Page 32 - Boxing News Magazine (January 2020)

DURÁN

Declan Warrington ventures to Panama to watch Joshua-Ruiz II with a living legend

R OBERTO DURAN is sat barefoot, Alexander Povetkin-Michael Hunter would
have needed to return to the kitchen to hear
on the edge of a modest sofa
in his living room, surrounded
them. Until the main event BN, unable to
follow the Spanish being spoken by all, has
at any one point by 21 relatives
and friends and awaiting the
little understanding of what is being said
start of the rematch between
Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz if it does not involve hands being thrown
to demonstrate the need for increased
Jnr. So infectious and audible speed or work ethic, except when
is his enthusiasm he remains the centre of attention hearing the name “Luis Pabon” reveals
– even during what might have been the most that Ruiz-Joshua II is being broken down
significant fight of the year. before its opening bell.
Boxing News, after fearing having arrived at the It is a home, and indeed a room, that
wrong front door in Panama City given the ease absorbs visitors. One of the younger
with which it could be approached by anyone of those, Umberto, upon Duran’s
tempted to reach perhaps its most famous ROBERTO orders brings BN some of the fish
resident and then experiencing how long +DURAN+ he had just cooked in the kitchen
it took for someone inside to open it, and, as soon as he also offers cutlery,
immediately understood the delay upon KICKS BACK WITH Duran takes that cutlery out of reach
entering. If grander, flashier and colder before declaring, in one of his occasional
properties can be found elsewhere within forays into English, “In Panama we eat
the city, at that point none of them would with our hands”.
have been louder. Recognising someone on the significant
The two televisions – the bill in Riyadh is also television screen on the opposite wall, he
on in the kitchen for those watching with less interest, shouts “mother f**ker” before continuing to laugh
including Duran’s wife Felicidad – are turned up to a and joke in Spanish with his guests and then
volume that feels similar to that experienced when vigorously slapping BN – who he insists sits next to
first entering a cinema screening. If during the quieter him on that same sofa – on the back and asking “You
moments that volume initially seemed excessive, okay, brother?”. There’s no disguising his excitement:
once in the living room that rarely felt the case. The At his guests, which include his grandchildren playing
instantly recognisable 68-year-old is as animated on the floor; at the prospect of watching a live fight;
as those communicating incessantly around him above all else at having so many he can interact
– often as much with their hands as their mouths, with in his role as host.
and in smaller groups – drowning out not only the “Let’s get ready to rumble,” he shouts,
commentary but much of the wider scene. comfortably before Michael Buffer. If
Any interested in recording the scores for his bulldog, sleeping lazily outside,

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