Crowd stunned as Duran quits in eighth round

Press, 27 November 1980, Page 38

Crowd stunned as Duran quits in eighth round

NZPA-Reuter

New Orleans

Sugar Ray Leonard, of the United States, regained the World Boxing Council (W.8.C.) welterweight crown yesterday when he unleashed a furious barrage of head and body punches that prompted the champion, Roberto Duran, of Panama, to throw his gloves down at his side and quit, two minutes and 44 seconds into the eighth round.

The sudden end of the scheduled 15 round rematch in which there were no knockdowns, stunned a crowd of about 25,000 in the Louisiana Superdome. Mid way through the round, Leonard caught Duran with a sharp leftright combination to the head. He then scored with two wicked left hooks to the right side of Duran’s body. Suddenly, Duran dropped his gloves at his side, said something to the referee, Octavio Meyran, and began to walk towards his corner about eight feet away. Leonard backed oft unaware of what was happening. Meyran then said something to Duran, turned and went across the ring to raise Leonard’s right hand, indicating Duran had quit. The 24-year-old Leonard then jumped into the air with joy as the realisation that Duran had surrendered swept through the Superdome. . Leonard regained the title he lost to Duran in a unanimous but close 15-round points decision at Montreal last June 20. He also snapped a 41-victory streak by the 29-year-old Panamanian extending back to 1972. Although he appeared to hold his ■ own with Leonard during the first few rounds,

Duran then began to find it difficult to land any blows as Leonard danced around the ring out of the champion’s reach. Leonard, winning his twenty-eighth fight against only one loss, took complete command in the sixth round. He peppered Duran with swift left jabs, connected often with solid combinations to the head and body and eluded practically all of the Panamanian’s punches in the sixth and seventh rounds.

Still, a! I hough Leonard stung the 29-year-old champion a number of times, he never appeared to have Duran in serious trouble. Thus the finality with which the bout ended stunned the crowd.

So thoroughly was Leonard in command in the seventh round that at times he dropped his gloves to his side and thrust his jaw forward, inviting Duran to try to hit him. When Duran tried, he was wild with his punches, aqd as that round and the eighth round progressed, it became obvious the Panamanian was becoming more and more frustrated with his inability to reach Leonard. The fight was a sharp counterpoint to their first

meeting in Montreal. Yesterday, as Leonard had vowed he would do, he used his snapping left jab more effectively and danced round the ring throughout the fight. At Montreal, the 1976 Olympic gold medal, winner had elected to slug it out at close quarters with Duran, which in the opinion of many ring experts played into the Panamanian’s hands. In that fight, Duran also succeeded in driving or wrestling Leonard against the ropes and then scoring frequently with good combinations.

As was the case in Montreal, Duran was again the aggressor yesterday. Time and again he succeeded in pinning Leonard against the ropes, but more often it was effected by pushes rather than punches and in almost every instance, Leonard, instead of holding as he did in the first fight, bounced off the ropes to score with swift combinations punches to the head or body.

Leonard appeared to have the edge in the first two rounds as he connected often with his rapid-fire left jab and also stung Duran several times with combinations and right-hand leads. Duran, meanwhile, missed

most of his punches and was having trouble in trying to crowd Leonard against the ropes. But Duran came back to land a number of solid combination punches in the next three rounds as he began to pummel Leonard into the ropes time and again. The Panamanian appeared to have jarred Leonard with two solid left hooks late in the third round.

Duran’s strategy appeared to be working in the fourth and fifth rounds as he began to cut off the ring more effectively, eluded most of Leonard’s punches and mauled, wrestled or drove him into the' ropes with combinations blows.

Duran appeared to have the upper hand in the fifth round when he dug in three punishing left hooks to Leonard’s body. After the last one, Leonard went to the canvas in his own corner but the referee, Meyran, ruled it a slip.

But thereafter, it was all Leonard’s fight. Duran scored with three left hooks early in the sixth round, but as it developed they were the last effective punches he was to land.

From then on, Leonard was a whirling dervish, snapping back Duran’s head

with jabs and combinations and then dancing away before the frustrated Duran could retaliate.

Through much of the sixth, seventh and eighth rounds a confident Leonard openly laughted at Duran, obviously taunting the Panamanian because of his inability to score with effective punches. The defeat was only the second for Duran in 74 fights during a professional career that began in 1967 and it marked the first time that he was stopped inside the distance.

Duran’s only previous loss was to Esteban Dejesus in a 10-round non-title bout in 1972. The former Panama City street fighter won the W.B.C. lightweight championship when he stopped Scotland’s Ken Buchanan in the thirteenth round on June 26, 1972.

He then successfully defended his title 12 times before relinquishing it two years ago because of his difficulty in meeting the 135pound weight limit. Duran received $8 million and Leonard $7 million for yesterday’s fight. Both fighters weighed-in at 146 pounds, one pound under the divisional weight limit.