Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [90]
On December 8, 1978 at the Garden, Duran had two things to prove: that he could punch and take a punch in the 147-pound class. He answered accordingly as he nailed the taller, wiry strong Brooks with a left hook as the first round ended. Then, after absorbing some sharp punches from Brooks, he began to methodically chop him down. In the fourth, Duran almost completely submerged his right into Brooks’ face, and in the sixth he ferociously spun Brooks’ head with a jarring left hook.
After punishing Brooks for the first seven rounds, Duran forced him against the ropes and landed a left hook with the force of a bat hitting a tree. The manner in which he set up Brooks was magnificent, as he perfectly positioned his body to the left of Brooks, assuming that there would be a slight opening under his right arm. There was and Duran delivered the decisive blow to the body. Brooks slumped to the canvas, and Mercante threw up his arms and halted the bout as the fighter reached his feet. The victory was official at 1:59 of round eight.
The damage might have come sooner had Duran not had to suffer mightily to lose twenty-one pounds from his 168-pound frame during training. Even the critics admitted that Duran was a legitimate welterweight contender. “Something told me that I was watching greatness,” said boxing analyst Steve Farhood, who covered the bout. “Basically he kicked the crap out of a world class fighter.”
At least Brooks had refused to run, and twenty-five years later could still hold his head high. “You have to box, box, box Duran,” he said. “You know Duran was more of a slugger but he had some boxing technique also. I had the boxing skills that were phenomenal and I felt I had enough to do what I had to do. Anemia didn’t play any part, not in this fight.” Were there any weaknesses in Duran? “The only weakness I felt was in me.” Later a security guard at a high school in Los Angeles, Brooks still thinks of Duran. Fighting him was an “honor,” but he has one last wish for his Panamanian friend: “Man, Duran better not ever get hit by Rudy Barro.”
In April, Duran walked through the game Jimmy Heair, veteran of ninety bouts, to win a unanimous decision in Vegas. The rugged, blond-haired Tennessee native, who had never been knocked down, took an awful beating but somehow stayed on his feet till the end. “I have never seen anything more brutal than that in all of my years,” said commentator Howard Cosell. Nit-pickers complained that Duran’s punch was not as percussive as it had been and that he should have stopped Heair. People held him to the highest standard. He was an all-time great and fans expected him to fight like one every time he got in the ring.
It was clear that, despite the four-fight program mapped out for him, Duran was going to relinquish his lightweight title. Both the WBA and the WBC had ordered him to make his next defense against different contenders – Alfredo Pitalua and Jim Watt respectively. Not only was that impossible, but he had also outgrown the weight. At the zenith of his profession, he abandoned his WBC and WBA titles in January 1979. His future lay with bigger men. No longer would he always be the strongest man in the ring, or punch the hardest, or have the scariest reputation. He was about to head into the toughest division in boxing.
12
“The Monster’s Loose