BoxRec

This tale was told to me by my then manager about a conversation he had with my then stalemate Dave Radford in daves living room. MANAGER-" right Dave got a fight for you next weekend in south Africa if your up for it ". DAVE " whose it against ? ". MANAGER- " Roberto Duran ". DAVE- "never heard of him ". MANAGER- you never heard of Roberto Duran ? " DAVE- " NO". MANAGER-"Roberto Duran dave". DAVE-" don't know him". MANAGER-" Dave you got a effing best of video of him on that shelf over there". DAVE-effing hell you mean THE Roberto Duran ". MANAGER-" yes Dave you want it?". DAVE"-too effing right I do ". MANAGER-" want to know what the money is ? ". DAVE- " not bothered I'm fighting Duran al do it for nowt if I have to" ! . This could be complete bollocks for all I know but thought it was a great story at the time, Dave got paid well and lost a 10 round decision to a then 43yrold Duran and came back with some great photos of himself with the great man

I dont know if anything could top sharing a fight with Duran-what trumps that?

Duran was one of daves heroes ! funnily enough saw Dave on YouTube other day fighting for something called the English bareknuckle middleweight championship, he lost but gavevavgood account of himself and still looked in shape

littlepug wrote:Duran was one of daves heroes ! funnily enough saw Dave on YouTube other day fighting for something called the English bareknuckle middleweight championship, he lost but gavevavgood account of himself and still looked in shape

The lucky bastard. That must have been a really surreal experience. Like sharing the stage with Elvis. Imagine staring into Durans eyes. Half of you would be terrified, the other half kicking yourself with glee.

I once boxed on a show in Washington with Roger Leonard in the crowd (sugar rays brother) but that doesnt come close really does it?

For all you know he may have chatted about your fight with ray ! I went all gooey legged when I shook hands with British commentator harry carpenter as a teenager so don't think I could of handled meeting Duran !

about 25 year ago duran came over to england and the word got out that he was going to do a exhibition and my brother went along to see if he could get a few rounds with duran after hanging around for a few hours a young middle weight called nigel benn got the nod and my brother was a bit pissed off .

The video is on YouTube Benn got schooled if I remember rightly

littlepug wrote:For all you know he may have chatted about your fight with ray ! I went all gooey legged when I shook hands with British commentator harry carpenter as a teenager so don't think I could of handled meeting Duran !

Yeah..."Hey Ray I saw this little white guy get the worst beating of his life today...."