LEONARD VS. DURAN I: 35 YEARS AGO
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 21 Jun 2015
Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran fought three of the most popular fights in world boxing history. In fact their trilogy is one of the most sought-after triple fights among the world's greatest boxers.
Their first fight took place on June 20, 1980 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Canada exactly 35 years ago. Leonard was defending the WBC welterweight championship for the second time before a crowd of 46,317.
Duran was the WBC No. 1 welterweight contender and the former undisputed world lightweight champion for 6 1/2 years was considered the best "pound for pound" fighter in the world. Duran received $1.5 million and Leonard was paid over $9 million.
Angelo Dundee instructed Leonard to box and move side to side and careful not to get caught on the ropes. Leonard decided to box Duran's style. "Flat-footed, I will not run," he said.
Duran fought fiercely trapping Leonard and attacked him at almost every turn. Leonard was not on his usual slick strategy. He retaliated but he had to work hard to escape Duran's ploy and tried to survive from the challenger's flurry.
Duran's strong punches sent Leonard into the ropes. Leonard recovered in the middle rounds and threw several multi-punch combinations. The two fought with great intensity throughout the fight with Leonard deciding to go toe-to-toe with Duran instead of sprinting away.
Leonard was irated with Duran with his insults and wanted to beat Duran at his own fight style. This resulted in a great fight but a losing cause for Leonard. After 15 rounds, Duran won by decision. The scores were 147-147, 145-144, and 146-144. There were bitter exchanges of words between the two fighters and it added more media mileage that led to a rematch.
The rematch took place November 25; 1980 at the Superdome in New Orleans. This time Leonard used his tremendous speed and movement to outscore and confuse Duran.
Leonard started to redicule Duran. He used a windmill right hand as if to throw a bolo punch, but Leonard cracked a left jab and hit Duran in the face.
In the closing seconds of the eighth round, Duran turned his back to Leonard, raising his glove in surrender and saying to the referee "No M?s" ("no more" in Spanish). Leonard was the winner by a technical knockout at 2:44 of Round 8, regaining the WBC welterweight championship. Leonard led 68-66, 68-66 and 67-66 on the judges' scorecards at the time of the TKO.
Duran said he quit due to stomach cramps, because he shed off weight too quickly, then ate a lot after the weigh-in. But his manager, Carlos Eleta said "Duran didn't quit because of stomach cramps. He quit because he was embarrassed."
Leonard and Duran faced for a third and final fight on December 7, 1989 in Las Vegas, with Leonard retaining the WBC supermiddleweight championship in a lopsided twelve-round unanimous decision.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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