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Leonard meets the Hands of Stone
ABC Sports Online
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After one successful defense, Sugar Ray Leonard faced legendary lightweight champion Roberto Duran in what may be the most anticipated non-heavyweight fight in history. In a fast-paced battle, Duran dethroned Leonard with a unanimous 15-round decision. In an excerpt from an interview conducted for the Wide World of Sports 40th Anniversary Leonard reflected on his first battle with Duran.
ABC Sports
So you're world champion. You've got your belt and your crown, and you go off to fight Davey Green. Why were you so intense and keyed up for this fight?
Sugar Ray Leonard
I fought Dave Ward Green in Maryland at the Capital Centre. What greater feeling is there than to fight at home as world champion? It was great. It was fantastic. It was a sell-out crowd. And he kind of teased me a little by saying some things to kind of irk me. But although I didn't take it personal, it got me juiced up. And in our fight, I threw one of my best punches, the left hook, which knocked him out.
ABC Sports
After he's down, you looked over at him with a great deal of concern. People were trying to congratulate you, but you were focused on Dave lying there on the canvas. Why was that?
LeonardHe shook the canvas when he fell. He went straight back and boom. I was concerned. There was never any animosity or whatever but I wanted to make sure that he was okay. And he was.
ABC Sports
So next up was Roberto Duran. Duran was a great lightweight champion. He turned pro 10 years before you did and had all this experience. What were your thoughts about fighting someone with the background of Roberto Duran?
Leonard
I recall once I had turned professional, I was in Las Vegas at a Duran fight against Esteban De Jesus. And I was sitting at ringside, I spoke to Jackie Gleason because he was a big Roberto Duran fan. I said, "Jackie, I'm going to fight him one day". And he looked at me, he said, "Son, don't ever think about doing that. This man will kill you."
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"Duran introduced me to psychological warfare. He introduced me to the fact that you need to have mental stability to be effective. And he challenged me, he pushed me, he punched me, he kicked me. I mean he cursed me, cursed my wife. He did things that challenged my manhood." ” |
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— Sugar Ray Leonard |
I was like, wow. I mean, coming from Jackie Gleason that didn't sound too promising. But that only told me that the respect Duran had received from everyone was incredible and real. It told me that Duran was indeed a warrior and a true champion in every sense of the word. No one figured that I would meet him one day, lose to him or defeat him. So it was like the stars lining up. It was about to happen. It was inevitable that it would happen.
ABC Sports
So this is something that you kind of willed to happen, that you wanted to happen?
Leonard
I wanted it to happen. In retrospect, it was a natural because Roberto Duran was such a great fighter, a great boxer, and he was looked upon as being a guy who very few people could compete against. I wanted to show people that boxing is indeed an art and that I could beat him.
ABC Sports
There was quite a bit of animosity and dislike that developed before the fight. How did that come about and how did it change your mindset?
Leonard
I was never used to swearing on camera or being a jerk, if you will, on camera. Duran introduced me to psychological warfare. He introduced me to the fact that you need to have mental stability to be effective. And he challenged me, he pushed me, he punched me, he kicked me. I mean he cursed me, cursed my wife. He did things that challenged my manhood.
I was always taught not to respond. You always be professional on camera and in front of people. So I did not react to it or respond to it. It bothered me. It hurt me that this guy could curse me, could curse my wife, could push me, could hit me, and I could do nothing back. I couldn't retaliate. So, that made me fight him the way I did in the first fight, toe to toe.
ABC Sports
So you lost your focus?
Leonard
I lost my focus. He took me out of my game plan.
ABC Sports
Did you have a plan going in to fight Duran?
Leonard
Without question, I was going to box Duran. I was going to box his ears off and use the ring. I was going use my speed, my height, my reach. All that went out of the window when he did those things to me. And that proved to me that he's a very smart cookie.
ABC Sports
What were your thoughts when you went into the ring and the fight began with Duran?
Leonard
I never realized Duran was so quick or that he punched so hard. He was a masterful boxer, very smart. He wasn't really given credit for being a boxer but he was indeed a great boxer, smart guy. It was a fight that I lost composure, but I recall looking up at the screen. My face was on this huge screen and I was saying wow, this is incredible.
The fight was huge. I mean it was fighting in that stadium. It was huge. The people, the ring and the cold weather. All this, I'm saying wow. And, you know, we're making all this money, I said this is great. This is great. So I got to the ring and without me thinking about fighting Roberto Duran, who was by the way was across the ring, looking at me like saying "I'm going to get you". I mean he had no smile. He was totally focused. And I'm thinking to myself that this guy should like me because we're [LAUGHS] making money together.
He came out with such an intensity and with such a vengeance. I didn't realize I was in a fight until like the third or fourth round when he hurt me with an uppercut or a hook. I don't know what it was. It was a big punch. I never quite got myself together in that fight.
ABC Sports
One of the things that was quite unusual was that you'd won your gold medal in Montreal, but Duran was the fans' favorite there.
Leonard
That was so mind-boggling to me. I was just so flabbergasted, I was so confused. I had won a gold medal in Montreal but when I walked into the stadium I heard boos. I'm thinking I must be in the wrong place. Or wrong country. Duran had gotten there almost 10 days prior to the fight, or two weeks prior to the fight, and kind of made his way around the neighborhoods kissing kids, hugging women, signing autographs and giving T-shirts away. He kind of turned the whole thing around.
ABC Sports
It was a very close fight, even though you lost. But even in the loss, it seemed like you gained a great deal of respect from the boxing community. Would you agree?
Leonard
When I stood up to Roberto Duran for 15 hard-fought rounds, toe to toe, for some reason I was given credit. No one believed that I could endure or take a shot because they always said I was a television creation. That I was not really a legitimate fighter because I was doing commercials. But it took that fight to say, this kid could fight, this kid is tough. They did say that, this kid is tough.
At that time, after the fight, I got back to my hotel room. I had doctors in there to draw blood out of my ears because my ears had been cauliflowered. And that was the most excruciating pain. People don't know this. That was so painful. I went home and all my people were devastated. My family, friends, trainers, they were just devastated that I had lost because I mean that was not in the picture. But I was okay, I really think I was okay, I said I fought my heart out. I tell you what, he respects me now.
I took my wife on a vacation to Hawaii and I was running, doing roadwork, the next day. People kept saying, "Sugar Ray, you know, I thought you won the fight", or "I thought it was pretty close." I kept getting these feedbacks. I called Mike Trainer, about a day later, I said, "Mike, I want to fight him again. I want to fight Duran ASAP. Now!" Because I also knew that he would gain weight and would not be focused. I got back in the ring as soon as I could because I wanted to show people that I was indeed a champion.
ABC Sports
And you certainly did. Going back to that fight, at the end of the 14th round, was there kind of a mutual salute of respect that you guys finally came to grips with?
Leonard
It wasn't as apparent as it should've been or could've been, but there was mutual respect without question. Before the end of the fifteenth round or...going to the 15th round I was just going to acknowledge and say, "Good fight, man." After the fight, after the 15th round I was saying, "Good fight," and he pushed me away. He shoved me to show his distaste and dislike for me.
ABC Sports
Do you remember waiting there for the decision, what your thoughts were?
Leonard
I knew. I knew that I had lost. Fighters know if they lost. We have this instinct that tells us that we didn't do enough. We know.
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