Duran Favored as Leonard’s Nov. 2 Opponent

Promoter Bob Arum has planned a Wednesday press conference at Roseland in New York to announce Sugar Ray Leonard’s Nov. 2 opponent at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and the betting is that Roberto Duran, not Thomas Hearns, will emerge from behind the curtain.

“We will definitely have a decision by this weekend,” Arum said Thursday from his Las Vegas office. “Mike Trainer (Leonard’s attorney-manager) has listened to offers from representatives of Duran and Hearns, and now he and Ray simply have to make the best business decision.”

For Leonard, who will be HBO’s ringside commentator tonight at the Mike Tyson-Carl Williams heavyweight championship bout, that would seem to be a third match with Duran, who reestablished himself as a prime-time boxing attraction last fall by upsetting Iran Barkley to claim the middleweight crown.