Tuesday, October 15, at 8 pm, EST on ESPN, catch “NO MAS“, which takes a look at the November 1980 re-match between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran and how two infamous words haunt both.
In the midst of boxings contemporary golden age — the 1980s — stood two fighters who established a captivating rivalry. Their pair of bouts within a span of just over 5 months in 1980 had all the trappings of instant classics. Sugar Ray Leonard, an American hero, who had become a household name after a Gold Medal-winning performance at the 1976 Summer Olympics that led to numerous corporate sponsorships, versus the Latino champion, Roberto Duran, the toughest — some said meanest — fighter of all time. It was not just the drama and action of these fights that would endure, but those two words uttered in the second of their clashes, which would create a sense of mystery, bewilderment and intrigue to the present day.
“No Más.” I always wanted to know why Robert Duran — a fighter with so much power, so much talent, and so much experience — would stun the world by uttering those two fateful words in the ring against Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980. It was so antithetical to everything Duran represented — his machismo, his meanness, his toughness. Was it frustration? A fix? Or something else? I guess I figured it would always endure as one of those boxing mysteries that went unsolved. Until I happened to run into Sugar Ray Leonard at an event in Washington, DC in 2012. I asked him if it ever bothered him that it seemed that Duran got more attention for quitting in that fight than Leonard did for winning it. His answer was an unequivocal yes. And so began the journey of both Ray Leonard and this film, a journey that would not only relive an incredible rivalry, but finally serve to confront Roberto Duran once and for all about a night in boxing history that none of us will ever forget.
