14.02.04 – By Matt Hurley: In a recent interview Emanuel Steward mentioned that Thomas Hearns will possibly be challenging for a cruiserweight title in March. Reading that made my heart sink, and then I took out my DVDs containing many of the “Hit Mans” fights and lost myself in the career of arguably the most exciting fighter of the 1980s.
Instead of dwelling on yet another great fighter’s denial of when to let go, it became important for me to remind myself why Thomas Hearns became my idol and all-time favorite sports figure. As I watched the vision of this awesome offensive fighting machine destroy Roberto Duran in two hellacious rounds of violence, I sat back in my chair and smiled. There was my hero, in his prime, studiously pecking away at Duran’s chest with two light jabs before dropping a right hand bomb on Roberto’s chin and producing the best and most chilling knockout I’ve ever seen.
Cracking open a cold beer I watched his war with Marvelous Marvin Hagler and was suddenly brought back to Monday, April 15th 1985. To young to accompany my father on a school night to the closed circuit telecast at the Boston Garden I sat up in the darkness of my bedroom listening to the radio for updates with my heart beating furiously in my chest. I can remember the strange sadness that consumed me the next day at school as I poured over every newspaper article about the “eight most exciting minutes in boxing.” The passion that can overwhelm a sports fan is never more acutely felt than when defeat brings you back down to earth and you’re forced to accept that an athlete you’ve propped up on a pedestal is human and vulnerable after all.
And yet my admiration for Thomas Hearns only grew in the wake of his defeats. He always went out on his shield and always gave the fans their money’s worth. On top of that he was consistently gracious in victory and defeat and then, just when it would appear he had nothing left in the tank, he would surprise us – as he did as a huge underdog in his rematch with Sugar Ray Leonard and his light heavyweight title fight against Virgil Hill. In both fights he not only added to his legacy but reiterated what was so compelling about him in the first place. Despite being flawed with a dentable chin and legs like pipe cleaners, he was capable of beating anyone he stepped into the ring with. Win or lose, fight fans always knew they were in for something special when the “Hit Man” dipped his lithe body through the ropes.
I, as I’m sure most fans do, wish Tommy would retire. His plaque is waiting to be nailed up to that wall at the International Boxing Hall of Fame. That’s where he should be, not in a ring trading punches. But Hearns, like so many boxers before him, has too much fighter in him. It’s what made him great in the first place and it’s what keeps him hanging on. One day, hopefully soon, he’ll come to realize all he’s given to the sport and to his fans, sit back in his chair and watch his old fights, smile and say to himself, “Damn, I was something else…”