Hands of Stone - Christian Giudice [92]
Palomino claims he hurt his opponent several times. “One of my sparring partners told me later that Benitez said he was going to quit in the third round, that Benitez went back to his corner and said, ‘This guy hits too hard.’” Minutes later, trainer Gregorio Benitez slapped his son’s face as he sent him out at the start of a round. It might have won him the title. “I guess it woke him up because Benitez jabbed and stayed alive for the rest of the fight,” said Palomino. “Benitez had no real punching power, but he was the best defensive fighter I ever fought. It was like he had a sixth sense. He knew every punch I would throw before I threw it.”
As Palomino sat disconsolately in his dressing room after the bout, promoter Bob Arum came in and promised him a return bout. But the WBC would never honor his rematch clause. Instead, Palomino was offered $250,000 to fight an elimination bout with Duran, with the victor to face Benitez. “I was psyched for Duran and I prepared for a twelve-rounder,” said Palomino. “At the time, people were saying that he didn’t hit as hard as a welterweight. I knew it would be difficult but I thought I could overcome it with my punching power.” In the run-up to the Duran bout, however, Palomino learned that Wilfred Benitez signed to defend his title against Sugar Ray Leonard rather than give him a rematch. “That took the wind out of my sails,” said Palomino. “I didn’t want to wait around and win a non-title bout.”
Ready for the charades Duran often played at press conferences, Palomino was surprised when they actually met. “I told my manager that if Duran tried to start anything at the weigh-in, I was going balls-out on the spot. I was not going to take anything. Before the bout, he comes up to me and shakes my hand. He tells me how much respect he has for me as a fighter. Then he asked me for an autograph for his son. To this day we hug when we see each other.”
Asking another boxer for his autograph may have seemed out of character for the Chorrillo wildman, but warmth and generosity were as much a part of him as the myopic brutality he employed in the ring. His close friends were more familiar with the playful Roberto than the beast that surfaced at fight time. Duran’s training sessions weren’t without the occasional flashes of his darker side, however. Journalist John Garfield was watching in the Howard Albert Gym in the Garment Center when, with admirers crowding into the training area, Duran went into the ring to shadowbox. “Somebody in the back kept yelling in Spanish, ‘Pipino Cuevas will kill you.’ Duran paid him no mind and continued to shadowbox,” wrote Garfield. “But the heckler was relentless. Finally, Duran whirled on the heckler and leaned over the top strand of the ropes, right above where the mothers and children were worshiping him, and he pulled down his trunks and grabbed his nuts and yelled at the heckler in Spanish, ‘Pipino Cuevas can suck my cock.’”
Palomino, who was 27-2-3 coming into the bout, doubted that Duran would be as effective at the higher weight and thought he would lose both power and speed. Duran, however, was the 7–5 favourite. The bill-topper was Larry Holmes’s heavyweight title defense against Mike Weaver, which would provide its own drama, but for most of the 14,136 crowd Duran was the