Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [46]
As they faced each other in the middle of the ring, Buchanan knew that this was no speedy, elusive Laguna in front of him. While Buchanan had to time Laguna, throw his jab a second earlier, while not worrying about his power, he had to be aware of Duran every second. Just seconds into the fight, he had his first test of the young man’s power. A right cross made him stumble and his glove grazed the canvas, causing referee Johnny LoBianco to rule it a knockdown, though many thought it was a slip. Later in a fierce first round, Buchanan landed a wild left hook that sent an off-balance Duran into the ropes.
The fight quickly became a free flow of elbows, uppercuts, knees and feints. Buchanan wasn’t handling the pace with much aplomb over the early rounds and his knees buckled in the fifth round from another Duran right hand. Later, Buchanan’s mouthpiece shot out of the ring from another straight right. “Laguna would stick and move and he was a survivor,” said Buchanan. “But Roberto was young and strong and was in there to make his mark … to be just like Ismael was when he was young. He would do everything, throw everything, until the referee told him to stop.” At times during the fight, as Buchanan later noted, it was almost as if Duran was trying to kick him. Few men would have been capable of withstanding such an onslaught as the challenger built a clear lead on all three cards over the first twelve rounds, but Buchanan stayed calm as Duran rushed in.
The fighters headed out for the thirteenth. Duran continued to charge forward, hurling a blizzard of leather at the beleaguered champion, but Buchanan was made of stern stuff. In the dying seconds of the round, he caught Duran with a decent right hand. As he followed up with a couple more straight punches, the bell rang. Neither fighter seemed to hear it as referee LoBianco moved in and grabbed Duran by the shoulders to pull him back. As he did so, Duran fired a low, almost casual right hand that hit Buchanan squarely on his protective cup.
Buchanan grabbed his groin, his face contorted in pain, then keeled over and rolled on the canvas. Later he would claim the punch was destined to arrive under his testicles, in an upward trajectory against which the cup offers less protection. Buchanan’s cornermen leapt into the ring and tended to him as the boxer squirmed in agony on the canvas. After about fifteen seconds, he was able to rise, still hunched in distress, and sat down on his corner stool. There, he was visited by referee LoBianco and the ringside doctor. After a few more seconds, LoBianco turned away from the corner and waved his arms in the air, as if to signal the bout was over. But no one seemed sure. As Buchanan’s cornermen protested, the Scot, his face battered and weeping blood, rose to his feet and said several times to the referee, “I’m okay, I’m okay,” though he was clearly still in pain.
Despite this, as the warning buzzer went off for the start of the fourteenth round, LoBianco walked across the ring to raise Duran’s arm in victory. Bedlam ensued, with Duran leaping into Eleta’s arms, a huge grin on his baby face, as his supporters skirted the edges of the ring.
The fiesta lit Panama and New York City until the sun rose. Boxing writer Papi Mendez described the scene in Panama as a mar de enthusiasmo, a sea of enthusiasm. In La Critica the headline read, “Buchanan received a beating like the one you get in the worst slums of New York.”
“I felt like I was King of the World,” recalled Duran. “I had avenged