Roberto Duran Turns 58!

Remembering his appearance at Hall of Fame dinner

Yesterday was Roberto Duran’s 58th Birthday, and in honor of this great Panamanian warrior, here is a personal memory of when the “Hands of Stone” boxer came to L.A. in October 2006 for the World Boxing Hall of Fame’s Banquet of Champions. I’d been attending the annual event for a while, but Roberto’s new induction brought extra excitement to the whole West Coast boxing community. We all anticipated having the larger-than-life boxing icon in attendance since the organization voted Duran into their Induction Class of 2006.

Once Duran arrived at the banquet venue, he was involved in the entire induction weekend, taking part in the press conference, President’s dinner, autograph and memorabilia show and finally the main event–the awards banquet. I’ve never seen a bigger press conference crowd than the year the famous slugger (103-16, 70 KOs) was inducted, as I recall grown men all clamored and pressed flesh trying to get close to their boyhood hero who achieved world-wide fame as a former lightweight, welterweight, junior middleweight and middleweight champion.

Later at the President’s dinner, I had a chance to chat with Duran (with the help of an interpreter) as he told me a hilarious tale of one of his most famous fight poses that was used in a national magazine. The photo is of the former lightweight champ outdoors, on large stones with a beautiful blue horizon in the background. He saw the photo and his whole face broadened with a huge smile. Duran then told me about that day and the location where the photo shoot took place.  Apparently, the crew didn’t realize they were on ancient Indian land and were told they had to leave the sacred premises immediately. The reservation was not messing around–Roberto Duran came extremely close to being arrested for trespassing! So they hurriedly took that infamous shot and then hit the highway, not stopping to look back. As he told me this story, he was speaking in rapid-fire Spanish and chuckling the whole time. I bet he had a million more anecdotes in him, but by then he was grabbed by other dinner patrons who all wanted their own chance to chat with the champion, and I felt fortunate to have had a one-on-one conversation with Roberto.

At the Board of Directors’ gala, even his fellow fighters were all hoping for an opportunity to spend time with the world champ. That same year, Carlos Baldimir received “Fighter of the Year” honors at the event.  Duran was seen giving him some fighter’s advice, shadowboxing and throwing uppercuts for the young boxer to hopefully emulate in his then-upcoming bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Again, this was back in ’06.

The next morning after the dinner, Duran was a great sport at the autograph show as he signed hundreds of vintage magazines, figurines, posters and more for the loyal fans that lined up for hours. Obviously, he was by far the fan favorite, hands down. Later that day was the big induction dinner. My boyfriend, Steve Harpst, is a longtime WBHF Board of Director and also the official sculptor of the bronze statue that is given to inductees in the “Fighter” category. At the 2006 banquet, we were also asked to recommend musical entertainment during the banquet’s social hour. Also founder of the Burbank Boxing Club, Steve has an excellent stable of solid talent within his gym. And being close to Hollywood, a lot of singers, actors and musicians are also part-time pugilists and members of the boxing club, so it wasn’t too hard to find a talented musician to perform at the cocktail hour setting.

Burbank Boxing Club member Luis Oliart was chosen for the gig and the guitarist, singer and songwriter (and boxing buff) fit right in amongst the large crowd at the L.A. Airport Marriott Hotel. The popular artist played for the attendees as they socialized in the foyer leading the the banquet room. As you can imagine, it was elbow-room only and the ticket holders were pumped up to see Duran in person. Since I had already seen him at the weekend’s previous events, I didn’t expect to cross his path again, with the hundreds of participants all congregating around the great Latino fighter.

Since we had invited our musician friend, Luis, to sit with us at our table, I waited for him to finish his very last song before heading into the banquet, where the majority of people were already waiting in their seats for the program to begin. There was a lot of equipment (mike, speakers, instruments, and more) that Luis had to disband and put away; I told him no worries, I’ll hang out with him until he’s finished so I can make sure to escort him to our table.

After a few minutes, the foyer was desolate, with just a few dedicated WBHF members manning the tables and booths outside. By then, the front doors had been closed, so I told Luis, “Let’s go around to the side entrance,” which was closer to our table anyway. As we rounded the corridor in a bit of a rush, Luis still had his guitar in hand. As a musician, his musical instruments are irreplaceable, so he probably thought the safest place for it was in his own hands.

As we went through the side corridor, guess who we ran right into? Yep, as fate would have it, Duran himself, who was with trainer Tony Rivera. The two were taking a quick break away from the banquet before the festivities began. Well, as they walked closer toward us, Duran’s eyes lit up when he saw my friend’s guitar. He emphatically motioned for Luis to hand over the instrument. You don’t say no to “Manos de Piedra,” so our pal quickly offered up his guitar for Duran to borrow. The champ entertained us with his guitar playing AND singing for several minutes–and he was pretty good too! By then, a couple of others noticed the impromptu performance and made a small circle around Roberto as he passionately strummed the guitar and crooned one of his favorite tunes. Everyone had already gone into the dinner, so there were only about six of us who witnessed this “rare performance” at the WBHF dinner.

Duran was then summoned into the venue to take his place at the VIP dais. After we said adios to Roberto, Luis and I just shook our heads at our chance meeting with the champ! We still laugh about it to this day.

Here are photos from that encounter courtesy of a disposable camera (remember those?)! They may be a bit dark, a bit grainy, but the former knockout artist’s smile shines brightly in the pics that have never been published till now.

I will never forget that magical moment in the hallway with the legendary boxer.

Happy Birthday–!Feliz Cumpleaños! Roberto Duran!

Photos by Michele Chong: Luis Oliart with Duran; Roberto plays and sings for us; Bronze statue for Duran (Photo courtesy of AP/Stefano Paltera)