It is funny how things develop. I have been thinking about Donald Curry a lot lately. Not the Donald Curry who was a shell of himself when he fought Michael Nunn in France; when the Marvelous One, Marvin Hagler was rooting Donald Curry on at ringside.
I am talking about the Donald Curry who was the second coming, the one who was winning all of his important fights in stellar fashion, the one who was going to be the eventual conqueror of Marvelous Marvin.
There is no particular reason I can give you that Curry has been on my mind lately, thing just pop up in these head of mine. But since this has happened, I feel like I am revisiting Curry’s career through recent fights.
Last week when Sergey Kovlaev destroyed Nathan Cleverly, a fighter that was believed to be on Sergey’s level, I immediately thought of Curry’s destruction of Milton McCrory for the undisputed 147 pound title back in 1985. That was the zenith for Curry’s career.
Last night when Jhonny Gonzalez blew away pound for pound darling, Abner mares, in one round, I immediately thought of Curry’s surprise loss to unknown Lloyd Honeyghan in 1986. That was the start of Donald’s big demise.
The funny thing now is like Curry, after his loss, a lot of people are already labeling Mares as a fighter who maybe fooled us a bit.
Abner Mares was just starting to get Curry like attention; he just cracked the upper echelon of boxing’s mythical (and ridiculous) P4P list. His reputation for being a fan friendly fighter and a fighter that will fight anyone was also growing in stature.
Jhonny Gonzalez was supposed to be an easier fight for Mares, compared to who he has been fighting. A man who has seen better days, but who still had his big punch.
With one sweeping, well timed, left hook right on the sweet spot, Jhonny Gonzalez took Abner Mares career to another level; and allowed the judgment to come in on him.
Truth is, there is no real shame is losing a boxing match, it is just one of those things that has to be a little bit more forgiving from the boxing community. This is one thing the boxing world should be more like the MMA.
When you lose in the MMA, their fans and public never denounce everything else they have ever accomplished as a fighter. It is just a loss.
All time great boxers have lost, some have even got knocked out. If not losing is a measure of greatness in boxing, than Joe Calzaghe would be on everyone’s top ten all time list.
Having said that, a loss means you have a lot more work to do. After Joe Louis was knocked out by Max Schemling he went on a tear, winning the heavyweight title and avenging his loss to Schemling in the process.
After Donald Curry was stopped by Honeyghan he never really got it going again. He was doing very well against the much underrated Mike McCallum that is before the man they call Body Snatcher, ironically, found Curry’s chin with as good a one punch KO you will ever see.
Do I have to really explain the difference between Joe Louis’ legacy and Donald Curry? Both fighters suffered devastating KO’s in tremendous upset fashion.
Louis built on that loss, learned from the loss. Curry let that loss define his career.
Shall we wait and see what path Abner Mares takes before we label him? Just a thought.
