27.04.04 – By Matthew Hurley: It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 20 years since Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns stepped into the ring and waged war on one another. Their epic battle for the middleweight championship of the world, on Monday, April 15, 1985 set a criteria for every super-fight that followed. A super-fight, and by that boxing fans and writers mean a mega match-up between two of the best in their division, has to live up to its hype. There have been quite a few terrific super-fights since then but none have really seemed to capture the imagination of everyone, mainstream media included, in such a positive and glorious light. Some might argue that Hagler’s bout with Sugar Ray Leonard surpassed Hagler – Hearns in terms of hype, but the outcome, a Leonard decision victory, left a bitter taste in many a mouth. With Hagler and Hearns there was nothing but astonishment at their will, their desire, and despite the brutality of his loss, even Hearns’ fans came away from the fight thumping their chests with pride for the gallant effort the “Hit Man” put forth.
It really all ended in the first round when Hearns smashed his fearsome straight right hand onto the top of Marvin Hagler’s shaved dome and broke it into who knows how many pieces. Hagler buckled but didn’t fall and now, having already decided to engage the champion in a trench war, Hearns began to retreat. He retreated but continued to swap thunderous punches with Hagler. He simply had no choice. Emmanuel Steward would later lament that Tommy had received a leg massage before the fight that left him weak, and Tommy’s legs did seem rubbery by round two, but it was the loss of his best offensive weapon that truly sealed his fate. Could he have kept Hagler off of him with hard counter right hands when he reverted to a boxing stance in round two? Could that cross, which he had to turn into a hook because it hurt so much when he hit Marvin’s rock-like head, have widened the cut on Hagler’s brow forcing a stoppage? Might he have caught Marvin coming in again like he did in the first round and kept him honest? Well, that’s not how boxing works. Things happen, and to Tommy’s credit, he never complained and never even mentioned his broken hand at the post-fight interviews. A warrior to the end.
“We’re you worried about the cut?”
“No, no… It just makes me meaner,” Hagler replied to the question. “They better hope I never bleed.”
After years of perfecting his craft in the shadows of bigger names Marvelous Marvin Hagler finally achieved all that should have been his years before. He needed that opponent to bring it out of him. He needed that big moment on center stage to cement his greatness and write his signature in the wet concrete and stand back and let it dry and harden. That night he ascended to the ultimate of fistic heights – best “pound for pound” fighter in the world.
When Hagler launched that fateful looping right hand that hit Tommy right in back of the ear and completely scrambled his equilibrium, all those tough fights in Philadelphia against the likes of Bennie Briscoe, Bobby “Boogaloo” Watts and Willie “The Worm” Monroe and the hard luck draw against Vito Antuofermo in his first title shot and the disgraceful display of the English audience who pelted him with beer bottles after he beat Alan Mintor for the middleweight championship were no longer haunting reminders of his past but proudly displayed battle scars. He had reached the summit.
There is an image from this fight that is both exhilarating and heart-breaking at the same time. As Hagler is paraded around the ring on the shoulders of his handlers, Hearns, broken and weary, is being carried back to his corner by a member of his entourage. The image, captured in several photographs that were published worldwide in the aftermath of the fight, illuminates what both fighters sacrificed that night. Hagler, bloodied and battered but unbowed, Hearns carried out on his shield. What they accomplished together set a standard that has never quite been reached since. The two best fighters in the world set aim at one another and simply fired until one went down. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Hagler would go on to lose to Leonard in their super-fight two years later and promptly retire, never to fight again. Hearns would go on to win more titles and thrill fans with one dramatic victory or loss after another. Always one to give the crowd their money’s worth Tommy’s place in history may suffer a bit because of some of his losses, but his greatness cannot be questioned. He simply left it all in the ring.
Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns, two fighters who re-wrote the book on what a super-fight should be. It has yet to be rewritten.