Former super-middleweight champion, Carl Froch was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this week, and one part of his speech in particular drew a reaction from a member of the audience whose father was inducted in 2007.
Speaking of the ceremony on his YouTube channel, Froch revealed that in his speech, he proclaimed ‘I didn’t win everything, but one thing I never did was quit. World champions don’t quit, and quitters do not get inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame’.
Many will back Froch’s statement given he has been defined as a fighter by his grit and determination in the ring.
However, one onlooker took those words to heart, questioning the induction of her own father, Roberto Duran, who famously abandoned his bout with Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980.
“Later on that evening, a young lady came up to me and she said, ‘Can I just ask you Carl? You said quitters don’t get inducted, what do you think about my Dad, Roberto Duran? Because of his fight with Sugar Ray Leonard?’.
I said ‘Listen, your Dad is an absolute legend of the game, hard as nails, tough, he’s like a demon, he’s got them dark eyes. He will fight to the death, he would never, ever quit.’
Quitting, for me, is different, it’s when you don’t get up off of the canvas or you get hit with a body shot and you don’t want to continue. The ‘No Mas’ situation, against Sugar Ray Leonard, was pure frustration, it kind of shows what Duran is, it summarises him. He’s a do or die man, that was basically saying ‘f*** you, if you’re not going to stand and fight with me, and have a tear-up, I don’t want any of it’.”
Duran would retire after the controversy of the ‘No Mas’ clash with a record of 72-2, only to return and partake in a further forty-five contests, winning two more world titles.