Awhiplash action,super speedy hands and brutal precision power made Hearns an all-time thriller
AMONG many fantastic moments in my career, one was to share a bill with Thomas Hitman Hearns and Roberto Duran in Las Vegas.
Both fighters had bouts on my undercard. Can you imagine? I certainly did not feel like the alpha on the plane as we made a five-day tour of American cities before my ill-fated WBA featherweight title defence against Steve Cruz.
The fight did not go as I’d hoped but the build-up was like nothing else.
I remember Hearns took a particular liking to the girl serving the drinks on the plane. There was lots of banter, not least about the stuff they made us wear at the photo calls, including top hats and white robes.
I loved
Duran, so much so it took me years before I could bear to watch his defeat by Hearns in 1984.
Hearns switched his lights out in the second with a brutal right hand, a signature that was one of the most thrilling spectacles in our sport. Incredibly he was not a puncher as an amateur.
That changed when he walked through the doors of the Kronk in Detroit and into the arms of Manny Steward.
Precision power was Steward’s thing and in Hearns he had the perfect template – a tall guy, 6ft 2ins with long arms.
He had super-fast hands plus that lethal whip action. He battered WBA welterweight champion Pipino Cuevas to win his first world title in 1980. Cuevas was making his 12th defence but was gone in two rounds.
Seven years later Hearns dropped Dennis Andries six times to win the WBC lightheavyweight title and become the first to win belts in five divisions.
His two most famous fights ended in defeat but in both his reputation was enhanced – that is how good he was.
The first was against Sugar Ray Leonard in 1981 when, with Hearns well ahead, Angelo Dundee issued his famous call to arms at the end of the 12th: “You’re blowing it now, son.”
With his left eye badly swollen Leonard showed
October 18, 1958 (age 61) Memphis, Tennessee American
The Hitman,
Motor City Cobra
Welterweight; Lightmiddleweight; Middleweight; Super-middleweight; Lightheavyweight; Cruiserweight what he was all about that day, dropping
Hearns twice in the 13th and finishing it in the
14th. The second against Marvin Hagler for the undisputed middleweight title four years later is the greatest three-round fight of all time.
Hearns said he broke his hand but that didn’t change the dynamic.
Hagler bolted out and lunged with a big right hook that clipped Hearns, forcing him to fight at an unbelievable pace from the bell. Between them they threw 125 punches of knockout force in that first round.
6ft 2in 78in Orthodox
..... 67 ................. 61
..... 48 ............... 5 ................. 1
Hagler crowded Hearns and stayed on him. Hearns threw everything he had but couldn’t catch him from distance and was being caught with full-blooded shots.
Ultimately Hearns ran out of gas and once Hagler saw he had you in trouble there was no way out.
Hearns came back as he always did, regaining the WBC super-welterweight crown 14 months later against Mark Medal on the bill I topped.
Not only is he one of the greatest, Hearns is among the top-five most exciting fighters of all time.