Last night I met Roberto Duran.

[KOJOE90]

Just thought I would share this with you all, my fellow fight fans.

Last night I returned to my old home town of Telford, Shropshire (UK) as I had tickets for 'An Evening With Roberto Duran' at a local nightclub. To cut a long story short I had the pleasure and honour of meeting this great fighter in person. I shook his hand, asked him a few questions through his translator and had my photo taken with 'The Hands of Stone'.

Roberto also signed a glossy 8x10 phooto of himself for me.

I have to say that Roberto Duran was in good spirits and seemed in good health and I found him to be very friendly and a complete gentleman.

:) :) :) :)

[Goz]

That's pretty cool. Nice one!

[stujones]

What did you ask him?

[bennie]

Shit! I'm only just down the road from Telford. Knew nothing about this. I met Earnie Shavers recently in Cannock, which was nice. But Duran is, well, Duran.

[KOJOE90]

What did you ask him?

To be honest I was very nervous so the best I could manage was

Do you still follow the fight game and if so you are your favourite fighters?

RD Yes I still follow the sports, I like to watch De La Hoya, Roy Jones and Lennox Lewis as well as many others.

If you could have fought Marvin Hagler again, what tactical changes would you have made?

RD, I would have utilised my speed much more and fought more on the inside, as opposed to fighting on the outside so much.

That was the best I could come up with whilst face to face with the hands of stone himself.

[KOJOE90]

What did you ask him?

To be honest I was very nervous so the best I could manage was

Do you still follow the fight game and if so you are your favourite fighters?

RD Yes I still follow the sports, I like to watch De La Hoya, Roy Jones and Lennox Lewis as well as many others.

If you could have fought Marvin Hagler again, what tactical changes would you have made?

RD, I would have utilised my speed much more and fought more on the inside, as opposed to fighting on the outside so much.

That was the best I could come up with whilst face to face with the hands of stone himself.

Luckily you didn't ask him about Hearns :x

Actually somebody did, Roberto said it was the hardest shot he ever took. Also somebody asked him about the 'no mas' Leonard fight, he said he weighed about 200lbs when he found out about the fight and lost too much weight in too short a time which gave him stomach cramps during the fight. I found Roberto to be a complete gent, you could ask the man anything.

[bennie]

The amazing thing about Duran is that many remember him for his superfights with Leonard, Hagler and Hearns, but tend to overlook what he achieved at lightweight. He was simply unbeatable as world lightweight champion. His challengers didn't even come to win. They just came to survive (that includes Esteban De Jesus, who beat him in a non-title fight).
Like Sugar Ray Robinson, Roberto was only touchable when he moved up in weight and was getting on.