Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [126]
As both fighters came out at the start of the fifteenth round, there was little doubt that Benitez had taken this one personally. And with less than a minute remaining Benitez went to the ropes and motioned Duran to come to him one more time as if to remind him, this is my night. It was his way of closing off his virtuoso performance. It was Benitez’s bolo punch, his Ali shuffle, and not only did he taunt Duran, but he called for Duran and then punished him. Few fighters would have exuded such bravado. Duran resisted one last time and brushed Benitez off as the final bell sounded.
There would be no late-night quarrels over a pitcher of beer as to who was the better fighter that night in Vegas; Benitez won by a mile. Even staunch Duran fans had to acknowledge defeat. Ringside scribes struggled to find a round, let alone rounds for Duran. Scoring on the ten-point must system, Lou Tabbat had it 145-141, Dave Moretti, 144-141, and Hal Miller scored it 143-142 with a straight face.
“It was great to watch Benitez fight,” said boxing personality Bert Sugar. “He could duck so much that all you could get was an ear. Later he lost his timing and they hit him and he got brain damage. But he was brilliant. I remember sitting at ringside of that fight in Vegas and I was heard audibly and it was quoted in the papers by the Brits. I gave Duran the fifth round and he asked me why and I said, ‘I have to give him something.’” Jose Torres thought that Benitez had not even had to extend himself to win, and saw “qualities Wilfred displayed in this match that only a conscious quest for perfection could produce … His control was absolute.” Steve Farhood of KO magazine wrote that when Benitez was motivated he was “the sweetest, slickest, smartest, most natural, the best boxer in the ‘sweet science.’” It was this Benitez who Duran faced in Las Vegas. Yet, it was also his last hurrah, as he, a current shell of himself, currently lives with his mother in Carolina, suffering dearly from the aftereffects of the brutal sport.
Quizzed again about retirement, Duran said he would do what his manager told him to do. Eleta responded, “The time has come. I think I will retire him.” If he wanted to do things his way it would be without Eleta calling the shots. In fact, a chasm began to open between the two men, especially when Duran learned through the media that Eleta intended to renounce his managerial services.
Eight months later, Duran would be back in the ring and Eleta would be back to his horses. “I liked the horses better because they didn’t talk back,” said the manager.
DURAN AGAIN ballooned, to almost thirteen stone, but he resumed his career, intending to box on at light-middleweight. “The American press is always saying I’m fat,” he said, “but I see Tony Ayala fight and he looks fat but no one says anything.” Ayala was a stocky but rip-roaring junior middleweight who was tearing through the division. Unfortunately he found himself in and out of trouble with the law. “Just keep me out of jail long enough to knock out Duran,” he said.
Duran found himself in the middle of a power struggle between the two most important promoters in boxing. Don King and Bob Arum hated each other with a passion. King had held exclusive rights to Duran during his prime years, though he and Arum had grudgingly buried their differences to co-promote Duran in the past. With Eleta now seemingly uninterested in his charge, Duran agreed to box for Arum in a title challenge to WBA light-middleweight champion Davey Moore. King, however, declared Duran was already bound by a three-bout agreement leading to a prime-time TV mega-bout with the unbeaten Ayala that November. With a view to building up the Ayala bout, King found Duran what he assumed would be a relatively easy tune-up against England’s Kirkland Laing. Arum hit back, claiming that Duran was only under contract with King for the Laing fight. He declared that the row was merely a pretext by King to grab a piece of his Duran-Moore title promotion in November. “Duran Just a Pawn in the