Panamanian Roberto "Hands of Stone" Duran, six-time boxing world champion, was hospitalised in non-life-threatening condition Thursday with the novel coronavirus, his children said on the same day that Panama hit a new record of daily cases.
Robin Duran said on Thursday his 69-year-old father was tested after going to a private hospital with cold symptoms.
"At the moment he's not having symptoms beyond a cold. We'll be passing on more information over the days," the son wrote on his Instagram account.
He said he decided to take his father to a hospital as a precaution, because one of his lungs hasn't functioned at full capacity since a car crash in Argentina in 2001, an accident that led the boxer to retire.
Duran, who had the nickname “Hands of Stone” as a boxer from 1968 to 2001, is a sports icon in Panama and Latin America. Beyond winning his four championship belts, he is remembered for his resounding victory over American boxing idol Sugar Ray Leonard in Montreal in 1980.
Messages of encouragement began on social media for Duran, who is considered Panama's sporting ambassador.
Duran boxed 119 fights between the ages of 16 and 50 -- with 103 wins and 16 losses. He was knocked out four times, but did the same to his opponents 70 times, earning him the "Hands of Stone" nickname.
Duran is a national hero in Panama as one of the country's most famous athletes along with former New York Yankees baseball player Mariano Rivera, former Olympic long-jump champion Irving Saladino and former soccer players the late Rommel Fernandez and Julio Dely Valdes.