Roberto Duran

Yes, it's true I once knocked out a horse. It was at a fiesta in my mother's home town of Guarare. Someone bet me a bottle of whiskey that I couldn't do it.

— Roberto Duran

I'm not God - but I am something similar.

— Roberto Duran

There's only one legend. That's me.

— Roberto Duran

Getting hit motivates me. It makes me punish the guy more. A fighter takes a punch, hits back with three punches.

— Roberto Duran

I am not an animal in my personal life. But in the ring there is an animal inside me. Sometimes it roars when the first bell rights. Sometimes it springs out later in a fight. But i can always feel it there, driving me and pushing me forward. It is what makes me win. It makes me enjoy fighting.

— Roberto Duran

My experience won this fight…. I knew I was in control. I was not scared. He was not hitting me with anything that was hurting me.

— Roberto Duran

I realized that my body can give me so much more.

— Roberto Duran

At lightweight it seemed he was a tremendous puncher, but I didn't find him to be that kind of puncher. A good puncher, a strong puncher, but not a devastating puncher.

— Roberto Duran

One gets the impression of Duran is that he’s a tough, rough brawler who just wades in and ducks nothing. But all you have to do is look at his face to see that is nonsense. He’s not marked up. He does a lot of cute things in there.

— Roberto Duran

Moving fluidly and jabbing, slipping punches and countering rather than swarming over DeJesus, he stalked him, relentlessly wearing him down and coolly destroying him with savage punches to the body. For 11 rounds Duran bested the classic boxer at his own game, robbing him of his speed and his will to fight, and only then did he permit himself the luxury of putting DeJesus away.

— Roberto Duran

He’s good inside, very good, strong physically. The one thing that surprised me the most was his quickness. And his defensive ability. He moves his head a lot, feints a lot. He’s not an easy man to hit.

— Roberto Duran

Duran knew how to fight. He knew what to do. If he looked at the corner the only thing I ever had to do was pretend to jab, once he was using his jab I knew he’d have no trouble. Even more important he knew how to think. When you talk about great fighters, always remember there was a guy named Roberto Duran. He was never given the opportunity to really display his wares because at his peak, he was overshadowed by Muhammad Ali.

— Roberto Duran

Duran has always been the master of defense that is one of his trademarks.

— Roberto Duran

Duran laid back, counterpunching,he's a three-time champion, a very gutsy warrior. I couldn't go in there and get foolish.

— Roberto Duran

That name, "Manos de Piedra", is true, Hands of Stone. Every punch, and I'm not exaggerating, every punch that he hit me with, from the body to the head, felt like bricks, stone, rocks. He knocked my teeth back. My front, my first 3 or 4 teeth, he knocked them back because he was just so possessed. He was a demon.

— Roberto Duran