Though marred by controversy and the infamous low blow, Roberto Duran’s 13th round win over Ken Buchanan #OnThisDay in 1972 marked his first world title victory and began his reign as WBA lightweight champion. Buchanan had angered Duran at the press conference to announce the fight when the Scot ate bread and butter, washed down with coke, rather than watching footage of the Panamanian beating Hiroshi Kobayashi that played on the big screen behind them. “This fool doesn’t know the shitstorm that’s going to come down on him,” Duran would write in his autobiography, I Am Duran. And it was true. Buchanan couldn’t possibly have prepared himself for what was to come. Duran was the better fighter, but Buchanan – plucky in the extreme – battled back as and when he could, until, at the end of round 13, a brutal right hand, plainly delivered below the belt, left Ken writhing in pain. “He said I hit him with a right hand in the nuts after the bell,” Duran later remembered. “That’s a lie. Even the referee Johnny LoBianco said it was a fair blow.” Not strictly true; the referee admitted his view of the offending blow was blocked. On TV, the foul is as clear as Mike Tyson’s was many years later, when he chewed off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear. Inexplicably, the result was and remains a stoppage victory for Duran. “But I give him [Buchanan] credit for being strong the whole fight,” Duran remarked. “Another fighter would have been knocked out in four or five rounds, but he took a lot of punishment.” The Madison Square Garden bout drew a $223,901 gate – then a record for a lightweight title fight staged indoors.