Sugar Ray Leonard?s ?No Mas?
By Rich Mazon
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 19 Oct 2013
October has so far provided two great shows that took boxing fans to the rich history of the sport. HBO released this month a movie that chronicled the legal battle of the great Muhammad Ali against the United States Supreme Court in the early 70?s in a film entitled ?Muhammad Ali?s Greatest Fight.?
Another documentary-film released just this week is about two all-time great fighters of our sport, Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran and the two famous (or infamous) words in the history of boxing ? ?No Mas.? (No More in Spanish.)
Most of us, fans of the sport, remembered the second fight between the two. We remembered the boxing clinic that Leonard was conducting over his arch nemesis. We remembered the taunts, the showmanship - the fake bolo punch and the follow-up sneaky left, the Ali shuffle, all that Leonard displayed that night in their rematch. He was dominating, as opposed to a losing effort in their first fight just five months before that.
And we remember, either via history and by word of mouth, the words that not only are part of boxing history, but what has become ?a part of American folklore? according to the film. Most of us will probably credit that fight as our first introduction to Spanish 101.
?No Mas,? Duran told referee Octavio Meyran that night. He raised his hand in surrender, waived no more and made up his mind that he wanted no part of what is a becoming a long night for the Panamanian legend. It was a decision that has cost him a lot, a decision that stuck on him three decades after he uttered it. They were words that will always be associated with him - and in the most negative way a fighter can be thought of. The big bad Roberto Duran was a quitter - a no-no in the macho sport of boxing.
But the ESPN film focused on another victim of Duran?s decision that night in the Superdome of New Orleans - the winner of that bout- the revenging victor - Sugar Ray Leonard.
Leonard contends that he did not receive the credit for the win because the world was more interested on why Duran quit that night. His exemplary performance overshadowed by everyone?s yearning to find answers. They were more fascinated in Duran than Leonard?s victory. America and the whole world was more into the why's and the how?s that surrounded Duran?s unexpected decision to give up in that 8th round instead of their very own American idol.
?I want to know first hand. I think the world wants to know what really happened that night in that ring in New Orleans - the No Mas fight,? Leonard opened in the film.
That was the story line of the film, one that brought Leonard and the show?s creators to Panama for the first time in the boxer?s life, to once and for all obtain the truth from Duran?s mouth and capture it in film for the world to see.
Explanations about why Duran quit varied from his weight problems, the side effects from the diuretics that he took to make weight; to the food he ate that day and him suffering from stomach problems that night. Other rumors include the more serious issue of game-fixing that the film did not dwell on, compared to the detail they gave to the food he consumed that day.
The ?No Mas? fight bothered Leonard all his life. ?It ate him,? he said. He demanded answers that did not surface in the past and one that did not come in the film for him or for the viewers.
And despite the three decades that passed between the two or Leonard?s admonitions - Duran maintained his position. The food that he ate and his stomach issues that night were the culprit. There was nothing else.
In the end Leonard finally gave up, he realized that no amount of persuasion, no pressure from the cameras, no stage or ring in this matter, no script and no big network can help him convince Duran to give him the explanation that he wanted or we the viewers anticipated for in the film.
?It?s okay. There was nothing I could do but embraced it. There was nothing else I could do but let him- let him go,? Leonard narrated.
And in that letting go, Leonard accepted the fact that even if Duran?s explanations were unacceptable to him, he has to no choice but to believe it. Because the years that he spent doubting the answers that Duran gave him and the world, are years that dwarfed one of the greatest nights of his legendary career. It was a dark cloud that lingered in the days and nights that he spent thinking about it.
And he cannot allow that to happen anymore. ?No mas.? No more.
You can reach the author at rrmaze24@aol.com and on Twitter @Freemazon910.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rich Mazon .
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