Roberto Duran is arguably the greatest lightweight in history, and his boxing skills take a backseat to very few fighters. Under the guidance of legendary trainers Ray Arcel and Freddie Brown, he developed tricky defensive abilities.
But no matter how refined he became, the former Panamanian street kid never stopped attacking like a wild barbarian. And his ability to outbrawl nearly anyone was the extra ingredient that made him one of the elite fighters of all time.
The man known as "Hands of Stone" carried his power and chin up through the weight classes. After vacating his lightweight titles, he moved up to welterweight and beat a bigger, younger, faster and more skilled fighter in Sugar Ray Leonard. He did it by drawing Leonard into a macho brawl.
At junior middleweight, Duran won the WBA belt by Round 8 TKO over Davey Moore. At middleweight Duran extended the seemingly invincible Marvin Hagler nearly to his limit, before losing a close, 15-round decision.
He eventually captured the WBC version of the middleweight title from Iran Barkley in 1989. Duran was 37 by then, and he engaged Barkley in a phone-booth style brawl that won Fight of the Year honors.
He failed in several attempts to win a world title at super middleweight, although he did win the minor NBA belt. A born fighter, he lost his last professional bout in 2001 against Hector Camacho, a month after turning 50. Duran had professional fights in five separate decades.
