Roberto Duran Quotes

Childhood & Life

“Yes, it’s true I once knocked out a horse. It was a fiesta in my mother’s hometown of Guarare. Someone bet me a bottle of whiskey that I couldn’t do it.”

A young Duran jumps rope

“Fame doesn’t make me any different. I am the same man now who grew up in the hard streets of Panama. I am just myself. I always will be. Whoever wants to talks to me, talks to me. Whoever loves me, loves me for who I am.”

On fighting

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

“I do not fight for free. But I was born to be a fighter.”

Fighting was in Duran’s blood

“The life of a boxer is about fighting for world titles.”

“I wanted to carry on fighting but I just couldn’t after the accident. People loved me all around the world, from American to Italy and even England, so of course you are going to miss that.”

Legacy

“There is only one legend. That’s me.”

“I was born to be champion of the world.”

“I’m not God – but I am something similar.”

“I laugh when Floyd Mayweather says that if he went back in time he would beat us all. I’ll tell you this: if he was in the same era as Hagler and Hearns and Leonard and me, I don’t think he would be such a big name. There is too much talk.”

“Everybody says it: black, white; everybody calls me a legend. Italians, Jews. Everybody.”