Roberto Durán

From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids

Roberto Duran
Statistics
Real name	Roberto Duran
Nickname	Manos de Piedra, El Cholo
Weight	Lightweight
Nationality	Panamanian
Birth date	June 16, 1951
Birth place	Guararé, Panama
Style	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	119
Wins	103
Wins by KO	70
Losses	16
Draws	0
No contests	0

Roberto Durán (b. June 16, 1951) is a famous boxer from Panama, and is generally regarded as one of the greatest lightweight boxers of all-time and one of the top 10 best pound for pound fighters ever. In 2002, he was chosen by The Ring Magazine to be the 5th greatest fighter of the last 80 years. He held world titles at four different weights - lightweight (1972-79), welterweight (1980), junior middleweight (1983-84) and middleweight (1989). He was also the only boxer to have fought in five different decades. He finally retired in January 2002 at age 52 (having previously retired in 1998) following a bad car crash in October 2001, with a professional record of 120 fights, 104 wins with 69 KOs. He was nicknamed Manos de Piedra (Hands of Stone).

Born in Guararé, Panama he had his first professional fight in 1967. After an initial adjustment he won thirty in a row, culminating in his first title bout in June 1972, where he defeated Ken Buchanan at New York's Madison Square Garden for the WBA world lightweight championship. He then made twelve successful defences of his title before giving up the belt in February 1979. Vacating the title was a build up for an attempt at the welterweight title. He fought for the welterweight title in June 1980 and beat Sugar Ray Leonard via a 15-round unanimous decision. In the November re-match, however, Durán shockingly quit. In round 8, Duran turned around, walked to his corner and gave up, saying the now famous words, "no más." Referee Octavio Meyran, perhaps as incredulous as was the rest of the world at what he was seeing, asked Duran if he was sure, and Duran repeated, "No más, no más." In violation of what any professional fighter does on the day of a fight, Duran gorged himself after the weigh-in, claimed he quit because he was having stomach cramps.^{[citation needed]} The controversy regarding this bout continues to this day.

He took some time to recover from that fight, gaining even more weight to contend for the WBC world junior middleweight title, but losing in his first attempt at a championship in that division on the January 30 of 1982, against Wilfred Benitez by a 15 round unanimous decision. After being relegated to a 10 round walk out win over Englishman Jimmy Batten at The Battle of The Champions in Miami, Durán signed with promoter Bob Arum. This marked the beginning of a comeback in which he beat former world champion and now hall of famer Pipino Cuevas via a fourth round knock-out, which earned him a second crack at the junior middleweight title, this time against WBA champion Davey Moore on June 16th, 1983. Duran showed his brutal side in this flight by thumbing Moore and trying to deliberately hurt Moore as much as possible by butting, lacing Moore's face with his gloves and smiling every time Moore winced in pain. ^{[citation needed]} Finally the fight was stopped in the eighth round as Moore was taking such a horrific beating and Duran won his third world title.

Durán later fought for the World middleweight title, meeting Marvin Hagler in Las Vegas in November 1983, but losing the fight over fifteen rounds. In June 1984, he was stripped of his junior middleweight title when the WBA did not approve of his fight with WBC world champion Thomas "Hitman" Hearns, and took away recognition of Duran as world champion the moment Duran stepped into the ring to box Hearns. Durán lost the fight after a vicious second round knock-out by Hearns.

Durán did not contend another title fight until 1989, but made the shot count when he won the WBC middleweight title from Iran Barkley in February. His reign was short lived once again as Duran moved up to super middleweight for third clash with Sugar Ray Leonard in December, but lost in a decision. Duran seemed to be in decline after the fight, he attempted to win further middleweight titles in 1994, 1995 and 1996 (fighting for the minor IBC belt), and 1998 (WBA). After a quick defeat to William Joppy in the last of these shots Duran announced his retirement in August 1998, but was back fighting in 1999. In June 2000 he won a minor super middleweight title from Pat Lawlor but quickly lost it to Héctor Camacho.

After splitting fights with Jorge Castro and losing a rematch to Camacho, Durán went to Argentina to promote a Salsa music CD that he had just released. While there, he was involved in a dramatic car crash and required life-saving surgery. After that, he announced his retirement from boxing.

Durán's five world title belts, which he won in four different divisions, were stolen from his house in Panama in 1993 during a robbery allegedly staged by his brother-in-law, who gave them to memorabilia seller Luis González Báez, who will stand trial for trying to sell stolen goods. González Báez allegedly sold the belts to undercover FBI agents. He alleges that Duran authorized the sale of the five belts to him during a time that Duran was facing financial trouble. On September 23, 2003, a federal judge in Florida ordered the five belts returned to Duran.

His 69 wins by knockout place him in an exclusive group of boxers who have won 50 or more fights by knockout.

On October 14th, Roberto was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame of Los Angeles, California. You can find more about this historic date for Roberto Duran reading these articles (in Spanish) published and wrote by Panamanian sports journalist Adán De Gracia E. (Mi Diario newspaper, Panama)

Durán's daughter, Irichelle, is a professional woman boxer. His son, Roberto Jr., was also a professional at one time. He is also related to up and coming professional wrestler Brad Koonce.

Trivia: Durán appeared in the 1979 sequel Rocky II as a lightning fast sparring partner for Rocky Balboa.

Legend has it that a 14 year-old Roberto Durán knocked out a horse when he was dared to punch it.

[edit] See also

• List of lightweight boxing champions
• List of male boxers
• List of notable boxing rivalries
• List of WBC world champions
• List of undisputed boxing champions
• Notable boxing families
• Featured Athlete on Fox Sports Net's Beyond the Glory

[edit] External links

• Roberto Durán's career boxing record
• http://www.cmgww.com/sports/duran/