The Fight.

When I, and seldom others ask me, “So, what got you into boxing ?” I think; 1) about my father who loved and competed in the sport with a passion, and 2), back to April 15, 1985.

Yes, it was exactly 40 years ago tonight !

That was the night in a temporary ring in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas resort and casino car park, before 15,141 on-site, that the soon to be universally coronated ‘Marvelous’ Marvin Hagler faced Thomas ‘Hit Man’ Hearns, or ‘Motor City Cobra’ if you prefer.

The former above, successfully defending his undisputed world middleweight championship for an eleventh time.

This would still be three short of Argentina’s Carlos Monzon. The rest however, would become folklore and history.

‘The Fight’, also christened ‘War’ by the champion, was hotly anticipated and broke all box office records at the time. It pitted the ‘blue collar’ fighter in Hagler, who claimed he’d been denied his plaudits and the riches that should’ve by now come with it, and, The Ring magazine’s 1984 Fighter of the Year and, ’til then WBC junior-middleweight champion, Hearns.

The fight took place on a Monday night (early hours Tuesday in the UK). It would be promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. shown on closed-circuit TV, live via satellite and, in a delayed network highlights package on ITV Sport.

The excitement and anticipation leading up to it was fever pitch. Hagler was coming off a strong tenth defence against Syria’s Mustafa Hamsho. Hearns, a poleaxing of soon-to-be living legend Roberto ‘Hands of Stone’ Duran, inside two rounds, and an equally impressive KO of Freddie Hutchings.

The April 15 event and contest didn’t disappoint.

Both fighters came out from the opening bell like possessed infantryman on entering a combat zone.

The champion’s career mantra was ‘Destruct and Destroy’ and this he emphatically tried to do. He was met by an equally immovable object and bludgeoning windmill, in the form of the ‘Hit Man’. The opening round would go down as one of the top 5 in the annals of boxing history. The list possibly headed by Jack Dempsey vs Luis ‘Wild Bull of the Pampas’ Firpo in September 1923.

On the night, according to the statistics, Hearn’s landed 56 punches to Hagler’s 50 in the opening firefigtht.

On the round’s conclusion, with both fighters shook numerous times and withstanding the oncoming blitzkreig, the bell sounded and both stared across the ring at each other with a dual Charles Manson’esque stare, that would freeze blood. The crowd were in raptures, scarcely believing what they had just witnessed.

Round Two had near-equal intensity, but fatigue was already starting to set in, in particular in challenger Hearn’s liquorice-like legs. The champion who’d been cut on his forehead above the right brow towards the end of the opener, now had blood profusely oozing out.

After Hagler wobbling the Detroit Hit Man early, The Ring magazine summed it up by saying “Hearns was stuck to the ropes like a fly to flypaper”.

Early in the third, referee Richard Steele was forced to intervene to inspect Hagler’s worsening cut and seek the ringside doctor’s opinion. This added to the drama and anticipation.

Allowed to continue; Hagler overwhelmed his foe. “When I saw that blood, I turned into a Bull”, as Hagler would later callously refer to it.

The Ring reported that Hearns “spent most of the third round on his bicycle”.

The end when it arrived was emphatic. The southpaw champion, and soon to be universally accepted ‘Marvelous One’ uncorked successive right-hand southpaw leads and chased a flailing Hearns around the ring. The final looping right ‘sealed the deal’ and the challenger was flattened.

The official time was 2:01 of the third as Hearns lay a stiffened prostrate mass and was counted out.

ITV commentator Reg Gutteridge would famously christen it “Eight minutes of absolute mayhem !”. For me that was just, and my abiding memory of the action that ensued. I also recall from the TV footage a ringside Karl Malden (the actor – he of On the Waterfront and The Streets of San Francisco), who’d obviously lost a fair wager on Thomas Hearns, leaving his ringside seat in disgust. Watch the footage and you will know what I mean.

So enthralled was I with the ferociousness and outcome, that I became a MMH fan overnight and pledged to take a trip to Las Vegas as soon as soon as humanly and financially possible.

I would finish my degree and wait two years to visit with a fellow student and life friend in 1987 for the Hagler-Leonard SuperFight.

Hagler summed it up post-fight saying “Tommy was a little bit cocky, and I had something for him !”. To me this fight summed up the best of the 80’s and best of what this sport had to offer. The ‘Marvelous One’ would forever be marvelous, with a single L.

The defeated Hearns would recover to win ‘world’ titles at three more weights and join his victor in the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHoF). Legends both.