Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [70]
The story quickly became yet another piece of the Duran legend, like the street fighting, the flattened horse and the “morgue” quote. Don King’s publicist, Bobby Goodman, told a version in Alan Goldstein’s Fistful of Sugar. “He’s just an animal in the ring. I remember the time he knocked out Pedro Mendoza in one round. Some woman, I think it was Mendoza’s wife, jumped in the ring and made a beeline for Duran. He just whirled around and flattened the broad with a right hand, better than the one he starched Mendoza with.”
La Critica also had a feature on the melee. One of its correspondents in Managua reported, “The woman threw a punch at Duran…and he threw a punch, effectively knocking out the young woman.” Another report named the woman as Eleanora Baca.
Carlos Eleta, however, disputed the adverse press reports. “A woman came running into the ring after the knockout,” he said. “She started throwing punches and screaming at Duran. At first, he thought she was going to embrace him, but she kept using abusive language and swinging. Roberto put up his arms to protect himself and in the scuffle she fell down. That’s all there was to it and I have the film to prove that Duran didn’t throw a punch.”
Duran also wouldn’t admit it. “I never hit a woman, never in my life,” he said. “Just swatted her away with the back of my hand.”
WITH CONTROVERSY dogging the champion, it was perhaps unfortunate that, after next knocking out one of the Acuna boxing family, Alirio, in three rounds in Panama, he had his first run-in with the abrasive Viruet brothers. Born in Areceibo, Puerto Rico, the Viruets had made New York City their home. As quick with an insult as a jab, the cocky brothers – including Dorman, Edwin and Adolpho – cruised through the Big Apple’s amateur scene, using the canvas as their dance floor.
“I dropped out of the school while in the eighth grade because I was impatient to become a boxer,” Edwin told The Ring. He couldn’t punch, but had a great left jab and a highly elusive, showboating style. He was 21-1-2 as a professional when he signed to meet Duran in a non-title fight in Uniondale, New York, on September 30, 1975. The Panama–Puerto Rico rivalry brought a 14,396 crowd to the Nassau Coliseum, breaking a box office record set by Frank Sinatra.
The old adage that styles make fights never held more weight. Tall, rangy and tricky, Viruet went through his full repertoire, dancing an Ali shuffle in the opening moments, tying up Duran and shaking his head after punches to show he wasn’t hurt, sticking out his tongue at Duran’s cornermen and generally infuriating the short-fused champion. Several times in the middle rounds he took off around the canvas, strutting like a man in a walking race, and in the tenth even jogged a lap of the ring, to wild applause from his supporters. Duran struggled to find a way past Viruet’s long jab, but each of his punches was worth three of Viruet’s gentle pats, and by the middle rounds he was landing solidly.
The judges were unimpressed with the showboating Puerto Rican and awarded Duran the unanimous decision. Ring reported that the bout “was a Sunday stroll for the champ once he changed his style and stopped dignifying Viruet’s bag of running tricks by chasing him.” Though the largely pro-Viruet crowd lustily booed the verdict for ten minutes, Duran had won