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GRANDES PELEAS CLASICAS : ROBERTO DURA VS SUGAR RAY LEONARD 2

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Sugar Ray Leonard didn't quite cut an imposing figure, and initially he was known more for his flash than for his grit. But Sugar Ray was a hard dude. He demonstrated gamesmanship and the guts of a burglar when he took out Wilfredo Benitez and again, on June 20, 1980, when he slugged it out with Roberto Duran, boxing's sneering big bully. The bruising, grueling strategy he adopted for the Duran fight pumped up his street cred, sure, but Leonard ended up losing the fight.

Sugar Ray Leonard then was 24 years old, undefeated with a record of 27-0 with 18 KOs. Roberto Duran was 71-1, and I don't know how many KOs he'd accrued by then but he wasn't called "Manos de Piedra" because he liked to gently tickle you in the tummy. If Sugar Ray had thought he could outslick Duran, he was in for a big surprise that night. Duran not only was as aggressive as ever, he also demonstrated elusiveness, some deceptive head movement. He slipped plenty of Leonard's punches. And even when Ray landed, well, it's very hard for sugar to crack stone. The final word on the thing is that Leonard got suckered into fighting Duran's fight.

And perhaps Duran's derisive attitude and mauling tactics and brutal shots to the body had an erosive effect on Leonard's stamina and his sense of machismo so that Ray ultimately had no recourse but to go to war. Duran, he always fought like a whirlwind with an ugly grudge, was always on his opponent like white on rice, like yellow on paella, like purple on varicose veins. But Sugar Ray Leonard never gave up even though he got buzzed several times, and he certainly had his moments - including a flashy bolo shot in the 14th round. To show even more moxie, he would stand 20 seconds before the start of every round. Still, Duran was the better man that night and ended up with the WBC World Welterweight Championship. But no shame on Sugar Ray Leonard, of whom Howard Cosell, who called the fight, would state: "He has, I think, evidenced his staying power to every sports fan in America. His guts... there is no cheesecake in that young man, that much can be said."

Of course we all know what happened when they hooked up again five months later. In their rematch, Sugar Ray went back to what he did best, and he boxed Duran's ears off, causing the frustrated Panamanian to finally walk away and declare, "No Mas!"

Okay, the overall picture quality of the fight doesn't stand up, looking like a third generation copy off some old VHS tape. However, the entire fight is intact, complete with the ring entrances and the one-minute corner breaks. So that's something.

The co-feature on this DVD is Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel "Dinamita" Marquez, their first encounter. Did you see this fight? I saw this fight, and I thought it was over in the first round, when Manny knocked Marquez down three times. But Marquez, master technician that he is, warrior that he is, recovered and right away began to adapt and effectively counter (and avoid Manny's devastating left hands). That the fight ends with a draw is a testament to just how well Juan Manuel Marquez can execute. And going by their closely contested rematch, Dinamita, so far, is the one puzzle the Pacman hasn't yet solved. And it's almost doubtful that there'll be a third fight. Marquez proved against Mayweather, Jr. that he's not cut out for welterweight against the elites. Meanwhile, Pacquiao seems to have made himself at home there. But, yeah, there was damn good reason why, for a while, Juan Manuel Marquez was the most avoided fighter in the sweet science. Even brash, hard-hitting Prince Naseem Hamed, in his heyday, wanted no part of what Marquez brought to the party.