision. If it had gone to Leonard (and there were a few veteran fight reporters who thought Leonard won) it wouldn't exactly have made the top 100 worst decisions of alltime in my opinion.
When I look at Duran v Leonard I, I always ask myself what it is I'm not seeing that others are, because that fight has so many rounds that are almost too hard to call. To create a very hypothetical scenario, I could really imagine if a guy who was 5-11 205 fought Vitali for the title. If the little guy simply went toe to toe and couldn't be backed up for the first 5 rds, I could envision alot of guys on this forum having him up 5-0 on the basis that he's doing the impossible. That's honestly how I see Duran v Leonard I. Guys giving 50-50 rds repeatedly to Duran on the basis that Leonard has enjoys every possible advantage.
Leonard fought a stupid fight, given the opponent; though he was still competitive. In the rematch, he fought his normal fight and showed how to beat Duran. Should have done that the first time.
Leonard in the first fight was fighting for survival. The media wanted to make him looked good that he "slugged it out" with Duran. That was not even a slugging match, neither a toe to toe match. Leonard was holding more and more that I ask myself why he was not penalyzed.
I am not saying that Leonard would have never beat a Duran in great shape, but Leonard NEVER made the stupid fight that night. We got to give Duran credit of his boxing skills he showed in Montreal, five months earlier.
Re: Duran vs Leonard II: "No Mas, No Mas"...30 Years Later
Article by Hugh McIlvanney (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/stor ... 97,00.html), with most involved believing it was psychological first and foremost. The line that best sums it up for me is emboldened:
"There may be something in the theory that Roberto Duran had the wrong cornermen in New Orleans last week. Perhaps, he should have had Freud, Jung and Adler carrying the buckets and providing the gee-up between rounds.
Admittedly, those three have been known to give conflicting advice while offering the water bottle. They might merely have added to the psychological turmoil that is the most common and the most convincing explanation of how Duran came to yield his world welterweight championship to Sugar Ray Leonard as meekly as a 10p poker player throwing in a bad hand, to declare himself retired and then start shouting within a couple of days for a third go at Leonard.
His abrupt withdrawal from the hostilities towards the end of the eighth round at the Superdome was as bizarre as anything the most experienced watchers at the ringside had ever seen in boxing.
The complaints of severe stomach cramps may have had some genuine basis. Certainly, the Panamanian's haphazard eating habits are enough to give a boa constrictor indigestion, and the Baptist Hospital in New Orleans did accept, after examinations in the early hours of Wednesday morning, that there had been acute abdominal pains.
But during the 20-odd minutes of action against Leonard there was no sign of agony and nothing less could have been expected to undermine the will of the Roberto Duran who had stormed with relentlessly violent purpose through the 73 professional fights he had fought before Tuesday. He had won 72 of those and the winner of the other, Esteban DeJesus, had been battered aside in two subsequent matches.
The fierce brilliance and macho disdain with which he subdued first the lightweight and then the welterweight division persuaded practically all who saw him that he was a fighting man to his toenails and one of the most intimidating examples of the breed that the modern ring has known. And the closer the view of his performances the greater was the impression of an unquenchable pride.
'Roberto Duran quitting was the last thing that ever entered my mind,' said Ray Arcel, who has been in the Duran corner for almost a decade and had earlier in his long life worked with 17 world champions. 'If anybody had come and said Roberto was a quitter I would have spit in his face. I believed this was a fighter who could leave the ring in only two ways - as a winner or as a guy that was absolutely knocked dead!'
Arcel is over 80 but his mental sharpness and his emotional identification with those he sends out to war are still strong. 'This is a terrible experience,' he said quietly on Wednesday. 'I've handled thousands of fighters and I never had anybody quit like this. I can only assume that somewhere along the line this guy's mind must have cracked. It's like a guy who has been completely reliable, admired by everybody who then goes and commits a horrible crime.
'The whole thing is a real mystery for me.
Who the hell knows what goes through a man's head? You can fool yourself. I think it's not Roberto's body the doctors should be examining - it's his mind.'
Carlos Eleta, the multi-millionaire Panamanian businessman whose almost parental commitment to Duran would have guaranteed the former champion financial security even if he had not been paid nearly $7m in New Orleans, agreed that a sudden 'psychological collapse' was the most comprehensible cause of the debacle. 'When he raised his gloves in a gesture that he was finished. I thought he was clowning,' said Eleta. 'The referee also was confused. Then when he tried to bring the boxers together and Roberto showed that he would not fight on. I could not believe it. This was something I could never have associated with him.'
That claim was not dramatically contradicted by what happened in the final minute of the eight round, because what Duran did then seemed unrelated to physical fear. After holding up his hands to give his first astonishing indication that he wasn't interested in going on, he turned sideways to head for his corner and was instantly assailed by Leonard who hit him with two solid punches to the body.
A man who had retired because of an alarmed desire to protect himself would probably have cringed from that assault, perhaps dropping to one knee for safety. Duran treated the blows as no more than an irritating interruption of his efforts to let everybody know that he had decided to go home.
The origins of that decision may never be fully understood but it is likely that even Duran was doubting the importance of any stomach cramps long before he completed the journey through a snarling crowd to his dressing room. Yet the allegations of cowardice are oversimplified, at least they must be if founded on the belief that his spirit was broken by the fear of physical pain that Leonard could inflict on him.
It is far more feasible that Duran's willingness to fight on was drained out of him by the realisation that for the first time in his life he was going to be deprived of control over his own destiny in the ring. By the seventh round his attempts to close destructively were being exposed as humiliatingly futile.
As his frustration grew, the baring of teeth that had suggested the familiar sneer between Duran's moustache and beard at the first bell began to convey a sickly embarrassment. When Leonard, in the seventh, indulged in taunting as elaborately contemptuous as anything in the repertoire of Muhammad Ali (sticking his chin far out to invite punches, while his hands hung by his sides, turning his back-side towards his victim, once winding up his right hand ludicrously before jumping his left under Duran's chin) many of us were convinced we would see a climax too savage to stay within the rules of the game.
Faced with such indignities the Duran we knew was liable to take drastic retribution. Butting and kicking would have been infinitely less surprising than what he did. But it must be he concluded that somewhere in the complicated reaches of his mentality he had decided that his most effective gesture was to declare the contest void as far as he was concerned. Brown, the second of his old trainers, says that with Duran boxing has always been too serious to be considered a sport. 'It's not like football,' says Brown. 'Because he never gives you the ball.' Realising that Leonard was taking the ball away from him for keeps, Duran resolved to put a knife in it.
The illusion that he had invalidated the night's doings by turning his back on them was maintained when Duran told a press conference that he still considered himself 'a thousand times the man Leonard is' and insisted that he had been done down by the accident that could have overtaken anyone: the cramps. But next morning, in the corridors of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, he had a disturbed and chastened air.
'Maybe reaching another peak in his career by beating Leonard against the odds in Montreal, and taking a second world title removed some of the desire,' said Carlos Eleta. 'It is true, also, that he is rich now, and does not have to fight to escape poverty as he once did. Perhaps when doubts enter a rich fighter's mind he lets them stay when a poor fighter would chase them out.'
While Louisiana State Athletics Commission was fining him $7,500 for 'unsatisfactory conduct, and muttering about what it might do to any part of his purse that was still in the US, there was serious speculation about whether the golden age partnership of Brown and Arcel had been too passive to combat the uncertainty in Duran's head. It was argued that the urgent, acid tongue of an Angelo Dundee could have awakened the fighting resistance in him.
While the controversy eddied through his hotel, Duran's main activity appeared to be eating. On Wednesday he was into three full meals by 2pm. Sugar Ray Leonard took nourishment from press conferences, where he was notably generous, but not bountiful enough to promise a match to Maurice Hope.
Leonard had the solemnity appropriate to one who had just diminished a legend. However, his delicacy was poor consolation to many. 'A record of 72 wins and two losses and they'll remember him as a quitter,' said the bitter voice of Ed Schuyler, an Associated Press writer, who knows boxing and feels for it deeply and for whom Duran's defeat was a trauma. 'All those thousands of rounds in training and for real, all the lonely hours of work, all the great performances, and it ends with a lot of shitheads booing him out of the business. Booing Roberto Duran, that's something I can't take.'
Two days later, in Panama, Duran announced that he couldn't take it either, that he wanted to fight Leonard a third time, and redeem himself. But even if he is serious, he may find that he has more appetite for the collision than any American promoter."
"There may be something in the theory that Roberto Duran had the wrong cornermen in New Orleans last week. Perhaps, he should have had Freud, Jung and Adler carrying the buckets and providing the gee-up between rounds.
Admittedly, those three have been known to give conflicting advice while offering the water bottle. They might merely have added to the psychological turmoil that is the most common and the most convincing explanation of how Duran came to yield his world welterweight championship to Sugar Ray Leonard as meekly as a 10p poker player throwing in a bad hand, to declare himself retired and then start shouting within a couple of days for a third go at Leonard.
His abrupt withdrawal from the hostilities towards the end of the eighth round at the Superdome was as bizarre as anything the most experienced watchers at the ringside had ever seen in boxing.
The complaints of severe stomach cramps may have had some genuine basis. Certainly, the Panamanian's haphazard eating habits are enough to give a boa constrictor indigestion, and the Baptist Hospital in New Orleans did accept, after examinations in the early hours of Wednesday morning, that there had been acute abdominal pains.
But during the 20-odd minutes of action against Leonard there was no sign of agony and nothing less could have been expected to undermine the will of the Roberto Duran who had stormed with relentlessly violent purpose through the 73 professional fights he had fought before Tuesday. He had won 72 of those and the winner of the other, Esteban DeJesus, had been battered aside in two subsequent matches.
The fierce brilliance and macho disdain with which he subdued first the lightweight and then the welterweight division persuaded practically all who saw him that he was a fighting man to his toenails and one of the most intimidating examples of the breed that the modern ring has known. And the closer the view of his performances the greater was the impression of an unquenchable pride.
'Roberto Duran quitting was the last thing that ever entered my mind,' said Ray Arcel, who has been in the Duran corner for almost a decade and had earlier in his long life worked with 17 world champions. 'If anybody had come and said Roberto was a quitter I would have spit in his face. I believed this was a fighter who could leave the ring in only two ways - as a winner or as a guy that was absolutely knocked dead!'
Arcel is over 80 but his mental sharpness and his emotional identification with those he sends out to war are still strong. 'This is a terrible experience,' he said quietly on Wednesday. 'I've handled thousands of fighters and I never had anybody quit like this. I can only assume that somewhere along the line this guy's mind must have cracked. It's like a guy who has been completely reliable, admired by everybody who then goes and commits a horrible crime.
'The whole thing is a real mystery for me.
Who the hell knows what goes through a man's head? You can fool yourself. I think it's not Roberto's body the doctors should be examining - it's his mind.'
Carlos Eleta, the multi-millionaire Panamanian businessman whose almost parental commitment to Duran would have guaranteed the former champion financial security even if he had not been paid nearly $7m in New Orleans, agreed that a sudden 'psychological collapse' was the most comprehensible cause of the debacle. 'When he raised his gloves in a gesture that he was finished. I thought he was clowning,' said Eleta. 'The referee also was confused. Then when he tried to bring the boxers together and Roberto showed that he would not fight on. I could not believe it. This was something I could never have associated with him.'
That claim was not dramatically contradicted by what happened in the final minute of the eight round, because what Duran did then seemed unrelated to physical fear. After holding up his hands to give his first astonishing indication that he wasn't interested in going on, he turned sideways to head for his corner and was instantly assailed by Leonard who hit him with two solid punches to the body.
A man who had retired because of an alarmed desire to protect himself would probably have cringed from that assault, perhaps dropping to one knee for safety. Duran treated the blows as no more than an irritating interruption of his efforts to let everybody know that he had decided to go home.
The origins of that decision may never be fully understood but it is likely that even Duran was doubting the importance of any stomach cramps long before he completed the journey through a snarling crowd to his dressing room. Yet the allegations of cowardice are oversimplified, at least they must be if founded on the belief that his spirit was broken by the fear of physical pain that Leonard could inflict on him.
It is far more feasible that Duran's willingness to fight on was drained out of him by the realisation that for the first time in his life he was going to be deprived of control over his own destiny in the ring. By the seventh round his attempts to close destructively were being exposed as humiliatingly futile.
As his frustration grew, the baring of teeth that had suggested the familiar sneer between Duran's moustache and beard at the first bell began to convey a sickly embarrassment. When Leonard, in the seventh, indulged in taunting as elaborately contemptuous as anything in the repertoire of Muhammad Ali (sticking his chin far out to invite punches, while his hands hung by his sides, turning his back-side towards his victim, once winding up his right hand ludicrously before jumping his left under Duran's chin) many of us were convinced we would see a climax too savage to stay within the rules of the game.
Faced with such indignities the Duran we knew was liable to take drastic retribution. Butting and kicking would have been infinitely less surprising than what he did. But it must be he concluded that somewhere in the complicated reaches of his mentality he had decided that his most effective gesture was to declare the contest void as far as he was concerned. Brown, the second of his old trainers, says that with Duran boxing has always been too serious to be considered a sport. 'It's not like football,' says Brown. 'Because he never gives you the ball.' Realising that Leonard was taking the ball away from him for keeps, Duran resolved to put a knife in it.
The illusion that he had invalidated the night's doings by turning his back on them was maintained when Duran told a press conference that he still considered himself 'a thousand times the man Leonard is' and insisted that he had been done down by the accident that could have overtaken anyone: the cramps. But next morning, in the corridors of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, he had a disturbed and chastened air.
'Maybe reaching another peak in his career by beating Leonard against the odds in Montreal, and taking a second world title removed some of the desire,' said Carlos Eleta. 'It is true, also, that he is rich now, and does not have to fight to escape poverty as he once did. Perhaps when doubts enter a rich fighter's mind he lets them stay when a poor fighter would chase them out.'
While Louisiana State Athletics Commission was fining him $7,500 for 'unsatisfactory conduct, and muttering about what it might do to any part of his purse that was still in the US, there was serious speculation about whether the golden age partnership of Brown and Arcel had been too passive to combat the uncertainty in Duran's head. It was argued that the urgent, acid tongue of an Angelo Dundee could have awakened the fighting resistance in him.
While the controversy eddied through his hotel, Duran's main activity appeared to be eating. On Wednesday he was into three full meals by 2pm. Sugar Ray Leonard took nourishment from press conferences, where he was notably generous, but not bountiful enough to promise a match to Maurice Hope.
Leonard had the solemnity appropriate to one who had just diminished a legend. However, his delicacy was poor consolation to many. 'A record of 72 wins and two losses and they'll remember him as a quitter,' said the bitter voice of Ed Schuyler, an Associated Press writer, who knows boxing and feels for it deeply and for whom Duran's defeat was a trauma. 'All those thousands of rounds in training and for real, all the lonely hours of work, all the great performances, and it ends with a lot of shitheads booing him out of the business. Booing Roberto Duran, that's something I can't take.'
Two days later, in Panama, Duran announced that he couldn't take it either, that he wanted to fight Leonard a third time, and redeem himself. But even if he is serious, he may find that he has more appetite for the collision than any American promoter."