After losing to Robbie Sims on June 23, 1986, Roberto Duran took eleven months off. He returned in May of 1987 in Miami Beach, Florida with a ten round decision over a guy named Victor Claudio. Four months later he notched another ten round decision win over Juan Gimenez back in Miami. The ‘Hands of Stone’ would win three more bouts in 1988 over Ricky Stackhouse, Paul Thorn and Jeff Lanas, and with that earned a title shot at WBC middleweight champion Iran Barkley.
To watch that fight on pay-per-view, I braved a big snowstorm in South Jersey, and drove to my brother’s apartment in my 1985 Pontiac Firebird. After being estranged from my brother for many years, boxing had amazingly started to heal our relationship, which was a huge blessing. Going to his place to watch fights began early in 1989, and would continue for a number of years.
Neither of us really liked Duran, but even with that, I couldn’t help but admire his resilience. He just didn’t give up, would continue on after a defeat, and at 37 years old, still had plenty left in the tank. Iran ‘The Blade’ Barkley had captured the title by shocking the boxing world on June 6, 1988 with his three round knockout of Thomas Hearns in Las Vegas. That didn’t endear him to me very much, so I was going to be watching a fight where I didn’t like either guy.
With more disdain for Duran, I decided to pull for Barkley, who was a strong and powerful middleweight at 6 foot 1. He began the fight at Atlantic City Convention Center well, winning most of the first 6 rounds on my scorecard. Duran did land big shots throughout, and went toe to toe with his bigger opponent the whole night. He closed the fight well, and scored the only knockdown of the bout in the 11th round. When the 12th and final round ended, I still thought Barkley had won the fight. However, to no surprise, the judges awarded Duran a split-decision victory, and it made him a four-time champion of the world. There’s not a doubt in my mind that the judges wanted Roberto to win, in order to set up a third fight between him and Sugar Ray Leonard, which Duran immediately mentioned in his post-fight interview. Whatever the case, he had pulled off an upset, and it had put him back on top, and in position to make big money again.
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