I just watched this fight for the first time and thought Sugar Ray won it by a few rounds. Anyone agree with this or am I just completely clueless when it comes to judging a boxing match?
it was a close fight, it's become a myth in the years since because duran overcame some long odds and beat the american darling but it was a close fight and it would have been a close fight the second time too had duran showed up in shape. Even though leonard boxed more. duran was quicker than leonard was ready for but leonard had a true size advantage over duran. judges had it close too, Leonard could have won both fights, he let duran into his head.
I actually just watched the fight again myself, and I had Duran by a single point. Same score I had a couple of years ago when I watched it. Incredible fight though. Could have easily been a draw, in which case we would have had a better second fight between the two in my opinion.
Its been a while since I watched it but I remember scoring it for Duran. I'll definitely give it another view though, I always enjoy watching Duran fights.
I never thought that fight was all that close, Duran was the aggressor, landed the harder shots, and just plain was more effective most of the time.
It was fairly close, but duran deserved it, at least in my view. It was his night, he was so full of spirit there. Ray fought a stupid fight but who's to say that had he boxed it would have been any different? Duran was still Duran that night, maybe the last night you could say he was the real duran. Demeanor tells a story too, Ray looked like the loser, before during and after, Duran was the opposite, nasty, surly, indominatable, cursing ray at the end for raising his hands (how dare he!). Who made the fight? Duran, he was the guy making things happen. Ray came on in the end but it wasn't enough.
I thought Duran won a close but clear decision. I've scored it 9-6 and 8-7 in the past. I remember the judges giving a lot of even rounds in the scoring, though, which does lend credence to the fact that it was quite a close fight.
It was close, Duran hurt Leonard a couple times and he outquicked him too. He may have been eating himself out of his best weight but he still put on a great performance.
Are you guys watching the same fight I did many times.. I would use a C word to describe it other than close... that is competitive. It was that more than close
Maybe I need to watch it again. Duran did hurt Leonard in the 2nd round and Leonard seemed to be a bit out of it for the next couple but I thought that Leonard landed a lot more clean shots and took over the last half of the fight. I also scored Leonard vs Hagler for Leonard so I'm sure many of you will find my scoring a bit suspect.
