Panama City, March 20 (PL) - Roberto "Mano de Piedra" Durán, Panama's world boxing legend, was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday after undergoing surgery to place a pacemaker.
In his account on the social network Instagram, the four-time world lightweight champion, 72 years old, indicated in a video that he was able to overcome a heart failure, called Complete AV blockage.
In the audiovisual, sitting on a sofa and in a good mood, his main trait, El Cholo, as he is also popularly known, points out that he is calm and at home, while thanking the attention and messages of encouragement.
The former fighter's wife Felicidad Iglesias indicated a few days ago that Durán came out of the operation well and hoped that he would soon return home, at the same time she asked that Panamanians keep him in their prayers.
Last March 16, the Boxing Hall of Fame member was hospitalized after a health complication known as Complete AV Block, which according to experts is a total interruption of the atrioventricular conduction, that is to say, an electrical disconnection between the atria and the ventricles of the heart.
Durán, who also fought in bantamweight, featherweight, super featherweight, welterweight, super welterweight, middleweight and super middleweight, was still active and was scheduled to travel last Sunday to the city of Chicago, where he would join Mike Tyson, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Sugar Ray Leonard in an event called Chicago Sports Spectacular. Roberto Duran Samaniego is considered the best lightweight (135 pounds) of all time and also ranked by sportswriters and historians as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in boxing history.
He won four world championships, being the first of them at lightweight, defeating on June 26, 1972 by technical knockout in the thirteenth round to the World Boxing Association champion, the Scottish Ken Buchanan.
He made 12 defenses of this title (in addition to 33 fights without a title at stake in that category, which was very common at that time), 11 of them won by knockout and unifying it in his last defense against the World Boxing Council champion, the Puerto Rican Esteban De Jesus.
