Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [87]
DeJesus succumbed on 13 March 1987. His death was reported briefly in the London Times: “Esteban DeJesus, the former world-class boxer, who has died at the age of 37 of AIDS, contracting the disease by using an infected needle to support his drug habit in prison, was the only man to beat Roberto Duran in the 70s.”
Even in death, they were linked.
ON 27 APRIL 1978, Duran faced Adolpho Viruet, brother of Edwin, at Madison Square Garden. It was stipulated that Adolpho had to weigh under the agreed 143-pound limit. Duran, at 142, was at his heaviest since Javier Muniz in May 1977. He had not fought at the Garden for almost five and a half years and 17,125 fans, the largest crowd there since Ali beat Frazier in 1974, paid $275,366 to see him. Duran would take home a tax-free purse of $100,000 while Viruet managed $15,000. Viruet, a southpaw, told a New York reporter, “We both came from the same place, the streets. The Bronx, Panama, it’s the same thing. You still have to rumble with your hands.”
It was Duran who came to rumble. Referee Arthur Mercante warned him for being dangerous with his head and instructed the judges to take the seventh round away from him for hitting low. It made no difference in the result as Duran attacked his southpaw opponent from the opening bell and stayed on top of him for the whole fight, his feet flat on the canvas so he was always set to punch behind his full weight. After avoiding Duran for the first five rounds, Viruet became more aggressive but didn’t have the firepower to keep him off. He did land a cracking left to the Panamanian’s jaw in the seventh, and made him miss hugely with a right uppercut, while Edwin Viruet at ringside led a large Puerto Rican contingent in cheering his brother and abusing Duran in Spanish, but neither Adolpho nor his voluble older sibling could punch hard enough to defeat a fighter of Duran’s caliber. The decision was unanimous in Duran’s favour. Afterwards Edwin climbed into the ring and Duran calmly walked over and gave him a heavy shove. Edwin squared up before the cornermen intervened and blue-shirted security police got between the two camps.
“Edwin was much tougher,” said Duran afterwards. “All Adolpho did tonight was run and complain about my hitting him with low blows. I’ve fought guys on a bicycle, but this guy was on a motorcycle.” Years later, from atop his apartment building in New York City, Adolpho seemed to be delusional about the result. “I don’t want to say nothing about ref and judge but to me they all crooks. I beat Duran but Duran’s got connections.”
Rumors spread of a possible showdown with junior lightweight champ Alexis Arguello, but the negotiations failed. While Arguello was moving up to the lightweight division, Duran was abandoning it. “It was promotions,” said Arguello. “They never signed nothing; it was only talking. It would have been a great fight, but we moved to higher weight classes.
“I met him after I won my first title from Ruben Olivares. He’s a good person who carries himself really well. There’s nothing that I saw that he behaved badly except one time when I was invited by Don King to fight in Vegas. I was in the lobby of Caesar’s Palace and he came up to me and I thought he was coming to say hello. Instead he was pushing me and pushing me, telling me to sign the contract or he would kill me. I told Duran, ‘I’m a serious person. Don’t push me.’ That was the only rough encounter I had with Duran. In my heart I think he was one of the greatest lightweights in boxing history.”
Arguello, from Nicaragua, was diplomatic but always felt that he had the tools to take Duran. “Latin fighters are tough fighters with big hearts and courage, especially Duran. In Latin America,