By Lee Groves
Twenty five years ago today, Roberto Duran rose from the ashes of "No Mas" and bludgeoned WBA junior middleweight champion Davey Moore to capture his third divisional crown, completing a most inspiring tale of redemption. It was fitting that Duran's fistic rebirth took place on his 32nd birthday at Madison Square Garden, the site of his first championship triumph over Ken Buchanan more than a decade earlier. The displays of emotion from both Duran and his adoring fans made this fight one of 1983's most unforgettable spectacles, but the story that led up to his triumph was just as compelling as the bout itself.
Nineteen eighty-two was a horrible year for the man known as "Manos de Piedra." On January 30, Duran was comprehensively out-boxed by WBC junior middleweight champion Wilfred Benitez before dropping a unanimous decision that was nowhere near as close as the scorecards (143-142, 144-141 and 145-141) indicated. Then on September 4, with a possible showdown with young knockout sensation Tony Ayala Jr. on the horizon, a blubbery and unmotivated Duran lost to former sparring partner Kirkland Laing by a 10 round split decision that should have been unanimous.
Fighting with his hands at his side, Laing popped the beer-bloated Duran with clean combinations while Duran's punches carried little power and even less enthusiasm. Duran left the ring at Detroit's Cobo Hall a thoroughly humiliated and forlorn figure and Don King's post-fight locker room tirade only added to Duran's misery. The fact that Laing-Duran was named Ring Magazine's 1982 Upset of the Year illustrated both Duran's high standing before the match and how far he had fallen after it.
Abandoned by trainers Ray Arcel and Freddie Brown after the "No Mas" debacle and dropped by King after losing to Laing, Duran turned to King’s rival Bob Arum to continue his career. At first Arum was not swayed by Duran's pitch, but changed his mind after consulting with veteran boxing man Teddy Brenner.
"There's nothing wrong with this guy, physically," Brenner told Steve Farhood in the November 1983 issue of KO. "He's never taken a beating. Whether or not he wants to fight again is a question mark. King chased him. Duran was waiting for one kind word. He came to us, we sat him down. We gave him a chance. If we hadn't, it might have been the end for him."
The longtime matchmaker for Madison Square Garden convinced Arum that Duran's troubles were more mental than physical, and that his greatness as a champion deserved one more opportunity.
"I don't know about boxing, but I've got a man who knows as much about fighters as anybody, and Teddy said there was nothing wrong with Duran that being in good physical and mental condition wouldn't solve," Arum said at the time. "Teddy said that if you get him mentally right, he'd probably beat anybody around."
Duran's first fight under Arum was a 10-rounder against former British champion Jimmy Batten for a $25,000 paycheck, and though he won a decision he didn't show much improvement. His flabby body probably sported 10 pounds more than the career-high 157 he carried at weigh-in time and he showed little of the fire that made him a legend at lightweight and a terror in his first fight with Sugar Ray Leonard. At Duran's insistence, the Batten bout served as the walk-out fight for the classic first encounter between Aaron Pryor and Alexis Arguello, and the contrast between the two bouts couldn't have been more stark.
In a last-ditch move, Top Rank arranged a fight between Duran and former WBA welterweight champion Pipino Cuevas for January 29, 1983 at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. Had the fight taken place three years earlier it would have been billed as a highly lucrative Latin showdown between two of the sport's most powerful and passionate practitioners, but time and circumstances had transformed Duran-Cuevas from a welterweight title unification into a "Loser Leaves Boxing" match.
The stone-faced Cuevas was once the most feared man in boxing as his deadly left hooks left a string of battered and broken bodies, but a two-round blitzkrieg at the hands of Thomas Hearns emasculated Cuevas' reputation like few fights ever had. Even worse for Cuevas, he hadn't fought since losing a 10-round decision to the unheralded Roger Stafford 14 months earlier, a result so stunning that it was judged Ring Magazine's 1981 Upset of the Year. In short, Duran-Cuevas pitted the losers of Ring's last two Upsets of the Year. How the mighty had fallen.
Still, Duran-Cuevas had meaning beyond the ring. Had Cuevas won, he would have been in line for a crack at Donald Curry's newly-won WBA welterweight title while a Duran victory would earn the Panamanian a shot at Davey Moore's WBA junior middleweight belt. With those carrots dangling in front of them, both men whipped themselves into fantastic condition as Duran weighed a trim 152 and Cuevas a rock-hard 149.
After Cuevas enjoyed a good first round, Duran turned the fight in round two by going toe to toe with the supposedly heavier puncher. For the first time since the first fight against Leonard, Duran was sharp, quick and menacing as he whipped in combinations and defiantly walked through Cuevas' best bombs. The end came in round four as Duran's ferocious attack scored two knockdowns and forced Cuevas' corner men to storm the ring and force referee Dr. James Jen Kin to stop the slaughter.
Moore vs. Duran was originally scheduled for Sun City, Bophuthatswana in South Africa as part of a championship doubleheader with Ray Mancini-Kenny Bogner that was packaged with a Frank Sinatra concert. That extravaganza was canceled when Mancini broke his hand in training so Arum moved Moore-Duran to Madison Square Garden.
Moore was a brash, well-muscled 24-year-old blessed with immense natural talent, and not just athletically – he had been an honors student at Adlai E. Stevenson High School with a 90-plus average. Despite taking up boxing at age 15 under onetime pro Leon Washington at the Morrisania Recreation Center, Moore became one of a select few who captured four New York Golden Gloves titles. He likely would have become the first to win five had he not clowned away a decision in the 1980 semifinals. The New Yorker enjoyed instant success as a pro as he shockingly knocked out WBA junior middleweight champion Tadashi Mihara in the sixth round in Tokyo to win a belt in just his ninth pro fight. Over the next 16 months, Moore earned the boxing world's respect by beating top challenger Charlie Weir, former champ Ayub Kalule and Gary Guiden – all by knockout. In fact, he entered the Duran fight on a nine-fight KO streak and he fully expected to make Duran number 10.
"Duran was a great lightweight, a good welterweight and a mediocre junior middleweight," Moore told United Press International’s Joe Carnicelli. "There's a big difference fighting people at 135 pounds and fighting them at 154. Not only can't he be as physical, he's a lot older now and he's not as strong. I don't think it will be all that tough a fight. He passed his peak a long time ago and I'm still getting close to reaching mine."
The bettors agreed with Moore as they installed him a solid 5-to-2 favorite. But Duran, who promised he would retire had he lost, warned observers that appearances could be deceiving.
"Forget about those last few fights before Cuevas," Duran told UPI in the same story. "I'm not the same person. I worked hard for the Cuevas fight because I knew it meant so much and I've worked even harder preparing for this one. I'm not fighting this fight for the money. I want to prove that I'm a champion. I'm doing this for the glory.
"I never lost my punching power," Duran continued. "The only difference was that I wasn't training right. I wasn't losing the weight properly. I was trying to take it off too fast and getting weak. This time my weight has been down for quite a while and I feel very, very strong."
The weigh-in the morning of the fight provided an ominous foreshadowing. Moore initially weighed 156 and boiled down to 154 while Duran was a hard and ready 152 ½. The Bronx-born Moore thought he would own the home crowd advantage but most of the 20,061 who packed the Garden – the first boxing sellout in 10 years – came to drive the Latin legend toward reclaiming his place in boxing's pantheon.
Moore had all the statistical advantages; he was eight years younger, two-and-a-half inches taller and owned a 4 ¼-inch longer reach. His best bet was to keep Duran at arm's length and box his way to a decision while the challenger needed to burrow his way inside and unleash the firepower that had laid waste to an entire generation of peers.
After wading through the preliminaries, the crowd's energy soared to an almost religious fervor when it came time for the main event. The aura of importance that had been an integral part of so many big fight nights at Madison Square Garden enveloped the arena, and Duran's compelling story served as its fuel. Plenty of boxing figures were at ringside to witness the proceedings – Mancini, Benitez, Saoul Mamby, Bobby Chacon and Marvelous Marvin Hagler were just a few – and all were anxious to see what would unfold within that 20-foot square.
The fight began slowly as each man probed with jabs and circled one another in tight arcs. Moore had expected Duran to rush at him, but instead he saw a cerebral Duran who preceded each punch with a series of head and shoulder fakes. Moore owned a slight advantage during the first half of the round as he landed a long right and several hooks to the jaw. But Duran shook them off and went on the attack at the two-minute mark with a right to the jaw and a hook to the body. A knifing right uppercut by Moore snapped Duran's head upward, but all it did was ignite the challenger as he smashed a right to the face and his own uppercut to the jaw.
The seminal moment of the round came with 10 seconds remaining, moments after Moore had landed a solid right to Duran's chin. As Duran stuffed a jab toward the face, Moore moved his head to the left to slip it. By doing so, Moore inadvertently placed his right eye into the path of Duran's thumb and upon impact Moore squinted and lifted his glove toward the injury. Moore was clearly bothered as he spent the final seconds backpedaling away from Duran.
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