A Boxing Memory: Barkley vs Duran

A Boxing Memory: Barkley vs Duran

By Steve Hunt

It is not just boxers themselves that used to be better a few generations ago. Fighters’ nicknames used to be better too. An example that illustrates both these points is the legendary Manos de Piedra, or Hands of Stone, the moniker of the one and only Roberto Duran.

Incredibly, during the 1980s, Roberto Duran produced both the first and last great performances out of that quartet of ring legends now known as the Four Kings. In June 1980, Duran was at his imperious peak when leaving Sugar Ray Leonard shell-shocked in Montreal and without his welterweight title. Duran was as unstoppable as a volcanic eruption that night. Over the course of the next decade, his career caused only occasional bursts of seismic activity, such as his stoppage win over Davey Moore in 1983 and his heroic points loss to middleweight king, Marvellous Marvin Hagler. However, in February 1989, he made the earth move for fight fans one more time.

Iran Barkley was another boxer with a decent nickname – “The Blade” – and at the start of 1989 was the WBC middleweight world champion. He had won the title with an incredible third-round knockout win over Tommy Hearns. Barkley had looked close to defeat against Hearns before turning the fight around with one punch. In making his first defence against the aging Duran, Barkley seemed to be making it his personal crusade to rid the game of aging superstars.

On paper, a match between two men who had both suffered defeats to Robbie Sims might not necessarily get the juices flowing. However, on a wintry night in Atlantic City, together they produced a twelve-round battle that was later awarded the Ring Magazine fight of the year award.

Barkley entered the fight with a record of 25-4. Alongside his standout win against Tommy Hearns, he also had respectable victories against the likes of James Kinchen, Sanderline Williams, and Michael Olajide. In 1987, Barkley had lost over fifteen rounds against Sumbu Kalambay for the vacant WBA title in Italy, in what was Iran’s first world title shot. In a post-Hagler era, the middleweight division was without a dominant champion.

Despite his patchy record, Barkley was a heavy favourite going into the first defence of his newly won WBC title against Duran and it is easy to understand why. Duran was 37 years old, and it had been seventeen years since he won his first world title. His challenge to Barkley would be his ninety-second professional fight in a twenty-one-year career. Barkley was a big strong 160lb fighter against Duran who had won his first world title at 135lbs. The career of Roberto Duran had been written off several times over the preceding decade. There is a boxing cliché that great fighters sometimes have one last great performance in them. Up until February 1989, it had been thought that for Roberto Duran that last great performance had come in defeat to Hagler six years earlier. Everyone runs out of miracles sooner or later.

Duran weighed in at 156¼ lbs to Barkley’s 159lbs. Iran was the younger man by nine years at twenty-eight. Iran had made it public that he saw this as a personal fight. Davey Moore had been a close friend of Iran’s and Duran had ended Davey’s career with a brutal beating back in 1983. For Duran, this was just business. He was after a world title in a fourth weight division and hopefully earn a crack at long-time nemesis, Sugar Ray Leonard.

The respective styles of the two fighters meshed well from the first bell, with both men happy to meet in centre ring. Faced with a height and reach disadvantage, Duran looked to counter Barkley’s left jab with right hands over the top. The 7,500 pro-Duran crowd in the Convention Centre was probably filled more with hope than expectation, but just before the bell to end the first round, a right to the jaw wobbled Barkley to give a sign that maybe something special could be on the cards.

Throughout the early rounds, it became clear that Barkley was putting a lot of effort into a body attack. Ringside commentator and legendary trainer, Gil Clancy, appreciated the skills shown by the reigning champion, calling him a “much-improved fighter in this fight.”

Both men were having success and towards the end of the fourth round, the contest really caught fire. It was becoming clear that although Barkley was at times the busier fighter, Duran had been able to take his shots and had largely negated the physical advantages of the bigger man.

In contrast, Duran’s right hands were having a visible effect on the Blade. At the end of the fourth round, his corner started work on a cut over the left eye and Clancy noted at the end of the fifth that Barkley was showing signs of fatigue.

Despite that, Barkley continued to work and impress with his variety of shots. Barkley landed his best punch of the fight in the eighth round; a left hook that landed clean and spun Duran around. Al Bernstein, leading the commentary partnership, at the end of the round spoke for all of us watching.

“It doesn’t get any better than this”.

The damage to Barkley’s eye noticeably worsened in the ninth round and Clancy earned his money with his insight on the effect of each man’s punches.

“I just get the sense that maybe Duran can take a better punch than Barkley and if Duran could land a clean punch, it could have a big effect on Iran.” Prophetic words.

It was from here in the fight that it turned from just a great contest to a truly great performance from the man with the Hands of Stone. While one might expect the older man to be the one to tire in the later rounds, in a close fight he could easily have been losing, he found another gear.

With the crowd chanting “Doo-ran, Doo-ran”, Clancy, who had seen more than his share of great fighters gave a fitting tribute, claiming that Duran had “proved to me again he’s one of the greatest fighters that’s ever lived.”

With the combination of five punches (four of which were on the button) which floored the champion towards the end of the eleventh round, Duran created another moment for his extensive highlight reel.

As the bell sounded to end a close final round, Iran Barkley raised his arms aloft while Duran struck an iconic pose, centre ring, arms by his side, glaring at his opponent. Duran’s cornermen rushed to lift him in the air as the crowd stood applauding.

Despite Duran’s gallant showing in the late rounds, the result was no foregone conclusion. Al Bernstein had Barkley winning. Michael Buffer having problems with his microphone lead to a long wait for the verdict and the announcement of a split decision. The joy of the victory for Duran overshadowed a shockingly wide difference of opinion among the judges. Two of the judges had it for Duran 116-112 and 118-112, while the dissenting voice had it 116-113 for Barkley.

Iran was a gracious loser, claiming he thought he had won but, “I gotta take my hat off to the man, he’s a good man.”

Beating Iran Barkley in itself is not the stuff of which legends are made. It did not take a great fighter to blunt the Blade. But there was something that is harder to define about the Duran performance and its place in the legendary story of his career that makes it special. The Panamanian had suffered such career low points over the preceding decade, dug deep and pulled out one more moment of magic. It’s a tale of being written off and counted out, but getting back up and keeping on fighting, overcoming adversity, and beating the odds. It’s an emotional sucker punch, equal to one of the great man’s body shots.

Unbelievably, Roberto boxed on for another 12 years, finally hanging up the gloves in 2001. That’s a professional career that spanned five decades. The Barkley victory was his last great moment and would have been the perfect ending, in a sport that very rarely gives us perfect endings.

Ultimately, Roberto Duran will be forever known as one of the greatest lightweight champions of all time, who terrorised that division for much of the 1970s. As a welterweight, he was the only man ever to beat a prime Sugar Ray Leonard. The best of the 1970s lightweights should not be able to mix it with the best middleweights of the late 1980s.

The story of Roberto Duran is an epic one and his victory in the 1989 fight of the year to claim his world title in a fourth weight class is a remarkable exclamation point. A final reminder of his greatness.