Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [0]
The Life and Legend of Roberto Duran
Christian Giudice
MILO BOOKS LTD
Worldwide Praise for HANDS OF STONE
“In the age of the tabloid we know more about many of our sporting heroes than we ever cared to know, but from the time he blasted his way into our consciousness with a punch to the scrotum almost four decades ago, Roberto Duran had been an elusive and enigmatic figure. With Hands of Stone, Christian Giudice has separated the wheat from the chaff in the most illuminating deconstruction of a mythic ring legend since John Lardner went toe-to-toe with the ghost of Stanley Ketchel.”
George Kimball, author of Four Kings
“My favourite book.”
Ricky Hatton, former three-time world champion
“Christian Giudice has succeeded brilliantly in separating the myth from the legend and produced a book that serves only to enhance further the reputation of an already astonishing fighter...Hands of Stone is the dazzling account of a breathtaking fighter and a remarkable man.”
The Independent
“A cracking book.”
Daily Star
“The first – and definitive – account of Duran’s extraordinary life both in and out of the ring.”
Boxing Digest
“Duran’s 120-bout career is vividly chronicled.”
The Independent On Sunday
“Compelling.”
The Sun
“A must for all fight fans.”
Liverpool Echo
“A gripping biography. Every page will keep readers enthralled.”
Dublin Evening Herald
“A profoundly detailed reconstruction of Duran’s world.”
Gerald Early, Belles Lettres, A Literary Review
“What a story!”
Scotland on Sunday
“If you buy only one boxing book this year, Hands of Stone should be it.”
Boxing Monthly
This electronic edition published in 2011
Copyright © Christian Giudice
The moral right of the author has been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
MILO BOOKS LTD
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I am not God but something very similar.
Roberto Duran
To my mother – who faced down a deadly disease – and beat it.
To my father, a fighter, a man, my hero – who once threw a perfect left hook on Schellenger Ave. (between Atlantic and Pacific Aves.) on a summer night in Wildwood. Thank you for protecting us all of these years. I wrote this book for you, Pop.
Contents
Prologue
1 Hunger
2 Fighter
3 Papa Eleta
4 Streetfighting Man
5 Two Old Men
6 The Scot
7 The Left Hook
8 Revenge
9 Hands of Stone
10 “Like A Man With No Heart”
11 Esteban and the Witch Doctors
12 “The Monster’s Loose”
13 El Macho
14 “No Peleo”
15 King of the Bars
16 Return of the King
17 Redemption
18 Tommy Gun
19 “I’m Duran”
20 The Never-Ending Comeback
21 The Last Song
Notes
Acknowledgments
Roberto Duran’s Fight Record
Prologue
“We mustn’t be afraid of violence. Hatred is an element of struggle; relentless hatred of the enemy that impels us over and beyond the natural limitations of man and transforms us into effective, violent, selective and cold-blooded machines.”
Che Guevara
IT IS 26 NOVEMBER 1980 and Roberto Duran Samaniego stands naked in the middle of the ring. His arms sulk by his sides. He feels weak. His body has betrayed him, as he has betrayed himself. His eyes, the twin beacons of his demonic aura, search for the exit.
Always defiant, tonight he bleeds compromise. It is like watching a Ferrari sputtering to the closest gas station. With sixteen seconds remaining in the eighth round in the Louisiana Superdome, his mocking, face-pulling, showboating challenger, Sugar Ray Leonard, has affronted his dignity and stripped him of his macho. And so he breaks the contract that he signed the day he stepped in the boxing ring: To punch till the end. Duran has always boxed like he cursed, in quick,