Roberto Duran endured humiliation at the hands of Sugar Ray Leonard in their 1980 rematch and has now warned Canelo Alvarez what he must do to avoid a similar fate in a potential second fight with Terence Crawford.
Durán’s legendary victory over Leonard in June 1980 was overturned five months later when the Panamanian retired late in the eighth round in the first defense of his WBC welterweight title.
While the infamous “No Más” fight tarnished his reputation, Durán’s wider career was strewn with successes before and after, securing him a place among boxing’s all-time greats.
Canelo is two months removed from the third defeat of his career, having been convincingly beaten by Crawford in September. The defeat ended his reign as undisputed super middleweight champion, but he is aiming for a rematch against the American in 2026. Crawford’s impressive performance exposed the flaws in Canelo’s game at a stage where his best years may be behind him.
Durán, however, identified the reasons why he thinks Canelo was unsuccessful and gave advice for a return fight in a video posted by Izquierdazobox.
“Well, honestly, I saw him do it wrong. I saw him do it wrong because I thought Canelo was going to use more intelligence in his boxing. But it seems like when they boxed him he didn’t know what to do. So he still needs more.
“What he should do now is practice with bigger gloves, so he can learn more about how to enter, how to exit, how to punch and how to cut the ring. That’s what he was missing, because in my opinion his coach didn’t teach him anything.”
Canelo’s loss to Crawford came three years after an unsuccessful stint at light heavyweight, where he was outpointed by WBA champion Dmitry Bivol. Nine years earlier, the Mexican suffered his first career defeat at the hands of Floyd Mayweather, who defended his unified super welterweight titles with a points victory.
