Livescore
Roberto Duran and Dave Radford were from different worlds.
Duran was a champion boxer, considered one of the greatest to ever step into the ring, while Radford, a part-time plasterer from Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, was often fighting in leisure centres and social clubs.
Yet in November 1997, a series of unlikely events saw 28-year-old Radford fly to South Africa and fight Duran in front of 10,000 people at the Carousel Casino in Hammanskraal.
“It was a dream come true, you couldn’t write it.,” said Radford on the Sporting Witness podcast.
Johnny I’Anson spoke to Radford and his trainer about their experiences for the BBC World Service programme.
Radford was plastering a wall when his trainer James Walker called.
“He said, ‘You better sit down, I’ve got something to tell you, I’ve got you a fight in Africa,'” said Radford.
Radford’s trainer also told him who he would be up against.
The reaction was understandable.
“No, no, not the Roberto Duran, he’ll kill me.”
At the time, Duran was 46 years old and had been a world champion in four different weight classes.
The Panamanian great had the fight in South Africa booked in, but plans had been thrown into chaos when his intended opponent broke an ankle shortly before the bout.
Duran’s management tried to find a quick replacement to save the contest and Radford got the unlikely call, just days before the planned show.
He was picked as organisers wanted someone in the top 10 in Britain. Radford was ninth and willing to step in at short notice.
Within hours he was on his way to Manchester Airport to fly to South Africa, but not without a few more surprises.
“Dave’s talking to the Spice Girls!” Walker told his family on a payphone, before the flight.
Radford was not only starstruck by Duran but also by boxing legend Marvin Hagler, who was at ringside for the fight.
“When I jumped in the ring, I looked to my left-hand side. Who was sat at the table commentating? Marvelous Marvin Hagler,” he recalled.
“I’m just thinking, ‘I cannot believe what is happening’. I’ve always wanted to meet him.”
Meeting Hagler would have to wait as Radford was about to fight one of his heroes.
Radford said that fighting Duran “sickened” him.
The man with whom he traded blows, nicknamed ‘Hands of Stone’, was a superstar boxer in the 1980s.
“He knocked me many a times with head shots but the worst ones was the body shots,” said Radford.
“I can’t really describe what it is, it just wiped everything out of me.”
But Radford was not going to leave without giving a good account of himself.
“I knocked him a few times, it was a good hard right hand I hit him with,” Radford said.
“I remember knocking his hands back. I’m just thinking to myself, ‘I’ve just rocked Roberto Duran’.”
He felt himself “running out of energy” with just 15 seconds left.
When the last bell rang, Radford was not thinking about how he had fought his hero but instead how he “survived” the fight.
Radford lost the fight on points but became a hero.
“At the end of the fight, the crowds were chanting ‘Radford, Radford’. It was crazy,” said Walker.
It took a moment for Radford to realise what had happened.
“I just looked at my fists and that’s when it hit me… I have gone the distance with one of my heroes,” said Radford.
“Not only to just meet the guy and shake the man’s hand but to fight the guy and then shake the man’s hand. It was unbelievable.”
The surprises did not stop there for Radford and his trainer.
“It was chaos,” said Walker, remembering how the pair were surrounded by crowds at the airport.
They were met by promoters Rodney Berman and Cedric Kushner who paid Radford for the match.
“I’m counting out the money, sticking it in every pocket I’ve got,” added Walker.
The experience for Radford was one of a kind, as the boxer was usually fighting in social clubs, in front of 600 people.
“You got people that really wanted to see a good old scrap,” he said. “They’d throw money into the ring, after a fight. The boxers would pick it up and they’d both share the tip.”
Radford retired from boxing the following year, in 1998.
He remained friendly with Duran, who paid a visit to West Yorkshire when Radford opened a boxing gym in 2010.
BBC World Service’s Sporting Witness takes a look at the inside and personal stories of the key moments from sporting history.
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