Roberto Durán quotes

Roberto Durán is a legendary Panamanian professional boxer, widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters in boxing history. Known for his incredible punching power and relentless fighting style, he earned the nickname "Manos de Piedra" ("Hands of Stone"). He has won world championships in four different weight classes and is celebrated as a national hero in Panama. Here are 29 of his quotes:

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

Roberto Durán

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 Durán

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 Durán

I am not going to become crazy in the ring, because I am already crazy. And I am not going to die in the ring. I am going to die in bed as an old man.

Roberto Durán

I was born to be champion of the world.

Roberto Durán

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

Roberto Durán

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 Durán

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

Roberto Durán

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 Durán

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 Durán

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 Durán

English: No more, no more!

Roberto Durán

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.

Roberto Durán

If I had the medical clearance to fight, I would want to fight the best. The best would be Mayweather.

Roberto Durán

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

Roberto Durán

I want to thank America. You opened your heart so I could enter. Thank you everybody who lives in the United States, who saw me grow into becoming a world champion.

Roberto Durán

I really feel that if it wasn't for the accident, I'd still be fighting. I would have handled some of these fighters. I would have made sure that the doctors would have declared me physically sound; and after that, I would have trained.

Roberto Durán

Nobody stands out right now. Everybody has similar styles. None of these fighters have reinvented the wheel and created a new style.

Roberto Durán

Every time I stepped into the ring, somebody wanted to kill me.

Roberto Durán

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

Roberto Durán

De La Hoya doesn't know about salsa. He should keep on singing mariachis and leave the salsa to me. I'm good at salsa.

Roberto Durán

Some of the old refs have favoritism toward some of the fighters that are currently fighting. There should be a changing of the guard with the refs, the same way there are with fighters.

Roberto Durán