roberto duran vs sugar ray leonard 1

[Ezzard]

Looking back on that fight…

Round 2 is the most important round of the fight and the only time in their 3 fights that either one of them was staggered.

It seems to me that round two set up the win. Leonard even said in an interview that the speed of Duran took him by surprise and that he didn’t really come around properly from that shot until about the round 5-6… Now that punch was delivered whilst they were still fencing at a distance. It was after that punch that Ray went close and tried to work inside.

Could Duran, even if prepared like a Spartan, have pulled the same shot off again in a different fight? Seems unlikely as Ray was never going to allow Duran to set his counters again.

As an after-thought… Should Duran get a 10-8 round for round 2 of fight 1? He has Leonard on wobbly legs and then Leonard holds for life (some of the greatest survival skills I’ve ever seen). Leonard barely attempts a punch and just holds. Nothing is coming back. Ray seems to have a death-lock on Duran and is unwilling to fight again until round 3.

[alexpaterson]

9-6 or 10-5 was how I had it, Duran was like a man possessed in that fight, Leonard tried to match Duran in the inside but I felt he came of second best in most exchanges and most rounds!

[I Feel Fine]

I thought Duran won it close but clear. Leonard fought Duran at his own game and lost, but he learned a lot from the fight. Duran's experience as much as anything beat Leonard but, either way, he overpowered a bigger, faster, younger guy, and it doesn't much matter how he did it. Leonard showed Duran more respect in the rematch than he would go on to show Hearns or Hagler. Leonard has also said that Duran hit harder than Hearns; I find that hard to believe, but it at least shows the impression the first fight left on Ray. Duran at that point was 72-1 and had he retired off that win we might be talking about him like we talk about Armstrong or Robinson.

Credit to Leonard for coming back from that loss, and credit to Duran for bringing the best out of Leonard.

[elmersalsa]

It was competitive throughout, there is no denying Duran won. Any draw card is nonsense. Leonard pretty clearly won the last 2 rounds, so that makes an 8-6-1 or 9-6 look closer than it really was. He took a terrible beating in there and he took it like a man. It should be one of Leonard's proudest ring moments. Not many men could have absorbed that type of ass kicking for 45 minutes.

Yeah, with grabbing and clutching for survival, that is how SRL ended up on his feet. He never slugged it out with Duran. He was not slugging it out. He was fighting for survival. Iran Barkley, Marvin Hagler and even Esteban DeJesus, they INDEED SLUGGED IT OUT WITH DURAN. NOT LEONARD.

[witherspoon]

As an after-thought… Should Duran get a 10-8 round for round 2 of fight 1? He has Leonard on wobbly legs and then Leonard holds for life (some of the greatest survival skills I’ve ever seen). Leonard barely attempts a punch and just holds. Nothing is coming back. Ray seems to have a death-lock on Duran and is unwilling to fight again until round 3.

I remember scoring the 2nd 10-8, and also remember starting a whole thread about it a couple of years back!

From what I remember the fight was as close as Duran allowed it to be, meaning he always looked to be in control.
Duran really did look bad going into the rematch but it gets overlooked how Leonard also looked very different from Montreal. Should have been an interesting fight (and not in the way it turned out to be).

[Seamus]

I think a draw would have been a fair result in the first bout. It is true that Leonard got hit with numerous head and bodyshots throughout the fight, but he also landed plenty back on Duran. There were even sportswriters who thought Leonard won the fight.

Measuring the fight on the basis of how dejected Leonard talked afterwards needs to be put in a proper context. We're talking about a guy here who for about the last 6 yrs had displayed near total dominance in the amateurs and pros, who now found himself in the fight of his life getting hit like he never had previously. It was quite a shock, but it's hardly evidence that Duran dominated the bout. As I've said before, if you think Duran won by a point or two, fine I can accept that. If it's over 2 though I begin to detect a Leonard hater.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Nothing would have been fair about a draw, nothing at all.