Boxing's Fab Four Part One: Introduction
Roberto Duran Roberto Duran was born in Chorillo, a slum on the east side of Panama on 16th June 1951. He was raised in great poverty, which would reflect years later in his fighting style. He was known as a 'Cholo' as he had part Indian, part Spanish blood. His absent father, an itinerant American soldier from Arizona who carried the Indian/Mexican heritage, left Duran's mother before he was born. There are many stories about the escapades of Duran's youth. He learnt to fight on the waterfront and it was said that as a twelve-year-old he struck down grown men with his bare hands. He would make daily raids of the mango plantations, swimming two miles across the Panama Canal with a knife held between his teeth. He would sell the mangoes to help his abandoned mother raise him and his eight siblings. Duran would also busk on the streets, singing and dancing for change, shoe shining, the list is endless. It is also said that when fully grown he knocked a horse senseles