Sugar Ray Leonard Fighting The Wrong Fight in Montreal against Roberto Duran

[Thread Stealer]

What Leonard has said and has become common knowledge is that Leonard fought the wrong fight against Duran, letting Roberto get into his head with his mental warfare, SRL wanting to prove his manhood, etc...and fighting too much on the inside and trading too much.

I agree to an extent, but I think Duran's footwork and pressure forced him to do so. While Leonard has gotten a reputation as this dancer, the only fights in which I saw him really dance on his toes and fight on the backfoot and move consistently, were the Duran rematch, and Hagler. Leonard was mostly a flat-footed boxer who circled, boxed behind his jab, in an extremely relaxed style, and opened up with quick devastating combos (and finishing hurt guys with the best of them). Duran was all over Leonard like Charlie Sheen on a whore. What do you do when the guy is all over you, swarming, on the ropes? You fight out. There were times when Leonard had success boxing and circling, and leaping in with brilliant lead left hooks on Duran's face. Eventually Duran would get to him though with his pressure and slippery moves and force him to fight.

While you can say that Leonard did fight the wrong fight, it's not as if he changed his style for this first fight. What made it the wrong plan is that he DIDN'T CHANGE HIS STYLE in Montreal. He changed his style for the rematch (Duran's party habits are another story) and fought the right fight that time.

[TheGreatA]

I agree completely. He was very aggressive in his KO wins over Andy Price and Davey Boy Green and had not taken a backwards step against Wilfred Benitez.

Duran was simply brilliant against Leonard as was Leonard but the better man on that night won. Leonard adjusted his tactics and won the rematch, fair and square.

[Steak]

He did a little of that dancing against Hearns as well, but that didnt work out too well for him. Had he decided to do that all night, he would have been shut out.

Leonard was actually keeping the fight at a distance for a while, until that right left that shook him landed in the 2nd? round.
He simply couldnt keep Duran off him at that point.

also, running around like that takes a lot of stamina. Leonard was pretty tired out in that fight, although he did get a second wind late in the fight. but But chances are he would have gotten even more tired out if he started off running around constantly like that, with Duran on his tail constantly.

Ive heard that Duran had to drop down from 230lbs or something to make weight for the second Leonard fight.

[Kid McCoy]

He did a little of that dancing against Hearns as well, but that didnt work out too well for him. Had he decided to do that all night, he would have been shut out.

Leonard was actually keeping the fight at a distance for a while, until that right left that shook him landed in the 2nd? round.
He simply couldnt keep Duran off him at that point.

also, running around like that takes a lot of stamina. Leonard was pretty tired out in that fight, although he did get a second wind late in the fight. but But chances are he would have gotten even more tired out if he started off running around constantly like that, with Duran on his tail constantly.

Ive heard that Duran had to drop down from 230lbs or something to make weight for the second Leonard fight.

That was pretty much the way I saw it. Duran landed a mega left hook in the 2nd round and Leonard was in orbit for the rest of the night. Duran was just too strong and too motivated for Leonard to keep him off.

As for the rematch, Duran quitting was probably more due to his own antics than any change of tactics from Leonard. Randy Gordon, who was in the Duran dressing room afterwards, has written a detailed account of what happened.

[BennyST]

It is interesting that most people who talk of that fight say Leonard lost it because he didn't use the ring, back-peddle etc etc, yet you're right. That is actually one of the only fights in his entire career in which he boxed that way. Against Hagler he used more movement than usual, but Hagler was bigger, stronger and Leonard had seen Duran stick him with certain shots that he felt could be developed more with that style he fought.

I've always said to those that say Leonard lost that fight, Duran didn't win it, that if you watch any fight in which Leonard was bigger he fought the opponent flat-footed, just as he fought Duran.

If you watch most of his fights, he fought the same way he fought Duran. It's a good way of denigrating Duran's win though.

One of the main things that I think lost Leonard the fight was the ability of Duran to slip Leonard's jab. He only landed a few jabs in the entire fight. Also, Leonard absolutely did not bank on not being able to hit Duran. He thought he would be able to tag him with his quick flurries, but very quickly found out that he couldn't tag him cleanly at all. I also think Duran's speed shocked him a bit. Duran still had his LW speed at that point and Leonard did not think he would be that fast.

That small amount of lost head movement in the second fight because of Duran's bad training for it basically lost him the fight because, unlike the first fight, he couldn't slip the jab.

Anyway, yes, most won't admit it but Duran won that fight, Leonard didn't lose it. Watch nearly every fight Leonard is in and you realise that he nearly always fought that way and myth of Leonard as the runner/jab only boxer is crap.

He fought the same way against Benitez, he fought the same way against Hearns, he fought the same way against Mayweather, Ranzany, Green, Kalule, Finch, LaLonde, Price, Chiaverini, basically everyone. By the time he realised that he would need to move more and change his usual fight plan he had been so badly ****** up to the body that he wouldn't have been able to keep it up for long anyway.

Great win by Duran. Great win by Leonard in the second fight. But yes, anyone that thinks Leonard lost it hasn't watched enough of him.

[BennyST]

He did a little of that dancing against Hearns as well, but that didnt work out too well for him. Had he decided to do that all night, he would have been shut out.

Leonard was actually keeping the fight at a distance for a while, until that right left that shook him landed in the 2nd? round.
He simply couldnt keep Duran off him at that point.

also, running around like that takes a lot of stamina. Leonard was pretty tired out in that fight, although he did get a second wind late in the fight. but But chances are he would have gotten even more tired out if he started off running around constantly like that, with Duran on his tail constantly.

Ive heard that Duran had to drop down from 230lbs or something to make weight for the second Leonard fight.

It was just under fifty pounds. The problem didn't really lie there, well obviously it did, but it was in the last week when he still hadn't gotten the weight down even close to the WW limit and had to lose ten pounds in only a few days.

A real bummer because I still believe that with the Duran from Montreal in the second fight we could have seen a fight that may have even been better than the first one, though it would be very hard to top that.