‘No Mas’: Roberto Duran and the biggest quitters in sports

When Roberto Duran threw his hands up in the air 35 years ago, the gesture represented much more than a concession of defeat.

It was a champion throwing in the towel, telling the world that he'd had enough of Sugar Ray Leonard's punches, or his relentless taunting, or the pain of stomach cramps, or whatever it was that ultimately caused Duran to turn to the official and plead, "No mas."

Whether or not Duran actually uttered those infamous words is still a matter of much speculation, but what's concrete is that the lightweight champ surrendered his title without putting up a fight.

"I was just as flabbergasted as the whole world was when he quit," Leonard said.

Associated Press

Sugar Ray Leonard was dominating Roberto Duran with punches and taunts when Duran famously gave up in a match 35 years ago.

While quitting during a match has become predictably more common as fighters realize that the physical toll is more taxing than the brief deflation of pride, Duran's case remains the most storied example.

But athletes in general have called it quits at certain points for reasons varying from health concerns to attitude problems. Here are some of the most notorious quitters in sports.

Scottie Pippen

For six seasons, Pippen had harbored whatever indignations he held about playing in the shadow of Michael Jordan.

But with His Airness on his baseball hiatus, Pippen rightly felt the ball should've been in his hands in late game situations. With 1.8 seconds left in Game three of the 1994 playoffs, that wasn't going to be the case.

Phil Jackson drew up a play that had Pippen inbounding the ball to Toni Kukoc, who would take the final shot. Pippen was outraged and took a seat on the bench in obvious protest.

Chicago had seen their greatest player quit on them before the season began, and now they watched as another hero refused to help his team when it needed him most.

Kukoc ended up sinking the game-winning shot, and Pippen's image was forever changed by the incident.

Jorge Posada

Even calling it second leadoff would not have satisfied Posada.

Nobody likes batting ninth, but the Yankee catcher felt especially slighted by the lineup demotion in a 2011 game against the Red Sox.

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Jorge Posada quit the Yankees for good in 2011, but the catcher refused to play in a game that season when he was demoted to the nine spot in the order.

His refusal to play could have been a result of some pent up frustrations with manager Joe Girardi, but to fans it looked like Posada couldn't handle the shot to his ego.

It would have been his first time in 12 years in the bottom spot, but Posada maintained that he sat out because he just needed time to "clear his head."

Posada retired for good at the end of the season.


Barry Sanders

Sanders was just 31 years old when he dropped the retirement bombshell.

Nobody in Detroit saw it coming. In 1997 he had rushed for 2,053 yards, which was the second most for a single season in NFL history at the time and remains fourth on the list. He likely only needed one more season to pass Walter Payton on the career rushing list to move into second.

The Lions were looking for a franchise player, and they felt they had found one in Sanders. Suddenly that possibility was stripped away by the man himself.

TONY RANZE/REUTERS

Barry Sanders was one of the greatest running backs in NFL history, but he quit the game for good at 31 years old with little warning to the Lions.

Sanders was an uncharacteristically soft-spoken and humble NFL player, despite his prolific numbers, and that personality didn't always mesh with what the league expected from him.

"One of the things I realized in my first couple of years was that the game is so different than life is so different," he said in an NFL Network documentary on his career. "And sometimes if you're not careful, you can get lost in all the other things going on."

Detroit fans and the organization were furious when Sanders faxed a letter of retirement to the local paper, but his decision was final. There would be no comeback.

Ricky Williams

After receiving his third substance abuse violation in 2003, Williams decided that he would rather leave the Dolphins than serve a four-game suspension.

It was a controversial decision that turned him into a quitter in the eyes of his Miami teammates. He had also just led the NFL in rushing in 2002 and was a 26-year-old on the brink of a great career.

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Ricky Williams chose to quit football for a year rather than serve a drug abuse suspension when he was with the Miami Dolphins.

Drug abuse may have been part of the problem for Williams, but the young running back had his own selfish reasons for taking a year off from the Dolphins as well.

"I led the NFL in attempts the past two years and they didn't really go out and get a quarterback to help me, so I knew it's going to be all on me again," Williams said in an NFL Network documentary.

He also noted that he could see his "mortality" as a football player and that the game was no longer "fun."

Erik Bedard

No-hitters are baseball's golden ticket.

For Bedard, though, longevity was more important than that single crowning achievement.

Sure, managers have pulled young pitchers with no-hit bids to try to save their arms, but Bedard did it of his own volition. Through six innings of a no-hitter in 2013, Bedard told his manager, "I'm done."

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He left the game and said after "I've had three shoulder surgeries and I'm not going over 110. I'd rather pitch a couple more years than face another batter."

As it turned out, Bedard would only last one more season in the league.

Oliver McCall

There's definitely no crying in boxing.

McCall broke down the sport's wall of machismo when he let the tears flow during a fight with Lennox Lewis in 1997.

The blubbering boxer said afterwards that he wanted to get himself into an emotional state and that he came to win the fight, but he was disqualified in the fifth round for refusing to box.

In a bout with Lennox Lewis, something was off with Oliver McCall. He seemed flighty and confused, and eventually he gave up altogether, ending the match in tears.

Psychiatrists examined him before his press conference to see if McCall had experienced a mental breakdown during the bout, but test results were apparently negative.

Visibly out of sorts during and after the fight, it remains unclear what really happened to "The Atomic Bull," but there is no doubting the fact that he wanted no part of Lewis.

John Daly

Though he has two Major Championships and five total PGA Tour wins, Daly has not been able to shake the reputation he has earned by walking off the course.

He has done it multiple times, once at the Australian Open in 2011 after a dispute with officials.

Referee Andy McFee told Sky Sports that Daly had asked what the penalty was on the 15th hole.

CHRISTOF STACHE/AP

PGA champion John Daly has walked off the course multiple times and even admitted to being a quitter.

"I told him it was a two-shot penalty, at which point he said, 'I'm done,'" McFee said.

One year before that, Daly quit the PGA Championship, claiming he was hampered by a shoulder injury. He was nine-over par when he packed his bags.

"I have quit plenty of times but never have I faked an injury and the guys here know it," Daly told Reuters.