Roberto Duran, Former four-weight boxing world champion has been hospitalized after contracting COVID-19.
Duran’s son Robin said his father was taken to hospital after experiencing cold-like symptoms because “he has a lung that doesn’t work 100 per cent due to an accident he had in Argentina a few years ago”.
Robin later confirmed this morning that the 69-year-old Panamanian boxing legend has been diagnosed COVID-19.
“My dad’s tests have just arrived and confirm that he is positive for COVID-19. Thank God that for now he has no symptoms other than those of a cold,” Robin Duran wrote on Instagram.
“He is not in intensive care or on a ventilator, he is still under observation.
“We just talked to the doctor and he tells us that the lungs are fine and there is no indication of seriousness.
“Let’s continue to have faith that everything will turn out well.”
The boxer, who retired in 2001 with a professional record of 103-16, was best known for his “Hands of Stone” and his June 1980 victory over Sugar Ray Leonard that earned him the WBC Welterweight title.
Duran was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 2006 and was enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2007.