Duran fit, ready
NZPA-Reuter Las Vegas A fit and trim Roberto Duran gestured menacingly at the world middleweight boxing champion, Marvin Hagler, and challenged him to slug it out at a press conference in Las Vegas yesterday. Throwing a left hook in Hagler’s direction, Duran, in a rare display of his not-so-limited but rarely used English, told the champion: “I’m ready to fight you right now.”
Hagler, sitting about 20 feet away from Duran on a platform at Caesars Palace, glowered at his opponent in tomorrow’s battle for the undisputed world title but declined the Panamanian’s offer.
No one took the challenge seriously in the run-up to one of the most ballyhooed fights for years. “I’m going to knock you out in two days and you won’t be champion anymore,” said Duran, who hopes to become the first boxer to win world titles in four different weight divisions.
Hagler, following Duran to the microphone at the press conference that attracted about 300 reporters, smiled and said: "I thought the man couldn’t speak English.”
“I expect a hard fight, and I don’t underestimate Roberto Duran,” said Hagler, tipped by bookmakers to retain his title for the eighth consecutive time. “It’s going to be a good fight, and I love a good fight.
“Duran has had his day in the sun, and now it is my turn,” said Hagler, whose brilliant career has been overshadowed by Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali.
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Press, 10 November 1983, Page 38
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241Duran fit, ready Press, 10 November 1983, Page 38
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