Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [33]
The closest the two Panamanian greats ever came to a box-off was a single sparring session. Though few were in the gym to witness it, the story later grew into the proportions of a mini-epic. Duran’s sparring sessions were feral portraits of precision. Even when training with stablemates, he gave and asked no quarter, and the fact that he worshipped Laguna meant nothing when they stepped between the ropes.
“Duran was coming up and he didn’t have a sparring partner one day,” said Laguna. “I didn’t want to spar with him because he was too young. I think I was preparing for a bout. I was too experienced, but he insisted. At first I thought we would take it easy, but Plomo urged Duran to go after me. When Duran came at me, I hit him with three quick hooks and opened a cut under his eye. That’s when the sparring session ended.”
It is not uncommon for fighters to have a selective memory when they have come off second best, and unsurprisingly Duran’s account differs. “I was sparring at Neco de la Guardia with Antonio Amaya,” he said. “I was young and I had done two rounds with Amaya. Laguna had no one to spar with. Right before, I had hit Amaya really hard. I was just starting my career, but I had already beaten Amaya badly. Then, I hear someone say that Laguna pays people to spar with him. And I say, ‘I’m the one.’
“In the first round I start hitting Laguna left and right, and I even move him a little bit. Laguna starts running around me, and I start hunting him down. When I stopped, he hit me with a left and broke my nose. When I saw the blood, I lost it and jumped on top of him and gave him some punches. Curro Dossman, the manager of Laguna, tells Laguna, ‘That Cholito is tough. He’ll be a champion one day.’ When we’re finished sparring, I’m drinking orange juice. I say, ‘Champ, give me something so I can go and eat.’ And he gives me a dollar-fifty and right then I felt like hitting him again. That’s the truth about my sparring with Laguna.”
Not far from where the incident occurred in the early Seventies, Plomo sits in a gym in Barrazza and retells his version. “Laguna and Amaya were stars from the same block and Duran wanted to fight with them. First, Duran got in there and was sparring two rounds with Amaya, but Curro Dossman stepped in and said, ‘Look, this is only sparring, we are not fighting here. If you want to fight, then fight with Laguna.’ And this is the truth, for those who tell otherwise then they are trying to cover Laguna. When Laguna got into the ring, he tried to jab Duran and Duran hit him twice with right hands and Laguna was stumbling.”
Didn’t Laguna break Duran’s nose? “No, mentira, mentira! All lies,” said the old sage, still protecting his fighter. “I remember watching Laguna fight Ortiz in the first fight in Panama. Their next two fights [won by Ortiz] were much different than the first one, where Laguna was using his cleverness. Ortiz would beat him in the two fights with the same punch. Laguna was a beautiful fighter with much speed and a good jab but he couldn’t change when he fought Ortiz. Compared to Duran, Laguna didn’t have intelligence in the ring. When Duran got hit he would move out of the way before the next punch came. Laguna would just stay there and receive punches.”
The two men did share a common opponent around this time in Lloyd Marshall, a dangerous American lightweight. Laguna had some problems in outpointing the heavy-handed Marshall, while two months later Duran, who had stopped five more opponents since his grudge match with Ernesto Marcel, beat him inside five rounds, on 29 May 1971.
“Laguna fought Lloyd Marshall, who had a really tough right hand,” remembered Duran. “Marshall hits Laguna with a right that knocks him on his ass but Laguna wins by decision, and Eleta gives me the fight with Marshall. The entire country said, ‘Now they’re really going to knock out Duran.’ When we’re in the dressing room, a boxer tells me to be careful with the right hand because that’s his most dangerous, most powerful