Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [122]
Duran, meanwhile, wallowed in self-pity. Moves were made to match him with undefeated junior welterweight sensation Aaron Pryor, and Pryor told a New York Times reporter in late February 1981 that he had signed a contract for $750,000 to face Duran in New York, but the fight was pushed aside for the heavyweight contest between Gerry Cooney and Ken Norton. A ferocious prospect who few wanted to face, Pryor offered to spot Duran ten pounds in weight. “Duran needs me,” Pryor said. “I think he’s got to prove to a lot of people that he’s not a quitter and what better way to do it than fight an undefeated world champion.”
Finally, nine months after holing up in his palatial home, Duran ended his exile and took a fight against a much easier opponent, his former sparring partner Mike “Nino” Gonzalez. The bout was staged by Don King in the promoter’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Duran’s public workouts in Cleveland’s Union Terminal drew large crowds and surprisingly they cheered his every move. His optimism began to return.
“The Comeback,” as King inevitably billed it, took place on 9 August 1981. Gonzalez, from Bayonne, New Jersey, was for some reason dubbed the “Storm Cutter” and came in with a 24-1 record. He had traveled with some other Jersey fighters to work with Duran before he faced Leonard in Montreal and felt confident enough to stand and trade punches. Duran’s body looked soft, not taut, and he fought like a man who had been locked in his home for months, coming in at 155 pounds. He won clearly on the scorecards but Gonzalez showed bravery, especially in a grueling ninth round, and cut Duran’s eye. “I haven’t fought in nine months,” Duran said afterwards. “I felt strong with the weight, but I got a little tired near the end. That was because of the layoff. I couldn’t make my body do certain things.”
People expected more. On September 26, Duran took on European light-middleweight champion Luigi Minchillo, who had won thirty-five of his thirty-six bouts. They fought in Vegas in bright sunlight and near-ninety-degree temperatures before a crowd of about 2,000. Duran suffered a cut over his right eye in the third round but it was staunched by veteran cutman Bill Prezant, renowned for his patchwork with heavyweight Chuck “the Bleeder” Wepner. Minchillo bored in and tried to pressure Duran but the Panamanian bossed the fight from the start, slamming in the harder punches, especially to the body, and rocking the moustachioed Italian several times. Minchillo finished the bout with his left eye almost shut, his right eye swollen and blood coming from his nose. Duran, who weighed in on the light-middleweight limit of eleven stone, said afterwards he felt strong and was punching harder then ever.
IN 1982, WILFRED Benitez was The Radar. He could slip punches with his senses and made opponents feel lonely in the ring, jutting out his chin then retracting it before a glove could touch skin, standing within punching range yet avoiding shots by fractions. On March 6, 1976, he made the great Antonio Cervantes miss for fifteen rounds to win the WBA junior welterweight crown and confirm his precocious genius. At just seventeen, he was the youngest boxer ever to win a world title.
“People went crazy in Puerto Rico when Benitez became champion,” said Jose Torres. “I was there and that fight was spectacular. Punch and move, punch and move, body and head, he never got tired. What he had was impossible to learn, nobody could teach you that. He was so perfect. He was so young to