Page 33 - Boxing News Magazine (January 2020)

H ✁

LIVING LEGEND:
Duran remains happy
and healthy many
years after his
ighting peak
Photo:
TAYLOR JEWELL/INVISION/AP/
SHUTTERSTOCK

were in the
same room by that
point it’d have been
at its owners’ feet, wagging
its tail and relishing his building excitement.
“I like Ruiz on points,” he informs BN, before
adding: “I also sympathise more with him. I
always back the Latin fighter.” It is when the
defending champion is walking to the ring that
Duran’s eldest son, also called Roberto and a
trainer in Panama City, leaps off of his stool to
imitate a stiff, immobile fighter, and there is little
doubt it is Joshua he is referencing.
“Ah-viva Mexico,” shouts Duran senior before
clapping, more quietly reminding BN, “He’s
a Mexican-American”, and then needlessly
apologising for his English. It remains so
raucous, and everyone is so animated, that
there’s no chance of truly focusing before
the fight’s conclusion. When Ruiz suffers a
cut over his left eye in the opening round,
Duran makes sure his English guest is
aware. “Gash”, he says. There is also
movement between rounds when ➤

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