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CANASTOTA, N.Y. (AP) - Roberto Duran turned his "hands of stone" into palms raised skyward in thanks for a remarkable boxing career.
"I want to thank America. You opened your heart so I could enter. Thank you everybody who lives in the United States, who saw me grow into becoming a world champion," Duran said Sunday through a translator as he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. "My country is being inducted as well. The country where I was born, where I live, and where I will die. I'm happy, proud."
Duran, a world champion from Panama in four weight divisions over a career that spanned five decades, joined Olympic gold medalist Pernell Whitaker, another four-division champion. Duran and Whitaker were chosen from the modern era, along with undefeated Mexican straw-weight (105 pounds) champion Ricardo "Finito" Lopez, who held his world crown for more than a decade with a string of 21 successful defenses.
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