Thursday, March 13, 2014

ESPN Films 30 for 30 Vol II: No Más



I watched No Más. This is the eleventh installment of ESPN's 30 for 30 Vol II. This film originally aired last October. I am still trying to get caught up from last fall. An episode guide for Vol II is here.

No Más focuses on the two fights that Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Durán fought in 1980. In June of 1980, they had the brawl in Montreal. In a brutal 15 round fight, Durán won a unanimous decision. Five months later, in November of 1980, they had a rematch in New Orleans. In the closing seconds of the eighth round, Durán turned his back to Leonard and quit, saying to the referee, "No Más."

The final third of the film examines why Durán quit. At the time, he said he had stomach cramps. The film looks at three other theories: Durán was overweight and had to lose too much weight too fast; he ate too much food after the weigh in before the fight, and; the fight was fixed in order to set-up a third match.

The movie closes with Leonard going to Panama to ask Durán what happened. They met in a boxing ring and talked about what happened.

Like some of the other subjects covered by the 30 for 30 documentaries, I am not a boxing fan. I don't think that I have sat and watched a boxing match since I was a freshman in college. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the film. It is a solid look at an interesting story. I was surprised by how many title matches both Leonard and Durán fought after 1980.

No Más is also available in iTunes.

A trailer for the film is here.

No comments:

Post a Comment