COMMISSIONER’S CORNER DELIVERANCE By Randy Gordon
Duran 15 months earlier. He eradicated that defeat five months later with perhaps the finest outing of his career, stopping Duran in the eighth round of the title bout now known as the “No Mas” fight. Meanwhile, Hearns was doing all he could to prove he was the best 147-pounder in the world. In early August 1980, “The Hitman” (aka “The Motor City Cobra”) put his name atop the list of welterweights with a second-round demolition of Mexico’s hard-hitting Pipino Cuevas. As the calendar changed to 1981, talk of Leonard and Hearns facing one another grew louder and louder. Promoter Dan Duva, the president of Main Events, went right to work on the matchup. He, along with promoter Bob Arum, put the two fighters on the same card in Houston on June 25. The plan was that if both won their bouts, they’d go on to face each other in one of the most anticipated matches in the history of boxing. Hearns took his 31-0 record into the ring against journeyman Pablo Baez. Leonard got the tougher assignment, facing unbeaten Ring/WBA junior middleweight champion Ayub Kalule of Uganda. Hearns won by a fourth-round knockout. Leonard followed with a ninth-round stoppage of Kalule. At the post-fight press conference, Duva confirmed what we all had been hearing: Leonard and Hearns would face each other in September. I was then the associate editor of Ring Magazine and a boxing analyst for ESPN. I was asked by Duva to serve as the statistical analyst for closed-circuit TV commentators Marv
“T he Showdown,” as promoter Dan Duva named it – or “Superfight,” as so many fans and members of the media so rightfully called it – was minutes away from starting. It was September 16, 1981. A makeshift arena had been set up in the parking lot of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. In one corner stood Sugar Ray Leonard, the swift-handed, fleet- footed, once-beaten Ring Magazine and WBC welterweight champion of the world. In the opposite corner was Thomas Hearns, the undefeated knockout artist, the WBA titleholder. In an era that produced many highly anticipated fights, this was perhaps the most anticipated one of all. Leonard was 30-1, his only loss being the 15-round decision to Roberto
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