Nick Durandt: Brash and brazen but with a rare insight into human nature

23 April 2017 - 18:00 By David Isaacson
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Even with his mullet‚ bling and penchant for hanging out with gangsters‚ Nick Durandt was once mistaken for a cop in the US.

The former boxing trainer died after he collided with a vehicle while riding his motorbike in the rural Free State on Friday.

Back in late 2003 he was preparing for what turned out to be his mission impossible‚ taking Phillip “The Time Bomb” Ndou into the ring against Floyd Mayweather‚ then still a lightweight and on his way to becoming the planet’s top pound-for-pound fighter.

Durandt was accompanied by a small entourage‚ which included his long-time friend‚ Ralph Haynes‚ an ex-con who had remained a figure in the underworld.

He had organised sweatshirts emblazoned with “Bomb Squad”.

Standing outside the hotel he was approached by a concerned passerby asking what was going on. Without missing a beat‚ a deadpan Durandt replied: “I’m just checking the hotel out.”

Ndou lost that fight in Mayweather’s home town of Grand Rapids‚ Michigan‚ getting stopped in the seventh round‚ and Durandt was widely criticised at home for his training methods and inability to improvise when his game plan failed.

But in the US‚ the reaction was different. Then newly crowned heavyweight champion Roy Jones jnr approached Ndou and praised his courage‚ predicting he’d win a world title.

Durandt had known Jones from years earlier‚ when he worked with the famous Duva boxing family in the US‚ learning the hurt game from all angles‚ which helped him become the only trainer/manager in South Africa to earn a fulltime living from boxing.

His gym was often used by overseas fighters‚ most notably Hasim Rahman before he toppled world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in Brakpan in 2001.

In a 2004 tournament both WBA cruiserweight champion Jean Marc Mormeck and his challenger‚ American legend Virgil Hill - who was trained by Freddie Roach - trained at his gym‚ although they came at separate times.

Many local trainers loathed Durandt‚ but it says something about him that almost all of SA’s top boxers gravitated into his orbit at some stage of their career.

Durandt didn’t always accept them‚ turning them away if he felt they weren’t prepared to work hard; his fighters were mostly well-conditioned.

For Durandt‚ his most important boxer was arguably Ndou.

In late 1997 Durandt was sidelined when illegal tape recordings of conversations he had had – in which he’d used the K-word among other derogatory terms and had spoken about Jews and Indians – were made public.

No-one owned up to the recordings‚ which were so heavily edited that it was difficult to make out the context of his comments. Without the original recording‚ the national commission didn’t take action against him.

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But promoter Rodney Berman and sponsors dumped Durandt quickly. His assistant trainer at the time‚ Elias Tshabalala‚ departed‚ taking with him a host of fighters‚ including Cassius Baloyi and Sugarboy Malinga.

Durandt had been in the corner when Malinga upstaged English star Nigel Benn in 1996 to become the first SA boxer to win a WBC title‚ and he was there again when Malinga reclaimed the belt from Robin Reid the following year.

Ndou was one of the few to stay loyal‚ ignoring pressure from outside people to leave. At the time Durandt said Ndou was the only reason he didn’t quit the game.

“From my amateur days I always called my trainer ‘coach’‚” Ndou once recounted. “When I called him ‘coach’‚ he said: ‘I’m not your coach. My name is Nick and I’m your father‚ you’re my son’.”

Durandt lost almost everything then‚ from his first marriage to his flashy cars. Even his character changed; the abrasive‚ loud and frequently foul-mouthed mentor was humbled.

Ndou climbed the world rankings and Durandt forced his way back into Berman’s business.

The bling and the brashness returned‚ but Durandt never forgot those who had stuck with him through the dark days‚ frequently speaking about his late Jewish lawyer who had stuck with him‚ even though he couldn’t afford to pay at the time.

Behind closed doors‚ Durandt was a gentle soul who loved to talk. After interviewing a boxer at his gym one evening‚ I was preparing to walk back to my office several blocks away‚ and he offered to have one of his fighters escort me back.

Durandt was sometimes more entertaining in the ring than his fighters. He once slapped Anton Nel in the face during a break between rounds in a bid to fire him up during his Transvaal heavyweight title bout against Peter Smith.

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He frequently swore at his boxers between rounds – using language that made sailors blush and terrorised broadcasters using microphones to pick up those comments to boost the viewer experience.

Yet Durandt was unimpressed with the Kamp Staaldraad scandal‚ where the 2003 Springbok team had been put through military training; he pointed out he treated every boxer differently.

He had a rare insight into human nature‚ being able to read people quickly. He knew which of his fighters he could slap‚ and who to swear at‚ and even those he couldn’t swear at all‚ because he knew they couldn’t handle it. He used the same talent to rile his boxers' opponents‚ often psyching them out before they even got to the ring.

Durandt also enjoyed firearms‚ something I learned when at a lunch with him and other boxing aficionados one day‚ he opened his tracksuit top to reveal a large semi-automatic pistol.

Not long afterwards he got into a skirmish with a former boxer‚ Lucky Sambo‚ outside a Yeoville nightclub early one morning in 2004.

During the struggle‚ Durandt’s friend‚ an American who had been in the country assisting a visiting boxer‚ pulled the gun from Durandt’s waistband and shot the fighter in the right shoulder‚ injuring him.

Durandt’s downfall in boxing came after fall-outs with Berman in 2009 and later Branco Milenkovic‚ at the time SA’s second-biggest promoter.

With SABC not televising boxing after blowing its sport budget on the 2010 World Cup‚ opportunities dried up for Durandt and his fighters.

He branched out into other ventures‚ like boxercise gyms‚ a tattoo parlour and becoming president of the Crusaders bike club.

At the opening of his Sandton gym in 2012‚ Durandt joked that his accountants were from the firm Schultz‚ McGurk and Smith‚ a reference to his friends‚ Brett Kebble hitmen Mikey Schultz‚ Nigel McGurk and Kappie Smith‚ who were frequently seen in his company.

Durandt dropped the tough guy veneer only once in the time I knew him. I was doing a feature-writing course and I wanted to do a profile on him. He agreed.

In the piece I quoted him profanity for profanity‚ and because it wasn’t for publication‚ I gave him a printout of the story afterwards.

When he finished reading it‚ Durandt turned to me: “If you publish this‚ please take out my swearing. I wouldn’t want my mother to know I talk like this.”

Durandt is survived by his two sons‚ Damien and Storm.

-TMG Digital/TMG Sport

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