Why did Antonio Cervantes and Roberto Duran never fight?

[B.U.R.N.E.R]

I remember hearing the announcer say that Duran and his people were at the Cervantes/Dejesus fight in '75.

Cervantes dominated Dejesus and was in full beast mode. Im not saying Duran wanted no part of Cervantes but I think Eleta figured the risk far outweighed the reward.

Thoughts. Duran gets the rep of the Ultimate Warrior but Cervantes is a fight that didnt happen.

Just want to know why people think it didnt happen.

CONG**** Jab on being the Mod.

[NChristo]

Timing is the main reason, in "The Hands Of Stone: Life and Legend Of Duran" it talks about how Duran actually wanted to fight with Cervantes but wasn't able to get the fight, Cervantes was campaigning at Light Welter while Duran was at Lightweight.
I'll need to read through the book again to get more details obviously but that was pretty much it.

Duran wanted Cervantes but skipped Light Welter which confused me , he wanted Leonard more though it seemed.


As for the fight, I see Duran winning a UD, Cervantes was very one paced and was slow at times, don't think Duran would have a hard time finding his target, Cervantes also had trouble with elusive boxers (Given though Locche and Benitez are some of the best) and Duran's aggressive defense would cause him problems.

[BennyST]

I actually seem to remember there was a fight between the two on the cards before Duran and De Jesus fought the unified title.

From memory they were going to do it but then Cervantes got beaten by Benitez. Then there were talks of Benitez and Duran fighting at 140, because I know there had been talks of them fighting for a long time, kind of as revenge for Duran beating De Jesus, Benitez' stable mate.

Anyway, there was definitely talk of it at one point. For whatever reason it didn't pan out, which is a real pity. Would have been great.

[Thread Stealer]

I remember the book saying Duran's manager, Carlos Eleta, didn't want the fight.