Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [42]
Little Kenny admired the then-fading Sugar Ray Robinson as the “ultimate” boxer and harnessed his own skills in a successful amateur career that spanned ten years and took him to the European Championships in Moscow in 1963 and a silver medal at a tournament in Germany in 1965. “All I wanted to be was a world champion, all my life was for this one goal,” he said. “Everything after that was secondary.” He turned professional at nineteen and, boxing in trademark tartan shorts, won thirty-three straight bouts before a controversial points loss in Italy when challenging for the European lightweight title. By the time he met Laguna, he had won thirty-six out of his thirty-seven bouts, but had never fought outside Europe, at a time when most of the world’s best lightweights were from Latin America or Japan.
By Buchanan’s definition, a “patsy” was a challenger who had little chance of winning. Outside of Great Britain, a patsy might be categorized as soft or a “pussy,” a fighter lacking a hard edge and with a record bloated by weak opponents. Popular opinion outside Europe held that the Scot had built his record against the tea-and-crumpet crowd, and when Laguna’s American agent was instructed to “find someone Laguna would be sure to beat,” Buchanan seemed to fit the bill. “The people in Laguna’s camp thought I was a patsy,” said Buchanan. “He was an undisputed champ, both the WBA and WBC champ. But the WBC didn’t want to recognize me because they didn’t think I was a worthwhile opponent. Ismael was supposed to defend against [Mando] Ramos in a rematch. Ramos was in Panama and he got all cut up in the gyms, so they had to take him back to California. I ended up thanking Ramos. I got my shot and that was it.”
Laguna was recognized as world champion by both of the sport’s international governing bodies, the US-based World Boxing Association (formerly the National Boxing Association), and the World Boxing Council, formed in 1963 and based in Mexico. When Laguna signed to fight Buchanan instead of Ramos, the WBC and the affiliated British Board withdrew their recognition of him as champion. The WBA, however, sanctioned the bout and it went ahead in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
“A fellow Scotsman of mine fought [light-heavyweight champion] Jose Torres in Puerto Rico some years before that and the heat beat him that night,” said Buchanan. “Jose knocked him out and I think Ismael thought it was going to be much the same for himself. We shook hands, said hello. I didn’t speak Spanish and he didn’t speak English, or Scottish, so we weren’t exactly on speaking terms. We went out and fought in the open-air stadium and it was 125 degrees. My manager was putting Vaseline on my face and my dad was putting suntan lotion on my back. I must be the first British boxer to win a world title and get a suntan at the same time.”
Buchanan had a plan to neutralize Laguna’s famed left jab. “I would throw my jab a split second before he threw his,” said Buchanan. “I had to keep on top of him because he knew that this was the first time that I’d be boxing in this heat and I think he thought it was going to be a lot easier than it was. He was a wee bit surprised that I was taking it to him so much. I don’t know exactly when it happened, whether it was the sixth, eighth or tenth round, when Laguna finally realized that it wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought it would be.
“I don’t know what kept me going that night, I really don’t. When we were younger my dad used to take my brother and I to swimming baths because his dad was drowned at sea. I built my strength up with swimming. We used to do underwater swimming. I could hold my breath and swim an Olympic swimming pool underwater. I think that’s what helped me with Laguna and the heat. I was used to holding my breath for several minutes.”
It wasn