Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [41]
Duran returned to his hometown in January 1972 to face the globe-trotting Cuban Angel “Robinson” Garcia. Nicknamed for his likeness to the great Sugar Ray Robinson, Garcia was almost old enough to be Duran’s father and had the longest fight record of any boxer then active: 119 wins, fifty-five losses and twenty draws – and they were just the bouts the record compilers knew about. His indefatigability was exceeded only by his appetite for women and booze; he would often enter the ring after a bottle of wine and box none the worse for it. Duran, however, was too much for him.
“He was dangerous,” Garcia said in an interview years later, “but I knew how to work the ring. I shuffled back and forth and worked angles and kept him out of range, confusing him … I caught him with some good shots but he was too young and strong. He won the decision but after the fight he looked at me and said, ‘Cuban, you know a lot.’”
The ten-round decision ended Duran’s streak of ten straight knockouts. “I made a mistake and took a pill to make weight,” said Duran. “I only needed to lose one pound and I ended up losing six pounds against Robinson Garcia. I tried to knock him out but I lost too much weight and I didn’t have enough strength. I think if he would have stood up to me and come to fight, I would have knocked him out, but he didn’t come to me. I learned something that night. Whenever I fought, I would learn from boxers because I was very smart. I would learn from them and find their defects.”
Garcia was too intelligent to brawl with Duran. From the outset, he realized that the young tiger was too strong to stand in front of. Duran took this as an insult. To him, fighters were meant to fight, not hide. “Duran was all the time throwing his punches, but Garcia was blocking him all the time,” said Plomo. “Garcia was a good boxer. He had fought twice with Laguna, and had knocked him down twice. After this fight, Garcia was in New York to help us as a sparring partner during the fight with Buchanan, but he only lasted two days. He was not able to continue because Duran hurt him badly during the training.”
Soon after the Garcia fight, it was reported that the World Boxing Council would order its junior lightweight champion, Ricardo Arredondo, to defend against Duran, the number one contender. But Duran had outgrown that weight. His sights were set instead on Ken Buchanan, the lightweight champion who had beaten his idol, Laguna. On 10 March 1972, Duran knocked out the little-known Francisco Munoz in the first round. Three months later, he would step into the ring to fight for the championship of the world.
6
The Scot
“I’ll never forget you. Every time I take a piss I’ll think of you.”
Ken Buchanan
AT THE AGE of eight, Ken Buchanan went to the cinema with his father to watch The Joe Louis Story, a biopic of the famous heavyweight champion. “I kept thinking throughout the film, I want to be like that guy, champion of the world,” he recalled. “That was my inspiration.” A short time later, he walked into the Sparta Boxing Club, lied about his age, and within four months was boxing his first three-round bout.
The Buchanans lived on a public housing estate near the Portobello district of Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital city. Word traveled through his school that little Kenny was a fighter, and that soon made him a target for bullies wanting to try him out. “I never lost one street fight,” he recounted with pride. “Kids used to pick fights with me, not because they didn’t like me, but some of these