Leonard lost a brawl to Durán, then Durán quit on him

By the end of September 1980 three of the four were champions. On 2 August Thomas Hearns knocked out Pipino Cuevas in the second round in Detroit to win the WBA welterweight title. "I never saw a welterweight hit as hard as this kid," said the promoter Bob Arum. On 27 September Marvin Hagler won the world middleweight title at Wembley and had to be smuggled out of the ring. The fourth, Sugar Ray Leonard, had been champion until June, when Roberto Durán took his title in Montreal.

Two roads to Montreal

Leonard was born Ray Charles Leonard in Wilmington, North Carolina, and won light-welterweight gold at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. He turned professional in Baltimore in February 1977. His career was underwritten by a lawyer, Mike Trainer, with Leonard the sole stockholder in Sugar Ray Leonard, Inc., and Angelo Dundee as his trainer. On 30 November 1979 he stopped Wilfred Benítez in the 15th round at Caesars Palace to win the WBC welterweight title. In March 1980 he knocked out Dave "Boy" Green in four. He was 27–0.

Durán grew up in Chorrillo, a slum in Panama City. He shined shoes and sold newspapers, and his schooling ended in the third grade when he was expelled for fighting. As a boy he was caught stealing coconuts from the property of Carlos Eleta, a millionaire sportsman, who gave him money and became his patron, and later his manager. Durán turned professional at 16. In June 1972 he stopped Ken Buchanan in the 13th round at Madison Square Garden to become lightweight champion. Five months later he lost a non-title decision to Esteban De Jesús, and beat him in both their later fights. He held the lightweight title for six and a half years and 12 defences, then moved up to welterweight because that was where the money was. In June 1979 he outpointed the former champion Carlos Palomino. He went to Montreal 71–1, and they called him Manos de Piedra: hands of stone.

His trainers were Freddie Brown and Ray Arcel, who had come out of retirement and was 80. Durán did not rate the man he was going to fight. "I'm better than he is," he said. "I want to see him demonstrate, to show me, that he's world champion. For me he is not a world champion."

Montreal

The fight was set for 20 June 1980 at the Olympic Stadium, in the city where Leonard had won his gold medal four years earlier. Leonard was a 9–5 favourite. Durán taunted him at press conferences, and at the weigh-in Leonard blew him a kiss and got an unprintable word in reply. Arum later said Durán followed Leonard's wife around Montreal when she went shopping and shouted crude insults at her. "This guy challenged my manhood," Leonard said.

Arcel said the hatred had a starting point. According to him, Durán had been driven by something Leonard said: "I'll not only beat Duran, I'll kill him."

Dundee wanted Leonard to box. "A good boxer plays checkers," he said. "Side, side, inside. The key is Ray's left hand. Everything off the jab." Leonard had other ideas. "I will not run," he said, and promised to fight flat-footed.

Three days before the fight Durán's heart test showed an abnormality. A doctor, Bernard Chaitman, examined him again and cleared him.

A crowd of 46,317 came to what Sports Illustrated called a chilly, rain-soaked stadium, with the ring set up above second base. Leonard did what he had said he would do, and it suited Durán. In the second round Durán dazed him with a hook and a right-hand lead, and through the second, third and fourth he kept forcing Leonard back to the ropes. Arcel's instruction from the corner was simple: "Keep goin'. Keep crowdin' him. Don't give him a chance to set."

Leonard won the sixth with jabs and combinations. His fiercest rally came in the 13th, and Durán stood up to it. Nobody went down. In the last round Durán stuck out his chin and pointed at it. At the final bell Leonard went to touch gloves, and Durán waved him away.

The scores were 145–144, 148–147 and 146–144, all for Durán. The Italian judge's card was first added up as 147–147, so the result was announced as a majority decision before the correction made it unanimous. It was Leonard's first defeat as a professional. Durán's purse was $1.5 million; Leonard was paid several times that.

"Duran did what he was told," Arcel said. "He fought the kind of fight he was told to fight. Leonard couldn't jab." Dundee said the same about his own man: "You never fight to a guy's strength. Ray didn't." Leonard said: "I showed I could take a punch. I didn't want to, but I had to." Years later he put it more simply. "I thought I could fight him at his own game and beat him. Not a good move."

Durán's own summary was shorter. "My rage was very big."

Five months

Leonard wanted the rematch straight away and turned down the idea of warm-up fights. Durán, meanwhile, let himself go. "I made that rematch in three months because he started drinking," Eleta said later. Durán's own account was: "I weigh 180 pounds. I can't drop all that weight in a month!"

He made the weight all the same. Both men weighed 146lb at the official weigh-in. This time the money went the other way: Durán's purse was $8 million, Leonard's $7 million.

New Orleans

The rematch was at the Louisiana Superdome on 25 November 1980, and Ray Charles sang before it began. The early rounds were cautious. Durán had some success in the third and the fifth.

In the seventh Leonard began to play. He dropped his hands, swayed and shrugged, wound up his right hand as Ali used to and then snapped left jabs into Durán's face. In the eighth, with 16 seconds of the round left, Durán raised his right hand and turned his back. He was not hurt and not bleeding. The referee, Octavio Meyran, invited him to carry on, and Durán turned away again. It was over at 2:44 of the eighth. "What! Duran has quit!" shouted Howard Cosell on the broadcast. "Roberto Duran has quit!" Leonard was ahead on all three cards, 68–66, 68–66 and 67–66.

What Durán said to Meyran has been argued about ever since. The referee said Durán told him "no more". Durán has denied saying "no más".

He blamed his stomach. "I ate too much," he said. "I was eating hot food and drinking cold juice. That's what caused the cramps." He said he had wanted to stop in the fifth. The WBC president, José Sulaimán, talked about an injured shoulder. Eleta did not accept the cramps story. "Duran didn't quit because of stomach cramps," he said. "He quit because he was embarrassed."

Leonard took the credit. "I made him quit," he said. "To make a Roberto Duran quit, was better than knocking him out."

That night Durán said he was finished. "I will never fight again. I am retiring from boxing now." The Louisiana commission held back his purse until he had been medically examined, and the next day he was fined $7,500 for "non-performance". His advertisements were pulled off the air in Panama and the United States, and at home his standing collapsed.

"I was shocked," said Freddie Brown. "There was no indication he was getting weak."

"I've handled thousands of fighters," said Arcel, "and never had anyone quit on me." After helping prepare Larry Holmes for his fight with Gerry Cooney, he retired from training.

Durán did not stay retired. Leonard had his WBC title back, and the WBA's belt still belonged to the unbeaten Thomas Hearns. They would meet at Caesars Palace in September 1981 to unify the title.