In the summer of 1981, only two fighters mattered in America: WBA welterweight champion Thomas Hearns and WBC welterweight champion Sugar Ray Leonard. Since the previous fall, when both men won big fights – Hearns knocking out the dangerous Pipino Cuevas; Leonard forced the great Roberto Durán to resign: this was the greatest fight boxing had to offer, the fight that everyone wanted to see.
It was the classic matchup: boxer vs puncher. Leonard filled the previous category, his quick feet and quicker hands frustrating even the toughest fighters, as everyone saw in his rematch with the dangerous Duran. Hearns was the knockout artist, the fearsome puncher they called “The Hitman.” He boasted a thunderous right hand and 30 knockouts in 32 wins.
The backgrounds and personalities of the two champions also contrasted sharply. Sugar Ray, the Olympic gold medalist, enjoyed celebrity status, his dazzling smile selling cars and soda. Hearns was more stoic, soft-spoken, exuding an air of mystery and menace. A Detroit native, his rise through the ranks, while as swift and impressive as Leonard’s, was also more hands-on, unaided by constant TV exposure and lucrative endorsement deals.
Billed as “The Showdown,” Leonard vs. Hearns was finally set and few fights in boxing history aroused as much anticipation. Millions filled closed-circuit theaters around the world, while front-row seats sold for record sums. And to everyone’s delight, the dramatic battle lived up to the hype. Though not in the way fight fans might have hoped. Two factors no one anticipated defined the game: not Hearns’s punching power, but Leonard’s; not Leonard’s technical boxing ability, but Hearns’s. In other words, a reversal of roles.
The first five rounds were very close but they belonged to “The Motor City Cobra”, his height of 6’1″ and his reach of 78″ allowed him to land his jab and control the pace. These rounds were an agonizing exercise in suspense as the fighters, feinting, wrestling and looking for opportunities, put each other to the test, the crowd waiting to see what would happen when the stalker “Hitman” finally landed his right hand straight as a cannon. But in the sixth round it was Sugar Ray who struck first, connecting to Tommy’s chin with a wicked left counter, and “The Hitman”‘s legs buckled. For the rest of that round, a dazed Hearns was hit with power shots, Ray landing vicious hooks to both the head and body.
If Round 6 was a bad dream for Hearns, Round 7 was a nightmare. Now showing little respect for Tommy’s power, Leonard chased aggressively and early in the round took a huge right hand from Hearns. Nothing happened. Instead, Sugar Ray kept closing in, throwing heavy body shots to set up a beautiful left hook and uppercut combination that sent Hearns reeling across the ring. An overhand right hand nearly dropped Tommy and the crowd at Caesars Palace went wild as Leonard chased down and pummeled his wounded opponent from corner to corner.
Thanks only to Tommy’s fighting heart, the knockout didn’t happen. And now it was time for the coaches of these two champions to play their part in this unlikely drama. While the highly experienced Angelo Dundee anchored Leonard’s corner, Hearns’ trainer and manager, Emanuel Steward, was a relative newcomer to the boxing scene. Head of Kronk Gym in Detroit, Steward had trained Hearns since he was a kid, taught him the fundamentals, and now urged him to abandon the knockout artist ring style and return to them. “You have to be the fighter now,” Steward said. “Get on the bike. Stay and move.”
The next three rounds were a strange sight for anyone barely familiar with the natural styles of the two fighters. Instead of Hearns lurking, it was Leonard. Instead of Leonard moving and staying one step ahead of the dangerous puncher, it was Hearns. The startling fact confirmed by this complete reversal was that Leonard’s often underestimated power proved just as deadly as The Hit Man’s. But now Sugar Ray had fallen victim to the common puncher’s mistake, looking for the big punch instead of working. the opponent and let the knockout come naturally. Chasing after Hearns, and again having trouble getting past those long arms, Leonard allowed The Motor City Cobra, which just minutes ago seemed to be over, to regain momentum from him.
By the tenth, Tommy’s strength and confidence had fully returned and by the eleventh he took control, calling the shots behind that long jab and finding room for the right hand. Near the end of the round, a right exit followed by a sharp left rocked Leonard, punctuating a round that marked another plot twist in this unpredictable drama. In the twelfth the crowd chanted “Tommy! Tommy! while Hearns chased after him, while Leonard, his left eye badly swollen, looked hesitant, confused, and his face had the wide-eyed look of a lost man scanning a bus schedule. At the end of the round, Hearns confidently walked back to his corner while Leonard wearily walked back to his.
Now it was time for Angelo Dundee’s pivotal scene and another turning point in this dramatic fight. Dundee, coach of some fifteen world champions and cornerback like no other, put it on the line in terms Leonard couldn’t ignore: “You’re screwing it up now, son, you’re screwing it up. … We need fire and you’re not shooting! You’re screwing up… Ray, you have to be faster! You have to take it off! Speed!”
And with that, Leonard jumped off his stool to start round thirteen, no longer tentative, but urgently taking the fight to Hearns and finally landing a smashing right hand over Tommy’s bottom left. For the first time since the seventh, Hearns’ legs buckled and Sugar Ray didn’t let “The Hitman” escape. An astonishingly fast flurry of twenty-five unanswered blows left Hearns dazed and reeling. He fell through the ropes twice before the round was over, and it was only courage that allowed him to survive.
In round fourteen, that same courage kept Hearns on his feet, even though he really had nothing left. Sugar Ray was hitting shots at will and waving at referee Davy Pearl, who finally stepped in to raise Leonard’s hand. No one questioned the strike. “When I didn’t hear anyone yelling at me from the corner of Hearns,” Pearl said, “I knew I did the right thing.”
In terms of twists and turns, it was a drama worthy of Sophocles, and the excitement and action demanded a rematch. Unfortunately for Thomas Hearns and boxing fans everywhere, it would be eight long years before these two great talents met again. —Michael Carbert
