Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [51]
“Many hundreds are employed in Panama City and take to selling drugs or pornography. It is the theory of some that boxing is a natural safety valve, through which the unemployed can release their depression. However, this theory is soon cast to the wind when one ventures to the more provincial parts of Panama, to the huts and shacks on the banana plantations where giant posters of Ismael Laguna, complete with crown, scorch in the midday sun, and where sacks of sweetcorn and grass are used as punchbags. Even the villagers of the Darien jungle province of Panama know the name Buchanan, which they pronounce ‘Bookanar.’”
Buchanan, however, was far from Carlos Eleta’s thoughts. Duran’s next proposed opponent was not the Scot but veteran former champion Carlos Ortiz. The bout was first intended to be a title defense in Panama but was then switched to a non-title bout – meaning Duran’s championship would not be at stake – over ten rounds, on the undercard of the Muhammad Ali–Floyd Patterson fight at Madison Square Garden that September. “Duran and I signed to fight,” said Ortiz. “We were supposed to fight in 1972, in Madison Square Garden. I don’t know what happened to him, but he ended up going back to Panama. He didn’t want to fight me. They saw that I was in good condition. They came down to see me at the Gramercy Park Gym where I was training at the time, and that I was training with middleweights at 138 pounds. It was a problem because I was in condition and then ten days before the bout, no one knew where he went. I found out he checked out of the hotel room and went back to Panama. He gave no excuses. He didn’t want to fight. But he was the champ, so he could do it.”
According to members of Duran’s camp, he had been diagnosed with bronchitis and had to return to Panama. “But he was not sick in reality,” admitted Plomo. “This was just to prevent him from fighting with Ortiz, who was a well qualified boxer and much loved as well. So after spending twenty-two days there, they did not let Duran fight, and we came back to Panama.”
“I couldn’t force him to fight me,” said a frustrated Ortiz. “That’s why I came back. I had to fight for the championship and prove again to myself that I could do it. I spent eight months training for the fight, fighting here and there, getting in shape. I was going to fight the champion, whether it was a title fight or an over-the-weight bout. As soon as I’d fight for the title, then I’d prove something to myself and quit. I think it was more of a managerial decision because Duran didn’t duck nobody. A real fighter doesn’t duck anybody. The ones who make decisions about the fights are the managers. They thought I was going to make a fool of Duran, and he’d be in trouble. If he looked bad, he’d have to fight again. They didn’t want that.
“I had that feeling inside of me that I could beat him, not that I would look good against him or make a good fight out of it but that I could beat him,” said Ortiz decades later. “I wouldn’t have signed for the fight if I couldn’t beat him. My comeback was that I was going to go as far as I could go. I got Buchanan, but it wasn’t my fight. Buchanan was far away from my mind, until they brought him up to me.
“When Duran went to Panama, the Garden was in deep trouble. If I didn’t fight, they were going to lose that date and a lot of money. So Teddy Brenner gave me the situation, he said, ‘Carlos, this is what’s going to happen. This is a problem. He’s not going to fight you. We are going to lose a lot of money because we already have publicity and the fight has to go on. I have a few kids that you would want to fight.’ I didn’t prepare for Buchanan; he meant nothing to me. I wanted to fight Duran. Once Duran left, that was it. When something you love goes away and you don’t have it no more, that’s how I felt when Duran left. I lost my passion. He didn’t have to tell me why he didn’t fight because that was his priority.”
Eleta was not the first manager to protect his investment. It was announced that Duran had