BoxRec

polecateddy wrote:As Leonard ably demonstrated, Duran could be well outboxed at welter with the right approach.

Duran was horrendously weight drained. Didnt have near the ample required time to properly lose the weight in healthy gradual fashion but instead,was VERY Hurried,as Promoters seeked to cater to Leonards demands,even though it was Duran who was Champ going into the rematch. Had Duran demanded the fight/rematch be made in,say,February of 81 instead of november of 80,those extra 3 months would've paid major dividends on Duran's behalf,this i am absolutely certain of.

After all,this was a 29 year old still Prime Duran and he mysteriously quits while not even taking a beating,as the cards sure enough only had Leonard very narrowly ahead at the time of Duran's "Dire Health Related" surrender. He was obviously becomming very unusually weak and lightheaded due to the after effects of the Mega Ultra Rapid WeightLoss. This kind of thing is extremely detrimental for a competitive athlete to be doing just before partaking in an extremely gruelling endeavor such as a world class Championship Boxing match,thats scedualed for 15 rounds no less ! Please think and properly analyze before jumping into overenthusiastic/overzelous conclusions.

In further proving my point,if its even necessary,why would a much older Duran in 1989 in they're 3rd outing be willing and able to keep chasing after Leonard for the full 10 round distance,yet at 9 years younger,he had to bail out before the end of the 8th round ?! I think the points i made previously are even more to be seriously considered but even this point should make one seriously take note that the young but severely weight drained duran of 1980 at 29 years of age obviously for serious health reasons had no business to be in the ring that night. He needed another several months to re-acclimate himself. You dont go dropping from 230 to 147 within 8 weeks and then put yourself in an obliged position of setting forth to fight for 15 gruelling rounds if need be...!
Basically,Duran's tank was barely half full before the bell rang for round 1 of the rematch and by round 8,he was all but running on fumes,or running on empty as they say.

No doubt Duran would struggle to get 'up' for Norris too, Norris for all his talent never having been in the superstar category of fighter.