Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [148]
Steward was not one of those individuals. Ever since he started working with Hearns, he knew there was something extraordinary about this prizefighter. Although he had come up short against Leonard in 1981, Hearns faced a fighter in Duran, who would stand right in front of him, and no longer had the head movement or reflexes of his fabulous Seventies incarnation.
“I wasn’t surprised how quick he got to him because when Tommy was right, and he was a great boxer, he could beat any top fighter in the world,” said Steward. “When two great fighters get in the ring, you never see one great fighter destroy another one. Marvin or Ray couldn’t do that but Tommy could. When he was right he could go in and make a world-class fighter look like nothing. If you didn’t know who Roberto was you’d think he was a slow kid from Panama.”
As Duran was led out from the outdoor arena, onlookers wondered if they just saw the last of him. “If Benitez proved that Duran could no longer cut off the ring on a slick boxer, and Hagler showed that the Panamanian could never beat a middleweight,” wrote KO magazine’s Jeff Ryan, “then Hearns stripped Duran of his ability to take a punch and his pride, the only two qualities that he still retained.” (Nov 1986) There was nowhere left for him to go.
Duran announced he was retiring and flew home to Panama, where he was promptly honored by the appearance of his head on a postage stamp – and was thrown in a jail cell. According to a story he told author Peter Heller, Duran was seized when he reached Panama City, for reasons not explained. “Then I got rebellious and aggressive and I started to argue with the guards,” he said. “They wanted to hit me. They called the colonel, Colonel Paredes, and the captain said we have Duran here and no one can hold him, he says he’ll hit anyone who tries and we’ll have to kill him … They just grabbed me and detained me. I don’t know why. So Paredes said, ‘Just let him go.’” The reasons for his arrest are still unclear, even to Duran, but it may have been an angry reaction by the military authorities to his poor showing.
Hearns and Duran retained a special fondness for each other. “I love the man and I have nothing but respect for him still,” said Hearns. Both fighters later got to spend time together in Panama. “We were in Panama for a WBO Convention and as soon as Duran sees Tommy he starts screaming, ‘Tommy Hearns, Tommy Hearns,’ and hugs him,” said Manny Steward. “He grabs Tommy and takes him all over town. They were like little kids.”
The boxing reporters, once again, wrote Duran’s career obituaries but this time it really did seem all over. “It was a sad way for Duran to go,” said Boxing News, “but at least he fell to a superb champion, and not a man from the lower orders. That would have been tragic. We’ll remember Duran as the snorting, scowling, grinning fighter who destroyed the best lightweights of a generation and then moved up in his later years to become a triple champion.” His seventeen-year, eighty-three fight career, with just a handful of losses, had been one of the greatest ever. He had equaled the record for lightweight title defenses, won world championships at three weights and was the only man to beat Ray Leonard. Now the rollercoaster ride was finally over.
Old Stone Hands was finished.
19
“I’m Duran”
“It was like watching Rembrandt paint a picture.”
Irving Rudd, publicist
FOR OVER A year and a half, Duran loafed and enjoyed his millionaire status. He ballooned to over 200 pounds. He played music. He drank. But the poverty of his past continued to haunt him. “When I was penniless, Christmas and New Year’s Eve were the saddest days not only for me but for my mother and family because