Vinny began the year 1994 by winning a 10 round unanimous decision over Jacques LeBlanc on April 5 at Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut. That victory set up a big pay-per-view bout on June 25 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with Roberto Duran. I didn’t get too excited for it, mostly because Duran was 44 years old at the time, and about 15 years past his prime.
I ordered the card out of boredom as much as anything. The fact that Pazienza had limited skills made the fight competitive, and Duran actually floored him with a solid right hand in the fifth round. Pazienza was the younger and busier fighter most of the night, and won a unanimous twelve round decision.
It seemed fair to me, but of course Duran bitched and complained as usual that he had been hosed. The old geezer never admitted defeat, and it’s why today he is one of my all time least favorite fighters.
The pay-per-view buys were enough that a rematch was scheduled seven months later in Atlantic City, on January 14, 1995. In this one, Vinny totally outboxed the over the hill Duran, and won almost every single round enroute to an easy win. Duran repeated his complaints, but they seemed ridiculous, and I figured he should pack it in and not rob fans of their money anymore.
Amazingly, there were talks of Pazienza going up against Roy Jones Jr. in his next outing, and I could only laugh. My advice to him if he actually took the fight was simple. Bring a machine gun into the ring.
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