Did Roberto Duran nut punch Ken Buchanan on purpose?

Exactly. It doesn’t justify it, but then again nothing justifies Buchanan waiting til after the bell to throw a three-punch sucker combo at the guy either.

 

Ive met him a few times,..he is one of the most mellowed out people Ive ever met.

 

Maybe a no contest then?

 

So should an illegal punch ending the fight be classed as a ko?

 

By rule, yes. In this case a TKO.

 

No, the rules give Ken time to recover and then resume. He chose not to resume, thus by rule he lost by stoppage.

The rules were properly applied.

Look at it this way: Had Duran not retaliated for Buchanan’s equally blatant foul and Roberto dropped to his knees after the three-punch post-bell combo and then refused to continue, would we call it a no contest? Nope. Ken would have been awarded a TKO.

It is, for sure, an unsatisfying finish but that doesn’t mean we change the rules because it doesn’t please us aesthetically.

The ref could have ruled it was intentional and taken a point away, but that doesn’t change the finish. He also could have deducted from Ken for throwing after the bell in two different rounds.

 

I don’t know what he wanted, but he didn’t continue.

 

But AA didn't get a ko over Direll

 

The ref in that fight — which was fought nearly 40 years later under Michigan Athletic Commission rules of 2010 — did not make the same judgment as the ref in a 1972 bout fought under New York rules in 1972? Color me shocked.

The ref in Duran-Buchanan did not rule that the blow was a deliberate, intentional foul. The ref in the AA-Dirrell fight ruled that was intentional. Hence the DQ.

The Duran-Buchanan ref also didn’t take points away from nor DQ Ken for his after-the-bell punches. Does that mean every ref ever since is obligated to let people punch after the bell multiple times without penalty?

 

Do you think it was a deliberate intentional foul?

 

Here’s what happened via what we can see on film:

Buchanan initiated an exchange after the bell, He threw three (illegal) punches clearly after the bell, the last of which was especially egregious.

Duran came back at him. The referee wasn’t in great position (the round was over) so he was behind Duran. He reached to restrain Duran, grasping his right arm around elbow level. The punch may have ended up a body punch if Roberto’s arm wasn’t restrained as the punch was on an upward arc, but as it happened it landed squarely on the lower cup (driving the metal protector into Ken’s testicles, causing him to fall down in great pain).

The referee, being behind Duran, did not have a view of the punch. He thought, and ruled, that it landed in the solar plexus. (Note that unless his name was Clark Kent, he cannot see through Duran to tell where the punch landed, and a referee cannot call a foul he does not see.)

Buchanan was helped to his corner in obvious agony. The ref came over to check and called the fight as Ken was very obviously in no condition to continue, no matter how game he might have been.

Result: Duran by TKO.

Upon seeing replays later in the week, the ref agreed that the punch was probably low. New York (nor any agency as far as I am aware) in 1972 did not allow instant replay to overturn results.

Given that the referee’s restraint altered the path of Duran’s punch, I don’t think we can infer intent. I think we can safely say knowing Duran that he didn’t give a damn whether it was low or not, given he was retaliating for his opponent, for the second time in the fight, hitting him clearly and obviously and with intent after the bell.

So a DQ of Duran would not have been in order given that there’s no way to make a judgment on his intent since the punch was altered. And the ref did not know it was low at the time, so he couldn’t have acted any differently than he did.

FWIW, Ken said he wanted a rematch and was offered one — in Panama, for basically the same money Roberto got for the first fight as challenger ($25K) — and he turned it down.

 

See my post above. I don’t think we can make that judgment given the ref altered the arc of the punch.

Grab someone around the elbow when they’re swinging up and the upper part of the arm stops but the lower part immediately goes straight up with the momentum, bending at the elbow.

I 100% believe Ken Buchanan’s after-the-bell punches were intentional.

 

It just doesn't sit well with me. The champion lost his belt from a low blow.

 

Fine, but we can’t go back and retroactively change the result. It is what it is.

I have no problem with it — not that it was a satisfying finish, but Ken brought it upon himself with his own breaking of the rules. Repeatedly hit a guy after the bell and you get what you ask for; he’s gonna hit back.