What would be done about the end of the Buchanan vs Duran bout if they fought today?

Duran was well connected in New York. He had Ray Arcel and Freddie Brown in his corner.

 

Ken is a very bitter guy. I saw him do an after dinner once and it was just a long moan. The fact that he fell out with Eddie Thomas showed what a difficult guy he was / is. His daughter, a hairdresser, lives near me and has very little time for him. His son took out an injunction against him some years back.
I get that Buchanan had a tough upbringing and life has not always treated him well, or even fairly at times but that goes for so many Fighters. Anyone who knows him will tell you that much of the harm has been self inflicted.

 

True enough. I like Pat's explanation tho, it seems pretty balanced.

 

And Buchanan had Gil Clancy in his corner. What’s your point?

 

Pat, like @Mike Cannon and @Richard M Murrieta are posters I always defer to.

 

Clancy was well respected but Arcel and Brown were Stilman's royalty. I can't swear to it but also, I was under the impression that Gil was there strictly as a cutman.

 

Gil Clancy trained the likes of Emile Griffith, Oscar Bonavena, George Foreman in the later 1970's, and for a time Jerry Quarry.

 

Indeed he did Richard M. As I said, certainly respected but as we saw in Montreal, even Angelo Dundee was reverential to Arcel and Brown.

 

Gil in interviews talks about training Buchanan and their strategy for the fight, so I assume he was more than a cut man to have had input on that. He even says “my strategy for Ken was blah blah blah” so I think he was more than just a cut man.

Arcel, btw, had been out of the New York boxing scene (and out of boxing entirely) for like 20 years before he came back to work with Roberto. Probably most of the officials he had known in the 1950s were out to pasture by then. I can’t see how the athletic commission would be bending over backwards and actually proactively working to make sure his guy won.

Buchanan had fought in Madison Square Garden twice before he fought Roberto. Duran had fought once … on the undercard of a Buchanan fight no less.

Ken’s next two fights and three of his next six were put on by MSG. Duran fought there once more (non-title loss to DeJesus) and didn’t return until he fought Adolfo Viruet in 1978. There was clearly more promotional ties to Buchanan in New York’s most important venue (hell the world’s at that time) than there were to Roberto.

There’s just nothing to uncover that supports the idea that the powers that be in NYC were in Duran’s pocket … if anything, Buchanan had more sway in those circles.

 

Excellent as ever Pat and I absolutely take the point. I think we'd agree though, that Arcel was seen as a Boxing deity on his return from being the steel industry. I know it's 8 years later but his little chat with the Ref, (Carlos Padilla ?), in Montreal had a serious influence on how he ran the fight.

 

I’ve always read that Jose Sulaiman told Padilla to let them fight — probably more a nod to the WBC wanting a Latin American champ and favoring Duran than any influence Arcel may have had.

I also think Padilla wanted to stay at the top of the game — he had reffed the Thrilla in Manila and was giving this plum superfight assignment. If he pleases the powers that be (i.e. the WBC/Sulaiman) he probably keeps getting top assignments. (And if you’ve seen him ref, what he did — or didn’t do — in the Leonard-Duran fight isn’t really off his normal style.)

 

Appreciate the nod buddy, I just call it as I see it, that's the only way.
stay safe hombre. chat soon.

 

Ken Buchanan was a hero of mine when I was at school and later when i boxed as an amateur.
When I saw him in the de Trafford Arms before the Benn-Eubank II fight I thought it would be one of those occasions where you shouldn't meet your heroes.
I'd heard he was bitter about various things but I got none of that.
Had a good laugh with him, bought him a couple of drinks, talked boxing, told him I'd tried boxing the way he had but i was sh1te.
He mentioned Duran, Laguna, fighting as an amateur, Princess Anne.......no bitterness whatsoever.
I never chase well known boxers, sports stars or any other celebrities but the boxers I've spoken to have all been great and to meet Ken was an honour I'll never forget.

 

That's great to hear Randy. I watched Ken on telly as a kid and tried to box like him too. I had the great good fortune to meet Eddie Thomas when Colin Jones finished his training at the Birmingham City gym where I was an amateur.

 

Well nowadays it would be a convincing 12 round loss. The only thing that confused me is why the ref didn't let him continue