Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [81]
The fight also had its moments of farce. Viruet would dance, stick his face forward and pull it back, laugh at the disdain on Duran’s face, pull his version of the Ali Shuffle, and hold his left straight out to keep Duran at arm’s length. He seemed to be enjoying himself, but it was the champion who was landing the meaningful punches. “That was the thing with Viruet,” said boxing writer J.R. Jowett, who covered the bout. “He would do all these cutesy moves, but he couldn’t punch worth shit. It just wasn’t a good style to watch and I didn’t give him many rounds against Duran.” Philly sportswriter Ray Didinger called Viruet’s antics the equivalent of a “fly circling a lion’s mouth.”
Viruet did two things that other boxers tried, but didn’t produce the same effects: First, he stood up to Duran following the unwritten Latin code of machismo; then he made him miss. DeJesus did the same thing, but he could also make Duran pay for his mistakes. He talk too much obscene, Duran would say about Edwin.
During the fight, as Viruet ridiculed Duran, another problem arose. “The doctors gave Roberto something before that fight that affected him a lot, trying to reduce too much weight,” Eleta said. “Because of that medicine, he lost energy.” At times it showed. “They gave me this injection to get stronger and faster,” said Duran, “an injection that they gave to horses, and I almost died. I turned red and pale at the same time. I had to do fifteen rounds with Viruet that night. My strength and my know-how kept me from being knocked out.”
Duran took more risks and landed the harder punches. Although Viruet did open a slight cut under Duran’s left eye toward the end of the fight, he was by then a long way behind on points. After taking heavy punishment in the final round, Viruet complained about the decision. Venezuela’s Isidro Rodriguez had it 73-68, Panama’s Sergio Ley, 73-65, and Pennsylvania judge Frank Adams 71-65, all for Duran.
Felicidad had by now become a steady influence as a boxing wife. While some partners detest the fight game, Felicidad dabbled in promotions, understood the boxer’s psyche and knew when to come and when to stay away during training. She often ran in the morning with Roberto and even went into the gym to make sure he was in condition. She also became a loud presence during fights, shrieking encouragement and instructions to her man. “My presence encourages him during the tedious ambience of his rigorous training,” she eloquently told one reporter.
Duran himself was at ringside to watch a compatriot fight for a world title in Los Angeles that November. Jorge Lujan was born in Colon four years after Duran and grew up watching the fighters in the teeming gym known as the Box of Matches. “Colon was the cradle of champions,” he said. “I think so because of the beach, the ocean, the sun, fighting five or six times a day in the streets.” He eventually found himself sparring with the bigger Duran. “Duran would practice like it was the real fight. He was more heavy than me. I told him, ‘Don’t hit me!’ Then, bam, bam, bam, and he hit hard. But I still had to fight against those boxers.”
Lujan’s life would become a cautionary tale and showed the path Duran could easily have followed. Before facing Alfonso Zamora for the WBA bantamweight title, he was stuck in prison on Coiba Island for forty-five days for a drug offense. They had to get him out of jail so he could fight. “I was a flyweight when I went into jail,” he said. “When I left Coiba I had gained weight, so I had a fight at bantamweight.” The brash young Panamanian took on Zamora, a pocket rocket, and tamed him, taking his crown in the tenth round. He noticed that the champion was breathing heavily by the eighth round and knocked him down with a left hook that had all his strength behind it. It paved the way for the finish two rounds later. “I believed that I could win that bout because I was a counter-puncher and Zamora, a Mexican, came to me,” said Lujan. “The place was filled with Mexicans, but I was cool, not scared of anything. I had