Ring Observer Boxing by Scoop Malinowski
By Scoop Malinowski
Yesterday I was told this amazing Mike Tyson-Nino Gonzalez-Cus D’Amato by Tyson’s best friend Mario Costa…
“Years ago, Mike was here at the bar with his pigeons (which are kept in a coop behind Ringside Lounge in Jersey City, NJ). Nino Gonzalez called me. I asked Mike if he knew who Nino Gonzalez is? Yes, Mike remembers seeing Nino fight Roberto Duran in his first fight (in 1981) after No Mas. Nino lives in Bayonne, I said to come down to Ringside, Mike is here now…”
“Mike told the story, when he was a kid, Cus told him to watch how Nino fights, not Duran, watch Nino, he’s a Puerto Rican with a huge heart. Mike’s hero was Duran but he always listened to Cus. So Mike watched the Nino vs Duran fight and focused on Nino. That fight always stuck with Mike. Mike thought Nino sort of won.”
“So I was watching the fight years later. Ray Arcel’s wife was still alive. I saw an interview with Ray Arcel’s wife on some boxing documentary. She was asked how did Ray take it when Duran said no mas? She said when Ray came back home from New Orleans, he was never the same after Duran quit. So that’s why Cus told Mike to watch Nino, not Duran, because the old time trainers never wanted anything to do with a fighter who quit. Cus didn’t want Mike watching a quitter. Cus thought Nino had a heart of a lion.”
“So Mike still always asks me how Nino is? He still idolizes Nino Gonzalez. So Mike remembers that. Nino came out aggressive at the first bell, he ran right to Duran, he wasn’t intimidated at all. Nino nicked under both of Duran’s eyes in the first round.”
“Panama Lewis told me a story about that fight. He was in Duran’s corner for that fight. He said after one of the middle rounds Duran came back to the corner and said, ‘That’s it. The Boricua is too strong, I can’t go on.’ He wanted to quit again. Panama said he told Duran, ‘If you stay on this stool and don’t fight him, you’ll never fight again. Go out and hit him with a good body shot.’ So that’s what Duran did, he hit him with a good body shot and hurt Nino. Nino told me that body shot made him lose his rhythm, because he couldn’t breathe right for a couple of rounds.”
“To this day Mike loves Duran. I went with Mike to a signing show on Long Island and Duran was there. When Duran saw Mike he kept saying, ‘Mike Tyson, champion. Champion, champion, champion of the world.’ They love each other. Tyson says he identifies with Duran. He came up poor in Panama with no manners, he was who he was, he is who he is. He never changed. He came from nothing. Mike respects that, how he came from nothing, went to the top, and he stayed the same.”
Gonzalez lost a unanimous ten round decision to Duran in Cleveland, Ohio in August 1981, which started Duran’s comeback after the No Mas fiasco of November 1981. At that time Duran’s ring record was 73-2. Gonzalez was 24-1 and ranked no. 10 in the WBC Super Welterweight division.
After the loss to Duran, Nino had 12 more pro fights and lost to Sean Mannion, Mario Maldonado, Duane Thomas, Matthew Hilton and John Mugabi. His last fight was in 1984 in Puerto Rico, a TKO win vs Charles Williams.
