UNHAPPY ENDING...

ONE of the most controversial fight endings in the entire history of world championship boxing took place four-and-a-half decades ago this month.

- GERRY CALLAN

The venue was the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans and the occasion was the return WBC welterweight title bout between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran on November 25, 1980 in front of a crowd of 25,038.

Five months previously, in front of a crowd of 46,317 in the very same Montreal ring in which Leonard had struck Olympic gold five years earlier, and in one of the most technically entertaining fights of all time, 2/1 underdog Duran had ended Leonard's unbeaten run at 27-0 with a close but unanimous decision win, the trio of judges making him the winner.

Duran knew he had won: “He is the best I have fought. He hit me hard a couple of times, but I was never in bad shape”.