From The Scottish Daily Record - Mar 8, 2001


ROBERTO DURAN will finally break the longest silence in sport later this month by paying tribute to Ken Buchanan, the man whose WBA and WBC lightweight titles he took back in 1972.

Promoters Ian McLeod and Michael Antoniou are holding a testimonial dinner for Scotland's greatest boxer at Glasgow's Moat House Hotel on March 22 and Duran is hoping to bury the hatchet on one of the fight game's most enduring feuds by praising him.

Duran ended Buchanan's reign as world champion in controversial circumstances at Madison Square Garden, felling the Scot with a low blow in the 13th round.

Many believed the challenger should have been disqualified but instead he took the belts.

An all-time great following memorable bouts with Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler and Davey Moore, Duran has always maintained that Buchanan was his toughest opponent - which is presumably why there was never a rematch.

Buchanan was so desperate for a second crack at him that he once flew to New York on spec in an attempt to goad him into another fight. But his efforts were in vain.

Incredibly (and sadly), he is still active at 49 but following negotiations with his lawyer, Antonio Gonzalez, McLeod is confident the great man will send his best wishes by way of a video message on the night.

It looks like being one of the highlights of a star-studded evening and it all came about due to a chance meeting with the Panamanian legend on McLeod's honeymoon.

The former Commonwealth super-featherweight champion was in Las Vegas with new wife Fiona when he bumped into Duran.

McLeod said: "I'd gone along to a Press conference for Erik Morales' fight with Guty Espadas and I'd been chatting with Wayne McCullough and Emanuel Steward when there was this huge commotion.

"Duran had turned up and brought the place to a standstill. Everyone wanted to speak to him or get an autograph.

"When I managed to introduce myself to him through his lawyer, I let him know I was from Scotland and Ken's name cropped up.

"Duran said he didn't think Ken liked him and I replied that if he'd punched me where he punched him then I wouldn't like him much either."

Ray Arcel Has Seen It All

From Dec, 1980..

One night before boxing practice in the late 1970s, amateur fighter Jeff Lanas had a dream that he fought the legendary Roberto Duran.

In the dream Lanas was flustered because he couldn't find his boxing equipment. He rummaged through a laundry closet, looking for his boxing trunks. He arrived late to the arena. He found that Duran was much shorter than he had expected -- the size of a gnome, only a few feet tall. He couldn't tell you what Duran looked like because the fighter from Panama was wearing oversized headgear.

Fully awake, Lanas went to boxing practice the next morning. He told members of the Mount Prospect Boxing Club about the funny dream he had the night before.

About 10 years after that dream, Lanas got a chance to fight the authentic, full-size Duran. Lanas had won the 1982 Chicago Golden Gloves welterweight title and had an impressive professional career.

It was a "Rocky" story. Duran's handlers seemed to pull the 26-year-old Lanas' name out of a hat. Lanas was not a top-10 ranked middleweight. Duran was set to challenge Iran Barkley a few months after for the world middleweight championship. It was clear that Duran's people were looking for a tune-up fight, an easy opponent for the 37-year-old Duran whose nicknames were "Hands of Stone" and "El Cholo."

But Duran didn't get the easy opponent he wanted.

Many who saw the bout at the International Amphitheatre on Oct. 1, 1988, felt that Lanas beat Duran, that he had outpointed one of the great boxers of that era. Duran even hit Lanas below the belt in what could be construed as a dirty tactic to slow Lanas down. Duran had done the same to Ken Buchanan when he beat the Scotsman years before to win the lightweight title.

The local press didn't give Lanas credit for a strong showing. Instead they berated Duran, saying that the former lightweight champ was finished as a fighter. One sportswriter wrote: "Stick a fork in Roberto Duran. He's done."

But it turned out that Duran wasn't cooked. He beat Iran Barkley to capture the WBC Middleweight title just four months later in Atlantic City.

(By Tim Kane)