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The No Más Fight was a boxing fight held in New Orleans on the night of November 25, 1980. It was the second fight of three between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran.
In their first fight, held on June 20 of that same year in Montreal, Duran punished and humiliated the "media darling" Leonard for 15 rounds and won by a unanimous decision. That fight earned recognition by many boxing experts as one of the greatest fights ever fought.
The public kept its interest in seeing Duran and Leonard fighting each other, and so a rematch was organized for November 25. Originally, the fight did not have any nicknames attached to it, other than that of being the rematch between these two boxers. But what happened in it changed that, because this was one of the most controversial bouts in history.
Duran tried to work inside and tempt Leonard into a brawl, because on their first fight, Leonard had tried to out-brawl Duran and Duran was able to fight according to plan. But in the second fight, Leonard tactically clinched and retreated, throwing punches from a distance. The bout went pretty much like that round after round. After seven rounds had been completed, Leonard had built a small lead on the judges' scorecards.
Round eight was no exception to the rule - Duran followed Leonard around and tried to turn the bout into a brawl, while Leonard fought from a distance. With about 17 seconds left in the round, Duran turned his back to the referee, Octavio Meyran. He waved his glove up in the air and said the words ¡No más! (No more!). Meyran, incredulous, asked him something (presumably if he was sure of what he was doing) and Duran, walking towards his corner, emphatically answered ¡No más! ¡No más!. Meyran then waved the bout over and Leonard became the winner, officially by a technical knockout in round eight, recovering the WBC world Welterweight title that Duran had taken from him in Montreal five months before.
Duran was subsequently seen as an embarrassment in his country of Panama for a very long time. It took about three years (when he beat Davey Moore to win the WBA world Jr. Middleweight title) for his countrymen to 'forgive' him. He went through a period of soul-searching after the Leonard rematch, because many boxing fans seemed to lose their respect for him. Of course, later on, he came back to win two more world titles and re-establish himself as a super-star and legend.
Leonard, on the other hand, went on to become a media super-star for the rest of his career. He went on to unify the Welterweight world championship by defeating WBA world champion Tommy Hearns, and to defeat Marvin Hagler for the world's Middleweight title, and Donny Lalonde for the Super-Middleweight and Light-Heavyweight belts. He was, as many have called him, a media darling, making multiple commercials on TV, having his own TV sports channel, and being a boxing broadcaster for HBO and some other channels.
Rumors and speculation of why Duran gave up have abounded ever since. This despite the fact that at the time noted boxing commentator and former trainer Gil Clancy stated Duran had stomach distress as a result of food poisoning. This fact has been rarely reported.
Leonard is in the International Boxing Hall Of Fame, and most experts and fans believe that Duran, who fought until 2001, will join him there when time to vote for him is due.
The fight became known in boxing's lore as The No Más Fight.