Roberto Duran believes he was coerced by his manager to take an unfavourable fight, shortly after sustaining major injuries from a car accident.
The Hall of Famer is perhaps best known for his encounters with Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns, who he fought above his natural weight class of 135lbs.
Against Leonard, he managed to claim the WBC welterweight title with a unanimous decision victory in 1980, before losing their rematch via an eighth-round stoppage later that year.
Duran then faced Hagler and Hearns at middleweight and super-welterweight, respectively, only to suffer back-to-back defeats against his fellow greats in 1983 and 1984.
It was down at lightweight, however, where the Panamanian particularly excelled, claiming his first world title with a controversial 13th-round stoppage of Ken Buchanan in 1972.
Duran then made a pair of WBA title defences before suffering his first defeat against Esteban de Jesus, who dropped and outpointed ‘Hands of Stone’ the same year he won the belt.
While speaking with One On One Boxing, though, Duran explained that his manager, Carlos Eleta, is the one to blame for him losing a unanimous decision.
“That was bad – I’ll tell you why. Carlos Eleta shouldn’t have taken that fight, because I was in a car accident. I broke my [arm] and my mouth was smashed up.
“I believe that Carlos Eleta just wanted money out of Roberto Duran. I still had a swelling and bleeding in my mouth, and my elbow was broken. I still have a hole here [points to right elbow].
“The only good thing Esteban de Jesus did was drop me. When he dropped me, I stood up and won the fight.
“They gave it to him because, back then, and even today in [Madison Square Garden, New York], the Puerto Ricans are in charge.”
While Duran’s idea of a Puerto Rican advantage in New York is perhaps far-fetched, he is nonetheless correct in saying that Esteban was unable to defeat a fully-fit version of himself.
This was proven by an 11th-round stoppage victory in their rematch two years later, and further evidenced by Duran’s 12th-round triumph over Esteban in 1978.
