Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [60]
A jarring left hook to the neck sent Thompson sprawling in the eighth and blood squirted from his nose like a spigot. He was up quickly but disoriented, and after the second mandatory eight-count Duran landed two more shots and referee Nicasio Drake stepped in to halt it with fifteen seconds left in the round. Thompson was slumped against the ropes and appeared unable to defend himself. The Australian later complained that the stoppage was premature, but Duran was well ahead on points and had clearly outworked him.
That night, Thompson faced an indomitable champion. Some would contend that Duran never fought a more vicious, focused fight. “Thompson, a classical stylist, had gambled on his skill being too much for Duran, but like Ken Buchanan before him he learned the hard way that technique without power is not enough to counter Duran’s explosive hitting,” concluded Boxing News.
“I think the one fight where people realized how great he could be was against Thompson,” said Eleta. “You should have seen that fight, they went at each other, tried to kill each other, but not in the way it is translated. It means that they fought very hard in Spanish. It showed that Duran had that something extra.
“Duran didn’t like any fighter that he had to fight. After that they got together and were friendly. But that’s why Duran was Duran, because he got everybody afraid of him. That’s why he would say, ‘I am going to kill you’ and all that.”
Thompson went on to be one of the greatest Australian boxers ever but a world title would elude him. In 1976, another of his opponents, American Chuck Wilburn, died in hospital from injuries sustained during their bout, and Thompson himself was eventually forced to retire after an electro-encephalogram revealed he could suffer permanent brain damage if he continued.
The title had also brought Duran a new home with a pool in Nuevo Reparten, an upscale community in Panama, a place where he could indulge both his generous conviviality and his roughly playful sense of humour. While later taking pictures during a party at Duran’s home, a local photographer was standing by the side of Duran’s pool. Next thing he knew Duran was telling the people that “it was time to push a photographer in the pool.” At the moment it seemed a harmless announcement that Duran made to get some laughs. Minutes later the man and his equipment were in the water, while Duran and his friends basked in the moment.
Duran asked how much for the equipment.
“One thousand dollars,” said the dripping photographer.
“I’ll give you two thousand dollars,” replied Duran.
“I couldn’t stay mad any longer,” said the photographer, after fishing out his equipment.
A little over two months after the Thompson fight, Duran was surrounded by Puerto Ricans in the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. On DeJesus’s turf, he faced Adolphus “Doc” McClendon, who had nine losses in eighteen bouts, in a ten-round non-title bout, and banged out a unanimous decision, with few notable exchanges. “Doc didn’t do much after holding his own for the first three rounds,” reported Ring. “He also managed to land a sneaky right hand. That won the plaudits of the fans, but they were few and far between.” After the fight, the generous Duran gave McClendon an expensive gold watch as a gift. Material things meant little to him. It wasn’t unusual for him to offer a piece of clothing to a stranger in public just to see their reaction. In an airport one day, he ripped off his T-shirt to give to an admirer, and continued to walk shirt-less through the terminal.
His Nuevo Panama haven was the venue for his third defense against Japan’s Ishimatsu “Guts” Suzuki, on a bill that also featured fellow WBA champion Ernesto Marcel defending his featherweight crown. A crowd of 16,000 turned out to watch the two