Roberto Durán to Be Featured in Showtime’s Docuseries “The Kings”

Roberto Durán is returning to the limelight…

The 69-year-old Panamanian former professional boxer, known as “Manos de Piedra,” will be among four high-impact boxers featured in the Showtime docuseries The Kings.

Roberto Durán

In addition to Durán, who held world championships in four weight classes: lightweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight, the docuseries will also feature Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas “The Hitman” Hearns.

The first of the show’s four episodes will premiere on Sunday, June 6, at 8:00 pm ET/PT on linear and streaming, the ViacomCBS premium network announced.

Nicknamed the Four Kings during their remarkable, overlapping careers, the quartet contested nine championship fights among them from 1980 to 1989. Their distinct styles and vivid personalities helped spark a renaissance in the sport of boxing, which had endured a downturn after Muhammad Ali’s storybook run concluded.

The backdrop of the series is the 1980s, a go-go decade marked by pronounced socioeconomic and political upheaval in the U.S. as President Ronald Reagan left his mark.

Hagler died last month at age 66.

“These four men defined an era in boxing,” said Stephen Espinoza, president of Showtime Sports, in a press release. “Their individual stories, forever linked by the spectacular battles they waged, reflect a tumultuous period in American culture and history. The Kings takes the viewer beyond the glorious action of some of history’s most memorable prizefights to illuminate each man’s dramatic journey and the societal context that made them stars of sports and popular culture.”

Leonard’s first fight with Durán came in 1980 and kicked off years of tightly contested battles in the ring and surging global popularity outside of it. The four boxers, joined in the latter years of the 1980s by the up-and-coming Mike Tyson, became some of the biggest names in sports and popular culture.

The Boxing Writers Association of America voted each of the four Fighter of the Year every year but one from 1979 to 1985. The Ring magazine named three of their title bouts Fight of the Year and picked Round 1 of Hagler-Hearns as Round of the Year.

The show is premiering during a year that marks the 45th anniversary of Leonard’s Olympic gold medal win and the 40th anniversary of a high point for the Four Kings: Leonard vs. Hearns.

The Kings is produced by Box To Box Film in association with Ingenious Media.

Canelo Alvarez to Challenge Light Heavyweight World Titlist Sergey Kovalev in November

It’s a case of a little gain for the pain for Canelo Alvarez..

The 29-year-old Mexican professional boxer and middleweight world champion is set to climb two weight divisions to challenge light heavyweight world titlist Sergey Kovalev.

Canelo Alvarez

In a fight finalized on Friday, Alvarez and Kovalev will meet on November 2 (DAZN) at the MGM Grand Garden Arenain Las Vegas. 

Alvarez didn’t demand a catchweight in an attempt to drop Kovalev below the division limit of 175 pounds.

Golden Boy Promotionshad hoped to stage the fight at the larger T-Mobile Arena, but the NHL‘s Vegas Golden Knightshave a home game on November 2.

Kovalev is by far the biggest name in the light heavyweight division.

Alvarez, who pressed for the fight, will have the opportunity to win a world title in a fourth weight division after claiming belts at junior middleweight and middleweight and a secondary title at super middleweight.

If Alvarez wins, he would become only the fourth fighter in boxing history to win world titles at junior middleweight and light heavyweight. The other three — Sugar Ray LeonardThomas Hearnsand Mike McCallum— are in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

“The second phase of my career is continuing just as we had planned, and that’s why we are continuing to make great fights to enter into the history books of boxing,” Alvarez said. “That’s also why I’ve decided to jump two weight classes against one of the most feared champions of recent years.

“Kovalev is a dangerous puncher, and he’s naturally the bigger man, but that’s the kind of challenges and risks that I like to face.”

Alvarez, boxing’s biggest star, has never fought at a weight heavier than 167¼ pounds, which is what he was for his third-round knockout win over Rocky Fieldingto win a secondary super middleweight belt in New York in December. Alvarez returned to the 160-pound middleweight division for his next fight in May, a unanimous decision to unify three belts against Daniel Jacobs.

The deal between Golden Boy, Alvarez’s promoter, and Main Events, which represents Kovalev, had been close for the past week. It got hung up, sources told ESPN, when Top Rank— which has rights to Kovalev stemming from a deal it made with Main Events to put his February rematch with Eleider “Storm” Alvarezon ESPN+— sought a low seven-figure fee to give up its involvement in the bout.

After days at a stalemate, Main Events agreed Wednesday to pay Top Rank what it was seeking. Once that contract was signed, Main Events signed the deal it had made with Golden Boy to finalize the November 2 fight. Part of the agreement gives DAZN rights to future Kovalev fights, at least one if he beats Alvarez — possibly a rematch — and two if he loses, before he would return to ESPN under his Top Rank agreement, according to a source.

The Weinstein Company Acquires U.S. Distribution Rights to Ramirez’s “Hands of Stone”

Edgar Ramirez’s latest film will get the Weinstein treatment…

The Weinstein Company has closed a deal for the U.S. distribution rights to Hands of Stone, the Jonathan Jakubowicz-directed drama that stars the 38-year-old Venezuelan actor as iconic fighter Robert Duran.

Edgar Ramirez

Robert De Niro portrays Duran’s mentor and trainer Ray Arcel, and Usher appears as his ring nemesis Sugar Ray Leonard. Ellen Barkin, Ruben Blades and Ana de Armas also star.

The deal includes a theatrical commitment of around 2000 screens that will make this a precedent-setting release for a Latino film, with a strong P&A commitment and backend deals.

The deal makes sense, as The Weinstein Company bought the foreign rights for Hands of Stone a few months ago and now the company will release it globally.

The film tells the rags-to-riches story of Duran, who is best remembered for his two ring matches with Leonard. The first, in 1980, featured two proud all-time greats fighting toe to toe, with Duran emerging victorious to win the WBC welterweight title. And then came the rematch that November, where Duran shocked the world. He was being outclassed and pummeled by Leonard when he said “no mas,” and turned his back on Leonard and quit in the ring.

Jakubowicz wrote the script, and the core of the story is the relationship between Duran and Arcel and how each man changed the other in boxing’s Golden Era, when Duran and Leonard battled among a group of brawlers that included Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler, Hector Camacho and Vinny Pazienza.

The title Hands Of Stone came from Duran’s nickname, because the Panamanian hit so hard, with those heavy fists powering him to 103 victories in 119 fights. The “no mas” incident was a terrible ending to a rivalry that was everything depicted by De Niro and Martin Scorsese in Raging Bull, when Jake LaMotta had those classic brawls with Sugar Ray Robinson.

The film will most likely open sometime next winter.

 

 

 

Ramírez to Star as Roberto Durán in “Hands of Stone”

He’s played the god of war and a legendary Latino political leader… And, now Édgar Ramírez is set to portray a boxing champ.

The 36-year-old Venezuelan actor has signed on to star opposite Robert De Niro in Hands of Stone.

Edgar Ramirez

The drama, written and directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz, centers on the life of Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán, who was nicknamed “Manos de Piedra” during his career.

Ramírez will portray Durán, while De Niro will play his trainer Ray Arcel in a drama that focuses on how each man changed the life of the other.

Roberto Duran vs. Sugar Ray Leonard

The film is set during boxing’s Golden Era, when Durán was among top notch fighters like Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler, Hector Camacho and Vinny Pazienza.

The film’s focus will be on Durán’s incredible bouts with Leonard, culminating in an inexplicable ending of the famous fight where Durán quit in the ring and cried “No mas,” on a night when Leonard was having his way.

Hands of Stone will begin production in Panama this September.

“The story of Roberto Durán and Ray Arcel is not only a homage to the golden days of boxing; it is most importantly the story of a fatherless man who teaches every single one of us the true meaning of never giving up,” said the film’s producers.

Ramírez recently appeared in Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty and next stars in Libertador.