ATG LIGHTWEIGHT TOURNIE: ROUND 1, FIGHT 3 - ROBERTO DURAN KO5 FRANK ERNE

At the beginning of his journey Roberto Duran, seeded 3, coasted like any other prospect, out of the featherweight division and into the lightweight, feasting on journeymen and busted former contenders, smuggled into a title shot on the back of brilliant performances against over-matched foes. Against champion Ken Buchanan he sustained his wonderful level of performance with a borderline great, a fighter he would express admiration for throughout his life; the title changed hands controversially, on an apparent low blow registered as a knockout. Despite the niceties, and to Buchanan’s great frustration, few doubted that the title was in the hands of the best.

The Animal Duran was born.

His title reign, however, is possibly a tiny bit overrated in the great scheme of things. There have been better, perhaps, at the poundage. Duran liked unranked opposition and there were championship opponents that did not belong in the same ring as him, but he also did away with the top men in that time, allowing no fighter to gain a foothold in the division. Esteban De Jesus defeated him in a non-title fight, as discussed in Part 3, but Duran put him down in the 1974 re-match.

Ray Lampkin emerged as the next best lightweight upon De Jesus’ first undoing and Duran horrified with the torrent of abuse he heaped upon the pretender. Lampkin did well in the early going of that fight, boxing an organized retreat against a snorting champion whose pressure slowly withered him. In the final seconds of the penultimate fourteenth round Duran found him with the kind of punch that threatens an exhausted fighter’s life; reports on the after-effects vary but what is agreed upon is that Duran sent Lampkin to the hospital. Post-fight he promised that “next time I’ll send him to the morgue.”

Could it be that fear played a part in the capitulations of the contenders that followed Lampkin into the bear pit? It seems plausible upon watching the likes of Lou Bizzarro run and hold throughout the fourteen rounds he lasted with Duran in in 1976, but there is no doubting De Jesus gave his all in Duran’s thirteenth and final lightweight world title fight. The punch Duran landed to unman him was among the best he ever threw. De Jesus spent that fight boxing in his usual pragmatic fashion, engineering openings, countering, taking any opportunity that presented itself and he was running Duran reasonably close. The lazy jab Duran threw to bait him was neither feint nor punch but something in between. De Jesus moved in right-handed; Duran detonated an improvised right cross on his chin and De Jesus was crawling around the canvas in search of a rope.

13-0 in title fights then with a single loss to De Jesus in a non-title fight twice avenged with the prize on the line.

“I was born for this,” Duran offered after his final fight at 135lbs.

Hard to disagree.

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Frank Erne’s legacy relationship with Kid Lavigne reminds me a little of that between Ken Buchanan and Ismael Laguna in the sense that Lavigne would have ranked above Erne had the two never met. That they did and that Erne, seeded 14, proved the better of the two head-to-head just edges the Swiss in front.

According to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, there was a sense by 1898 that Lavigne had gone back, and there were those who were willing to back Erne with cash for their fight that year; the result was a draw, but there were many in attendance who fancied Erne with the edge, and as The Eagle reported, had the fight been slated for twenty-five rather than twenty rounds, he might have got the job done.

Their rematch, fought ten months later, was slated once more for twenty and was fought in Erne’s hometown of Buffalo. Game to the core, Lavigne was in serious trouble as early as the seventh round and was saved only by the bell. Erne simply “battered his opponent out of the title” “never once losing his cool” as Lavigne strained with every sinew to remain upon his feet. It was a masterful performance from a speedy, clever, self-possessed fighter, perhaps one of the ring’s great jackals.

Between his first title tilt and his second, Erne took a moment to eliminate George McFadden from contention. As described in Part Three, McFadden became that year the first man to stop both Lavigne and Gans but found Erne a different matter. Erne also turned the trick with Gans, stopping him on a reportedly awful cut in the twelfth round of their title fight. McFadden, Lavigne, then Gans, it’s an astonishing trio of scalps and it took the phenomenon that was Terry McGovern to bring that run to an end, at a catchweight that stretched Erne across the bones. He lost his title in a rematch with Joe Gans who stunned all by blasting him out in a round, but only after staging one more defense against the wonderfully named Curly Supples.

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Who will win under the following rules?

15 round fight.
1940s referee.
8oz boxing gloves.
10 points must.

Cast your vote and explain yourself in a post below! You have 3 days.

 

Erne beat Gans.

 

"Erne did most of the heavy fighting displaying better judgement and more skill than his opponent." - That's from the circular.

"Erne had the better of the fight throughout, and punished his opponent severely." - Evening Star

"It was a beautiful contest to witness and every slip, angle, duck and blow known to the fighting game was shown. The opening rounds were all in favour of Erne. He was confident, aggressive, determined." The Waterberry.

The point is, some of the responses in the thread are not appropriate. Unless of course, you're one of those weirdos that thinks Gans looks shitty on film.

 

The headbutt was defo claimed by Gans's corner but i've not read any next-day press that reported seeing it. Erne blasted Gans with two hard shots early in the twelfth, one to each eye, then there was a clinch; when they separated, there was a lot of blood and Gans claimed he was blind. The injury was over-reported though and did seem very much to be a headbutt type of injury but Gans back fighting a week later. If I was guessing, i'd guess the clash was caused by a meeting of heads, deliberate or otherwise but i don't know. It's also true that Erne was clearly taking rounds, though he was getting beat up 6-8.

This morning rummaging through this stuff I have a report that states that Gans was showing "signs of distress" at the end of the 11th.

Anyway, Duran should win this fight but Erne was no joke.

 

Roberto Duran scored the first knockout of the tournament in stopping Frank Erne in the fifth round. A perfect right hand counter over a jab Erne had had success with but threw without real variety stunned him and a left-hand uppercut dropped Erne for a ten count; Duran celebrated.

The fight had been reasonably close up until that point, Erne arguably taking the first via hard body-punches as the two bumped up together on the inside but Duran took over from the third after a close second, battering his man around the ring in the fourth and the beginning of the fifth.