February 2019 -

February 24th will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the last great moment in the career of a boxing legend. That legend was Panama’s Manos de Piedra (Hands of Stone) Roberto Duran.

Roberto Duran is considered by many to be one of the 5 best pound-for-pound fighters of all time and arguably the best lightweight of all time.

With a brutal combination of power, speed, a chin with just as much piedra as he had in his hands and an underrated set of boxing skills, Duran took the boxing world by storm in the late 1960s.

Just ten days after his 21st birthday Duran lifted the lightweight crown from Scotland’s Ken Buchanan via 13th round TKO in Madison Square Garden. He laid waste of the division like no other.

His only loss at lightweight was to the late Esteban de Jesus in a nontitle match which Duran would go onto avenge twice via knockout.

He moved up to welterweight eventually taking the WBC strap from fellow legend Sugar Ray Leonard in June of 1980; this would be his greatest professional moment. After ballooning in weight by about 50 lbs. during the celebration tour, he cut all the way back down to 147 for an immediate rematch just five months later.

Neither fighter was the same in New Orleans. Leonard changed his style, refusing to stand in front of the Panamanian destroyer. Duran was sluggish (probably from the weight cut) and frustrated by Leonard’s movement. He inexplicably quit uttering the infamous words that would forever be attached to his name, NO MAS in the eight round.

Even in his homeland, Duran went from hero to pariah. Many thought his best days were behind him and he was largely written off after a 15 round loss to fellow Hall-of-Famer Wilfred Benitez in 1982.

But after looking rejuvenated in the dispensing of another former champ, Jose Pipino Cuevas, Duran got a title shot against a new hotshot junior middleweight champ from the Bronx named Davey Moore.

On Duran’s 32nd birthday he not only tamed the young lion; he beat the living sh*t out of him. Duran was redeemed.

He had Leonard (who commentated the fight) in the ring kissing and congratulating him and Madison Square Garden singing Happy Birthday to him.

That earned him a shot at a 4th world title against middleweight king, Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Duran showed a lot in a losing effort pushing the champ to come from behind on what I thought were some questionably close scorecards.

He came back to junior middleweight to face the 6’2, hard hitting Thomas Hitman Hearns.

Duran was knocked out for the first time in 83 fights in what I believe would have been a stylistic nightmare for him at any point in his career.

Surely this was it for the old warhorse. Well, so we thought.

Duran would always be a fighter even if no longer elite. From 1986-1988, he would fight eight times going 7-1; the lone loss a split decision to Hagler’s half brother Robbie Simms.

8 fights in three years in his mid-30s; you can’t find an elite prime fighter who is nearly that active today.

Meanwhile Hearns was unexpectedly knocked out by underrated badass, Iran The Blade Barkley on June 6, 1988 for the middleweight title.

Duran was given yet another title shot against the new champ who swore revenge for his fellow Bronx Bomber, Davey Moore.

Few thought Duran had enough left in the tank to win. I mean how could he?

Barkley was younger, stronger, much bigger and just KO’d the man who nearly decapitated Duran 5 years earlier.

But styles make fights and sometimes a former great can turn back the clock in moments. This was one of those moments.

On a snow-covered Atlantic City night, Duran used a combination of guile, guts, stamina and enough power (he dropped Barkley in the 11th) to foil the young champ in a back-and-forth classic doing just enough to get the decision and a 4th world title.

That’s right. At age 37 after being written off for the second time, Duran showed the living legend was not done quite yet.

This would be the last night he would look like that legend, but on this night he was the NEW Middleweight Champ! The respect the two showed each other after the final bell has continued in their later years.

View the full fight here. Talk soon.

-Marksman

PS: Just a side note to you football Giants fans. Your running back, Saquon Barkley whom I understand is a high character guy is the great nephew of The Blade.

The left and therefore the media is fiercely at war with masculinity. By now you all now about the “Covington Kid” but just to be clear this is Nick Sandmann:

Nick is a Catholic schoolboy who went with his classmates on a trip from Kentucky to DC for the March for Life. After the March he and his classmates were verbally accosted by the Black Hebrew Israelites for being white devils in MAGA hats, fag**ts, products of incest and such.

After some back and forth between the groups, he of course had his space invaded by some weirdo beating a drum in his face. Sandmann smiled and did not budge.

He showed total composure. It was perfect; he neither escalated nor capitulated.

On the other hand, there is an 11 year old boy named Desmond Napoles who has performed in drag for adult entertainment. Yup, he danced at a Brooklyn night club for money back in December.

He actively participates in LGBT events. Where are his parents, you may ask? Well his mother is his manager and his father, as you will see in the coming clip is a soyboy at best and quite honestly looks like a man who has no business around children.

In fact, this kid even has a stage name: Desmond is Amazing. My original plan was to post a picture of this kid next to Nick Sandmann, but I don’t want to exploit this poor soul anymore than necessary to get my point across.

Now, let’s examine how these two boys have been treated by the media. Napoles and his family have been celebrated.

He was given a big platform on Good Morning America. Please brace yourself and watch the clip here. BTW, I can only conclude from watching that cringe-worthy video that Michael Strahan is a proponent of the sexualization of pre-adolescent children.

His parents were reportedly told by a psychologist not to deter this. This type of parenting is promoted on television and I constantly see parents trying to befriend their children rather than mold them creating a society of self-centered weaklings (just what the elites want).

I don’t have kids but when I was one, I always found that my peers who were allowed limitless self expression were and are today f**ked up.

Meanwhile, Nick Sandmann and his family were vilified while the freak with the drum was celebrated as a war hero.

We have since learned that this mutt has a criminal record with a questionable military background (though he did serve and should be proud) bordering on stolen valor.

Sandmann and his family have received death threats and violent insinuations from adults, even famous ones. While MSM has stated they don’t condone the group of racist adults who started the confrontation, where was the outrage?

The Black Hebrew Israelites were written off as a miniscule fringe group, which they are. But white supremacists are also pretty fringe today.

I mean real ones. Not those labeled as such by professors because they support capitalism and like George Washington.

Now some of you will say that if a black kid was being called names by adults and had a drum beaten in his face while reacting in identical fashion to Sandmann he would be called heroic. No so fast!

That’s actually a lazy rationale if you take a minute to think about the scenario.

As I have said before, Ideology Trumps Race in these situations. The BHIs were also yelling bigoted things at black people in the vicinity who did not agree with them.

They were called “Uncle Toms” and “n**gers” by this group. So yes, if a black kid in a Hope and Change shirt was the victim of such racism and attempted intimidation the kid would be called a hero.

But if a black kid in a MAGA hat were in that situation he would get the Joe Frazier Treatment.

Sandmann and another white kid named David Hogg have both shown an unapologetic set of beliefs. One was celebrated, one was threatened.

You see the Nick Sandmanns of the world are exactly the young spirits that the elites want to break. Don’t let them.

As for Demond Nobles, he and his family need our prayers. They are pawns in our sick society’s path toward the normalization of pedophilia.

But one thing is for sure: today’s grown men can learn a lot from Nick Sandmann standing his ground in that short moment. Talk soon.

-Marksman

Month: February 2019

The Last Great Night of a Legend

Left’s Continued War on Masculinity