Roberto Duran, the brawler, and Sugar Ray Leonard, the...

NEW ORLEANS -- Roberto Duran, the brawler, and Sugar Ray Leonard, the slasher, both weighed in at 146 pounds -- nine hours in advance of their $30 million extravaganza rematch tonight.

Duran, smiling and waving to a mob that had gathered in a warehouse area of the Louisiana Superdome, stepped on the scales first and was soon followed by Leonard, who appeared sullen and left quickly while surrounded by a horde of handlers.

The weigh-in was a snarled mess with a large crowd trying to push its way through two small doors into the room and another large crowd trying to push its way out.

Finally, police restored some order by yelling, 'There's a pregnant lady who has to get out.'

Judges for the bout were announced as Jean Beswert of Belguim, Jim Brimmell of Wales and Mike Jacobs of England. The referee, however, was not announced.

Leonard is a 6-5 favorite to regain the World Boxing Council welterweight championship he lost to Duran on June 20 in Montreal.

The fact that Leonard and Duran just plain don't like each other, not to mention the fact that they are both splendid at what they do, figures to make their rematch every bit the fight their first one was.

Although the revenue from closed circuit television is expected to gross $30 million -- about $10 million going to Duran and $7 million to Leonard -- fewer than half the 80,000 seats in the Louisiana Superdome had been sold on the eve of the bout.

'I hear there are a few tickets for sale over there,' a New Orleans cab driver said Monday. 'If they are asking $1,000 to get in I can see why.'

The top price is indeed $1,000, with the cheapest seats in the cavernous building going for $40.

Duran, with a record of 72-1, including 55 knockouts, has spent his pre-fight period in New Orleans professing that he is not concerned in the least, that he was weakened by illness for his first fight with Leonard and that his opponent might be a little afraid of him.

Leonard, meanwhile, says Duran used illegal tactics in their first meeting. And he indicates he will return to his familiar style of lightning-like attack instead of the toe-to-toe tactics he used in Montreal.

A few weeks after that fight Leonard was visiting with friends, and as the conversation worked its way around to the Duran bout someone asked him if he had second thoughts about the style he used in the ring that night.

'Yes,' Leonard said. 'I blew it.'

Leonard will be trying to avenge the only blot on his 27-1 record.

Duran says that the mere fact that he whipped Leonard in a 15-round unanimous decision should show he can do it again.

'I all but knocked him out in round two at Montreal,' said Duran. 'But he held on so much I couldn't finish it. After that, the cold I had started sapping me of my strength in the late rounds.

'But even with that I won easily. He looked like he was just trying to finish the fight and not get knocked out. He can talk all he wants about fighting me differently, but the result will be the same.

'Only this time it won't go the distance. I'll knock him out.'

Duran also contends that Leonard held him consistently during the fight and thumbed him in the eye.

But when it comes to criticizing the opposition, Leonard has been in the forefront.

Leonard's manager, Angelo Dundee, said he even devoted one day of workout last week to plan for any roughhouse strategy employed by Duran.

'Whatever Duran does this time, we're ready,' Dundee said. 'If he wants to butt, we'll know what to do. If he wants to go below the belt or use his elbows and try to rough up Ray's face with his beard like last time, he's going to find himself outside the ring.

'We're not going to let him get away with it this time. We're ready for his dirty tactics.'

Duran's trainer, however, says Dundee's talk is just that.

'Roberto Duran has never lost a fight on a foul in 75 fights,' said Ray Arcel. 'He is a great, great fighter. I have handled 19 world champions in my career and Duran ranks among the greatest.

'He knows more about boxing than Sugar Ray Leonard will ever know. Sugar Ray Leonard is only a recent graduate of the amateur ranks.'

Leonard said after the first fight he thought he should have been given the decision but that he had learned from the loss.

'I know I didn't fight my fight last time, but I learned that he (Duran) is human,' Leonard said. 'I tried to slug with him to show people that he couldn't hurt me, that I was as tough as he was. I thought I won the fight but the judges thought differently.

'This time I'll leave no doubt.

'I was a little in awe of him last time, but I got an education in that fight. I heard about all his dirty tactics, but talking about them and getting hit by them are different. We know what to expect this time. I'm not going to put up with any of that stuff.

'I want my title back and I'm determined to get it. I went 15 rounds with him and I know what I have to do. I think Duran is a great fighter, but I really don't think much of him as a person. He doesn't like me and my family. He makes obscene gestures at us whenever he sees us, so we will settle things in the ring.'

Following the Leonard-Duran battle there will be a WBC cruiserweight championship bout between champion Marvin Camel of Missoula, Mont., and Carlos 'Sugar' de Leon of Puerto Rico.

The cruiserweight division was created in 1979 as a haven for boxers too big for the 175-pound lightheavyweight limit and not big enough to take on the big heavyweights.