STAMFORD, CT (November 7, 2006) – VERSUS will showcase two of Roberto Duran’s great comeback fights from 1983 on Fight Night: Top Rank’s Legends of the Ring, hosted by Michael Buffer on Thursday, November 9 at 9 p.m. ET. The Duran Comeback: Roberto Duran vs. Pipino Cuevas and Roberto Duran vs. Davey Moore will bring boxing fans back to the scene of the Hall of Famer’s pair of triumphs that electrified the boxing world..
By the time Roberto Duran stepped into the ring against former world champion Pipino Cuevas on January 29, 1983, most had written him off as a force in boxing. “Manos de Piedra” (hands of stone) had lost three of his previous five bouts, including the infamous “No Mas” rematch against Sugar Ray Leonard, a world title challenge against Wilfred Benitez, and a 10-round tune-up against the unheralded Kirkland Laing, awarded “Upset of the Year” by The Ring magazine. Duran turned back the clock and in front of a sellout Mexican crowd in the Los Angeles Sports Arena, tore into the former world champion, knocking him down several times before the fight was stopped in the fourth round.
A rejuvenated underdog, Duran followed that victory with his challenge of undefeated WBA super welterweight champion Davey Moore at Madison Square Garden on June 16, 1983. Duran celebrated his 32nd birthday in style, getting into peak physical condition, to hand Moore a terrible beating. The sellout crowd was electric, many in support of the Bronx-born Moore’s homecoming, with the remainder mostly Panamanian, passionately rooting for native son Duran. The Panamanian slugger left the ring having redeemed himself for the “No Mas” disaster and with his third world title in as many weight divisions.
The Duran Comeback fights join a roster of great fights from the Top Rank vault that have been featured on the Fight Night: Top Rank’s Legends of the Ring Series. Ali-Bonavena, Ali-Norton I, Ali-Frazier II and Morrison-Foreman have been among the great bouts showcased on VERSUS.
VERSUS (VERSUS.com) celebrates competition in all its forms. The network is the national cable home of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Stanley Cup Playoffs as well as best-in-class events like The Tour de France, the America’s Cup, the Dakar Rally, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), Professional Boxing, the Boston Marathon, AMA Motocross and Davis Cup. Now in more than 70 million homes, the network features the best field sports programming on television and is a destination for sports fans, athletes and sportsmen to find exclusive, competitive events that audiences can’t find elsewhere. The network offers unique, competition-themed original programming and is the exclusive home of Survivor in syndication. VERSUS, a wholly owned company of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators throughout the United States.