Adonis Stevenson and Roberto Duran in Twilight, Champions of Life at WBC Convention
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Recently, Former World Boxing Council World Light Heavyweight champion Adonis ‘Superman’ Stevenson of Canada and his longtime companion Sisi God were each crowned the WBC Champions of Life, a new championship belt awarded by WBC President Jose Sulaiman at the 57th annual WBC convention held October 20 to October 26, 2019, at the Cancun Quintana Roo, in Cancun, Mexico. Stevenson, the comeback fighter of the year, became one of the few if not the only-fighter to have recovered from a serious brain injury that left him in a coma.
Supporting Stevenson were former world champions Shawn Porter, Bernard Hopkins and Roberto Duran. Very noticeable is the change in demeanor of Panama’s Duran, ‘The Hands of Stone’. In recent years, Duran, 68, has shown up at boxing events as the friendly spokesman of boxing, a gentle giant and a gentle soul whose hands and personality have grown with time. The Duran of today does not at all resemble the Duran of yesterday.
Time and tide wait for no man. Time has taken its place with fighters like Stevenson and Duran, who, by the grace of the heavens and the stars, survived it all inside the ring, and have lived to tell the story with a smile. Stevenson’s wife was told, during his three weeks in a coma, to pull the plug and let Stevenson die because there was no hope, less than a year ago. Duran survived a near fatal car crash in 2001. While Stevenson and Duran will not return to the ring as fighters, they are true fighters and sportsmen in life, and sparkling examples of the true character of the great warriors of boxing.
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