Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [157]
“People thought I was crazy to put Duran in there,” said DeCubas. “When he won that fight, I had put him with the greatest warriors of all time. Barkley told me that the left hook he hit Duran with would have knocked down a wall. People look at me crazy when I say that at thirty-seven years old … and fighting a full-fledged middleweight was the greatest sports accomplishment of all time.”
Duran had taken a puncher and made him come after him. “I could have knocked Barkley out in the first round,” he claimed later. “I got him into a really bad state. But Plomo said, ‘No, stay calm, it’s twelve rounds and this guy is big and heavy. It’s going to be a long bout and you’re going to need the extra strength down the road.’ I started studying him and I saw short arms. When he would defend himself, I was too far from him. I had to think a lot to come into him. How would I make him miss to throw mine? What beat him was the necessity I felt to become champion and the fortitude I had to be a champion again. When he would hit me, he would knock me off balance. I would stand there and he would throw his punches so hard that he would throw me to the side. So I could never really hit him as hard as I wanted to.”
When both men would see each other years later they would hug, knowing that their fists had created an unbreakable bond, brothers in blood. “Duran is a great fighter and I am a great fighter and we made one of the greatest fights in our time in Trump Plaza in 1987 in the snow,” Barkley would say years later. But he never accepted that he had lost the fight. “You can’t win a fight on one knockdown,” said Barkley. “It should have went to me. I knew he was a crafty guy. I knew he was dangerous and did dirty things in the ring. He kept a clean fight, and sadly to say it was a great fight that I knew that I won. In spite of the situation, I had to take it on the chin. But that fight made me and Duran best friends. I didn’t get bitter because I knew I won, and I walked away as a champion and that’s what a champion is all about. You walk away with your head up and don’t worry about what is what. Duran didn’t cause that fight for me; it was … the promoters. I got cheated out of it.”
Barkley would subsequently hint darkly that the boxing powers had conspired against him because a Duran-Leonard rubber match was on the cards. He felt he had been sacrificed to build up Duran. Others also had Barkley winning the fight. “I was the scapegoat for him to make that fight with Sugar Ray Leonard,” he said. “They needed my belt to do that fight and that’s what happened. The deck was stacked against me. [Arum] frankly lied and I knew he was lying because he said to me, ‘After you fight Duran you’re going to fight Leonard for the big money.’ I knew that was a lie and I knew that at that point in my career I couldn’t say no because they would have stripped me of my title. Back then Arum had control … and Sulaiman was great marketing for Duran because Duran was Latino. I just went on with the fight.”
Duran headed to New York City and Victor’s for a free dinner for everyone. It would be the last significant victory feast he would have there. “Victor’s kids used to hate it when Duran came because he never paid a cent and he brought all of these people with him,” said Acri. “They never paid for anything.”
The doyens gave their approval. “Duran is a marvel who’s still got head action he always had,” Angelo Dundee told the Washington Post. “He stands on a dime and makes you miss, like Willie Pep did. Don’t count on landing a punch against Roberto.”
The ninety-year-old Ray Arcel exclaimed, “That was the way I knew him.” Another great trainer, Emanuel Steward, was amazed. “I’ll never forget when he beat Barkley, who was so much bigger physically than Roberto. Not only did he beat Barkley, but he also dropped him. He stood toe-to-toe with him in a slugfest.”
Daughter Irichelle concurred: “I know that Buchanan and Sugar Ray Leonard were very important fights, but I