Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [40]
Eleta wanted Arcel and Brown to look at his other hot prospect, a kid called Duran. They were skeptical, but by chance Arcel was at the Garden – a friend had told him to check out Ken Buchanan – with his wife Steve when Duran iced Huertas in the first round. Duran bounded over to where the Arcels sat and shook their hands, even though they had never met. When told it was Duran’s twenty-second knockout in twenty-five wins, Arcel reportedly said, “Either he’s another Jack Dempsey or he’s been beating bums.” But out of friendship with Eleta, he took a look at this young hotshot. The fact that Eleta deemed him worthy of such elite cornermen was a sign of his talent. Eleta also felt that he had got the most he could from Plomo Quinones and Duran needed something more.
Duran’s next opponent was the experienced Hiroshi Kobayashi, who in his previous fight had lost his world junior lightweight title. “Eleta tells me that he’s going to get me a fight with this guy who just lost the championship and that’s going to be the test for me,” said Duran. “If I win that fight, then Eleta assured me of a shot at the lightweight championship of the world. I ask him who it is, and he tells me this Chinese guy. I tell him that this Chinese guy is a dead man and I’m going to kill him.” Kobayashi was in fact Japanese, a veteran of seventy-four fights, and had reigned as champion for almost four years. He was Duran’s sternest test to date.
They fought on 16 October 1971, in Panama City. Despite a remarkable ability to absorb punishment, Kobayashi wilted under Duran’s attack. He landed some clean shots but was stalked, hunted down and overwhelmed. Like a man trapped in a closet with no space to move his arms, yet still trying to block punches, Kobayashi was pummeled into a seventh-round stoppage. A national hero arrived back in the dressing room.
“I’m in the locker room and Freddie Brown comes in with Eleta and I get introduced to him,” said Duran. “The gym is so packed. At the time Eleta was friends with John Kennedy Jr., who was young, and Joe DiMaggio, who Eleta had brought to Panama. Carlos Eleta knew all those people. Ray Arcel and Freddie Brown sat next to me and they tell Carlos Eleta, ‘This guy is a natural and I’m going to convert him into a champion. And from what I saw, there isn’t much he needs to change because from what I saw he knows a lot.’”
While Eleta mingled with elite figures from all stratospheres, Duran rarely bothered to look far past his own circle of friends. “I told Roberto that I wanted him to meet Joe DiMaggio one night, and he said, ‘Why, who has he fought?’ That was Roberto,” laughed Eleta.
Arcel and Brown made a point not to tamper with the kid’s bullishness. Passivity was not in Duran’s nature and they did nothing to change his aggression; they just upgraded it. Together they provided the polish to Plomo’s wax job, so when Duran went into one of his rages, there was purpose behind it. Indeed, Arcel told Brown and the other trainers, “Don’t you dare tell him what to do. Leave him alone. He knows what to do. Just condition him. See that he’s in shape.” The instinctive defensive skills that kept him from absorbing heavy punishment during his first twenty-five fights were also being honed. Most importantly, Arcel saw that Duran knew how to think in the ring, not just fight.
“Plomo was a little jealous of Ray and Freddie and would start things,” said Eleta. “I always used to tell Duran that his fights were won during training and he would tell me that it didn’t matter because he had a right hand like Ingemar Johannsen.”
“We had only heard about him,” said New York boxing writer Bert Sugar. “Carlos Eleta called me and said, ‘You have to see this kid.’ He had Ray Arcel and Brown with him, which was a helluva mark. The kid obviously had something. I give Arcel and Brown a lot of credit. Anytime you have a force