Veteran ring warrior Duran hopes to keep Joppy, IRS off his back

Warning to Nevada State Athletic Commission chief inspector Chuck Sledge: Roberto Duran is going to try to take an eraser into the ring with him Friday night.

Sure, he'll bring his fists and his prize-fighting smarts, but Duran will also attempt to put that eraser to good use.

Among its targets: The public perception that he's too old, too shopworn, too deteriorated to compete at boxing's highest level. Those are the eraser's figurative objectives and here's its practical one: Eliminating the debt he owes to the Internal Revenue Service.

Duran, who will take on World Boxing Association middleweight champion William Joppy at the Las Vegas Hilton, is fighting this week for free. His purse for what will be his 21st world title fight -- reportedly $250,000, although the official figure has yet to be filed with the NSAC -- is more or less going straight to the IRS to help offset his $300,000 tax deficit.

"I don't want to talk about that," Duran said of his tax troubles not only in the United States but in his native Panama. Equally reluctant to discuss the matter was the local IRS agent assigned to the case, as Craig Anderson said Monday "we have very strict disclosure policies" that prevent it.

But he's apt to be ringside for Duran's fight and to accept a check made out to the IRS on Duran's behalf.

From a purely financial point of view, Duran has to look past the fight with Joppy to see any reward on the horizon.

"I'm just fighting to win this fight and then I can start thinking about money," he said through an interpreter, although he acknowledges he understands English. "Winning the title will mean a lot to me because it will open the door to bigger and better things."

While that sounds like a comment from a 20-something up and comer, it's actually from a 47-year-old veteran of 115 professional fights.

Amazingly, Duran was 20-0 on the day Joppy was born.

He's 102-13 today.

"I'll knock him out in the sixth round," Duran predicted, although he's a plus 350 underdog in the Hilton sports book. "If it goes the distance, I'm afraid the judges will take the fight from me."

His lack of trust in the judges aside, Duran may see himself as an easy target for sycophants. He claims his tax problems are the result of "many people in the past having stolen from me." If so, they rang up quite a bill at Duran's expense, as his $1 million purse from a 1996 fight with Hector Camacho in Atlantic City was also earmarked for the IRS even before a punch was thrown.

Add his escapades with the law to his longevity in the ring and Duran comes across as one-part hero, one-part huckster. He's a graybeard with a last hurrah, albeit one who has lost his last seven fights in Las Vegas.

Incredibly, Duran has not won a bout here since 1981.

"I've been taking better care of myself," he said, presenting a positive outlook. "I've had very good training for this fight and I'm not planning to lose."

But it has been 26 months since Duran fought at 160 pounds and, really, the last time he was a practicing middleweight was 1989.

Nonetheless, this is a man who has won five legitimate world titles and who many believe was the finest lightweight in the history of the game. Duran in the 1970s was punishing first-class opponents and embarrassing underlings, then added to his reputation as a tough guy with effective comebacks interspersed in the '80s.

The graph outlining his career is up and down, all over the place. He hands Ray Leonard his first pro loss in 1980, then utters "no mas" to lose the rematch later that same year; he loses to Wilfred Benitez but bounces back to surprise Davey Moore; he drops a decision to Marvin Hagler and is flattened in two rounds by Thomas Hearns, yet comes back in '89 to take Iran Barkley's middleweight title in a stirring bout that preceded a third fight -- and loss -- to Leonard.

With the 25-1-1 Joppy yet to establish himself as a superb champion, Duran has at least an outside shot at the upset. Today he'll take an MRI and complete the last of 10 physical tests the NSAC required for its approval, and at 3 p.m. he's scheduled for a public workout at the Hilton.

He thinks he can win yet he admits retirement is, at last, inevitable.

"I'm not planning to lose, but, if I do, I'll have to think real hard (about retiring)," he said. "Next year, I'll probably retire. Right now I just want to show people what I can do at 47 years old."

In other words, he wants to erase a few misconceptions.

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