Tommy Hearns - My Loyalty to the Hitman
THE attraction was, at first, purely physical. Let me explain: Tommy Hearns looked different. Sometimes, as fans who also dabble in the sports we love watching, we find ourselves drawn to athletes who might be shaped a bit like us. We might notice them standing out in a peer group of more similar bodies and, by comparing our own physiques, there’s an immediate connection. It’s a comfort thing, validating our own place on that same field.
Apart from being the same height (6’1’’), build (slim) and – at the end of his career, anyway – weight (80kg), in reality I had little in common physically with Tommy. Nonetheless, when I watched him tower over Roberto Duran and cut a lanky figure as he faced the menacing Marvin Hagler or handsome Sugar Ray Leonard, he became my guy and I’d be rooting for him.
But this was no underdog. While Tommy was the quietest of the Four Kings, lacking Leonard’s swagger, Duran’s Latin passion and Hagler’s self-named ‘Marvellousness’, he was arguably the most explosive of the group and one of the greatest punchers of the last 50 years.
His career as a world champion began in style, demolishing Pipino Cuevas in 1980 to steal his WBA welterweight belt. Cuevas was making his 12th defence of the title, while Hearns was challenging from 28-0. Fighting in his home city of Detroit, Hearns owned the fight from the first bell, establishing his crisp jab before treating Cuevas to punishing left hooks to the body, terrifying left uppercuts and huge overhand rights. Moving confidently and eager to take care of business, the local hero won a TKO in the second of 15 rounds.
Hearn’s detractors point out quite fairly that he never dominated a division. All the same, he first became a champion at 147lb at that division’s peak. In 1980, the weight class also boasted Palomino, Benitez, Shields and, of course, Leonard. In the duller heavyweight years just before Tyson, the welterweights carried all the excitement and some future Hall Of Famers.
Missing, though, was the heavyweight punching power that Hearns brought to the party. Three years after turning pro with Manny Steward, the Kronk Gym legend helped him to develop leverage with his long arms, deploying a 78 inch reach to devastating effect as he manoeuvred his way from welterweight to light heavyweight.
It was reach that held Leonard at bay for most of their first meeting, the welterweight unification bout in 1981. Hearns was still ahead on all cards in the 13th round, but a late rally from Leonard, nursing a badly injured eye that would contribute to his first retirement a year later, saw Hearns on the ropes and on the end of a blistering combination that would stop the fight. It was a legitimate win for Leonard. Could it have gone the other way? Absolutely. Tommy boxed beautifully throughout, but his leverage wasn’t yet matched by muscle or stamina. He was gassed.
Light middleweight was Tommy’s closest brush with divisional dominance and, in stepping up to 154lb, he again defeated a legend. Three time world champion Wilfred Benitez was a technical, clever boxer. A master tactician who prided himself on outboxing his opponents. Hearns needed to outbox the outboxer, while also proving he had enough in his tank to go 15 rounds. He certainly did, winning a majority decision and delivering Benitez only his second loss in 46 fights. The WBC belt, Tommy’s second title, was in no small part testament to his superb jab: it turned out that the new champ had injured his right hand in the middle rounds.
It was at light middleweight that Hearns delivered his most conclusive victory, the destruction of Duran in just two rounds. Beaten by all three of his fellow Four Kings, this was the first time he had been genuinely knocked out, the earlier ‘no más’ loss against Leonard contrasting sharply with the crushing right to Duran’s jaw that sent ‘Manos de Piedra’ face-first on to the canvas. Hitman Hearns became Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year for the second time in 1984, after keeping his WBC belt and picking up the vacant lineal junior middleweight title.
Hearns’s biggest fans would go as far as saying he is possibly the best light middleweight ever. It isn’t worth debating in the context of his overall achievements, during which the only major setback was his 1985 loss against Marvin Hagler in what many consider to be the greatest fight of all time.
The fact that a third round victory for Hagler bestowed ‘GOAT’ status on the bout only reflects well on Hearns for the two-way action in less than eight minutes. Climbing another division while still holding a title at 154lb, Hearns met Hagler’s aggressive opening seconds with a head shot cutting the middleweight champ’s eye. From the first round, Hagler’s eye was bleeding profusely and by the third, referee Richard Steele – not usually given to interrupting fighters – was getting the doctor to take a look. The match was a clash of styles, with Hearns urged by Steward to box his way around Hagler, who was streetfighting, more than once with low blows and elbows. Already off-balance in the second round, Hearns was disorientated in the third and finally finished off by Hagler after briefly turning his back. Yet all three rounds saw thrilling flurries of combinations from both fighters and skilful handling of an aggressive southpaw by Hearns.
Hagler is one of the greatest fighters of all time. He’s not necessarily ‘better’ than Hearns, just very different. Of the Four Kings, it’s easiest to argue that Hagler is ‘the best’. Despite the excitement around the Hearns bout, a rematch obviously never happened, but it’s hard to know if Hearns would have risen to the occasion. It almost certainly would have been very different from the second fight with Leonard in 1989, a surprise draw which most viewers scored as a win for Hearns – as did Leonard himself, he later admitted.
Losing to Hagler at middleweight was possibly one motivation for Hearns to continue climbing through the divisions claiming, variously, a vacant WBC middleweight title and, from Virgil Hill, a WBA light heavyweight title– in both cases losing them to Iran Barkley. He also held the WBO super-middleweight belt.
Tommy Hearns was the first boxer to win world titles in five weight divisions, from 147lb to 175lb – six, if you count the less-recognised IBO cruiserweight title he picked up in 1999. To say this versatility is no mean feat would be an understatement – it’s a freak of nature. None of the other Four Kings moved up as far in weight as Tommy, nor did they win as many titles over the course of their careers. In a simple ranking of the four, he will always be viewed unfairly and rarely in the top two, yet he remains by far the most unique talent among them. And by any measure, undoubtedly the most interesting.
This article first appeared in The Pugilist magazine, Issue Four, 1 September 2020