Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [27]
The teenage Duran sought out the new champion and told him, “Laguna, I will be just as good as you or better.” They were meant as the words of an admirer, but Laguna was too busy to hear them. This was Tigre’s moment. “When we left, Laguna had his car parked there, a big car, and many people were surrounding his car. I was among them. I then saw Laguna trying to drive slowly because there were so many people around him, but one guy stood in front of the car, defying him and trying to hit him. But Laguna just stared and kept on driving slowly. In the end, people started shouting that we had a new champion. Then I went back home.”
From that moment on, for every young boxer it was about being Tigre. Even years later, Duran would still sparkle as he interrupted a young reporter: “For me it was always about Ismael Laguna.” He was Duran’s idol and still is. “When Duran sees me he still comes up to me and gives me a kiss,” said Laguna. “Sometimes he jokingly tells me that I gave birth to him.”
Not only did Laguna show how to defend himself in the ring, but also how to conduct himself outside of it. Duran would watch and listen, devouring Laguna’s instructions, but would still then do his own thing. “All his life he’s been the same and does whatever he wants,” said Laguna. “In the ring sometimes I would tell him to throw the jab this way, and he would do it another way. But he’s always been like that.”
DURAN’S DEBUT win against Carlos Mendoza gave little indication of the cyclone to come. In eight more fights that year, Duran stopped or knocked out seven opponents in the first round and the other in the second. First to fall were Manuel Jimenez and Juan Gondola in Colon, then Edward Morales in Panama City. Enrique Jacobs, Leroy Cargill and Cesar Uche de Leon were all one-round victims in the National Gymnasium in Panama. According to La Estrella de Panama, Duran sent De Leon to the emergency room at Santo Tomas Hospital. “He was a very good fighter and had not been beaten,” said Plomo. “Duran left his rival in such a poor condition that he had to be taken to hospital.” De Leon would never fight again. Juan Gondola made it as far as round two in Colon in November, then Carlos Howard was thumped in one in December to complete an explosive first year.
It was clear that Duran was ready for sterner opposition, and the boxers he faced in 1969 were a step up in class. His six fights that year brought six more victories, but none was inside the first three rounds. In January 1969, Alberto Brand was knocked down three times and stopped in four rounds. A six-round decision over Eduardo Frutos was followed by the stoppages of Jacinto Garcia (“Duran almost killed him,” said Plomo), the experienced Adolfo Osses, well-travelled journeyman Serafin Garcia and former Panamanian bantamweight champion Luis Patino. By the end of 1969, Duran was 15-0 and had acquired the nickname “El Dentista” because of his habit of pushing opponents’ teeth into their mouthpiece. He had also set up a juicy crosstown rivalry with Ernesto Marcel, the one fellow prospect who had the tools to compete with the eighteen-year-old terror.
It took eight rounds for Duran to dispose of Patino, a crafty veteran, on November 23, but the win showed the people that here was more than just a one-punch phenom and that he could last more than six rounds. “This was a good fighter, an experienced one, who had done a good number of good fights in Panama,” said Plomo. “So he was like the true exam for those who were building up their careers as professionals. They had to fight against Patino. Duran’s first fight to ten rounds was that one. They got up to the eighth round when Duran pah, pah, pah, knocked him down.”
One of the most famous knockouts Duran would ever score came after the bout. Like most Panamanian