COMMISSIONER’S CORNER
Albert, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco and the legendary Don Dunphy. Our producer would be Michael J. Weisman, the executive producer for NBC Sports. Our director would be the young and talented Frank Belmont. T he fight card began late in the afternoon, somewhere around 4 o’clock. It was nearly 100 degrees at ringside and the main event was still around four hours away. I arrived shortly before the start of the first undercard fight and was joined in the next half hour by Albert, then Pacheco, then Dunphy. We did microphone and voice checks during the heavyweight prelim between Guy “The Rock” Casale and a 5-0 Marvis Frazier, who won by fourth- round TKO. Finally, after a few more undercard fights in the searing desert heat, it was time for the main event. I took a thermometer that the TV production crew had given me and placed it on one of the ring’s turnbuckles. I left it there until it was time for Leonard and Hearns to make their respective ring walks. Although the setting of the desert sun had “cooled” the arena to 92 degrees, the television lights had jacked up the temperature inside the ring to 127 degrees. Picture getting into your car on a summer day after it had been baking – windows up – in the sun for hours. Now picture getting into that car and staying there in that heat for close to an hour. Now picture working out in the car! It was unthinkable that any two athletes could perform in such stifling heat. I looked around. The arena was packed with celebrities. Flashes on cameras were going off all over. Most fans were on their feet, waiting for the fighters. On my left was ABC’s Howard Cosell, calling the fight on tape delay, to be shown the following week on Wide World of Sports . On my right were three sweating announcers on whom I was placing frozen bottles of water and
towels provided by Belmont. I, too, was wearing a tuxedo and could not have been wetter had I jumped in the pool at Caesars Palace. The judges were in place. The ring was clear, except for referee Davey Pearl and ring announcer Chuck Hull. Then came the voice of Belmont in our headsets. “The fighters are on their way!” T homas Hearns entered the ring first. He was loose. Sweat glistened off his lean, rail-thin and almost weak-looking 147-pound body. Yet, despite his lack of musculature, there was no getting away from the fact he was crushing welterweights with relative ease. Only two out of 32 opponents had lasted the distance with him. He had won the title from Cuevas 13 months earlier. In that fight, Hearns used a frightening right hand to lay the rugged Mexican face-down in Round 2. Hearns was taller than Leonard by nearly four inches, outreached him, outgunned him in the power department and seemed to be near Leonard’s equal in speed. That’s why Hearns was the narrow favorite. On the back of Leonard’s robe was the word “DELIVERANCE.” Nobody realized it, but that word conveyed the feelings Leonard carried into this fight. Even after his victories over Wilfred Benitez and Roberto Duran, there were still those who thought he was nothing more than a fluffed-up media darling and pretty boy. Leonard was out to prove them wrong once again. For the first two rounds, Hearns patiently stalked Leonard, who bounced left, then right, then back again, never giving The Hitman a clear shot at him with his vaunted, powerful right. When Hearns did land, it was with a stinging left jab to the face. By the third round, a small mouse appeared under Leonard’s left eye. It was in that round that Leonard absorbed, for the first time in the fight, a sharp right to his chin. Hearns had landed what looked to be his
“Sunday punch,” but Sugar Ray was still on his feet. Rounds 4 and 5 were much like the first two – Hearns pursuing behind controlled aggression and a long, hard, steady jab to Leonard’s puffing left eye. Round 6 would be a turning point in the fight. Leonard knew he was behind on the scorecards and realized he couldn’t allow Hearns to build much more of a lead. He began to take the fight to him. For the first time, Leonard’s hand speed was very apparent. Suddenly he stunned Hearns with a left hook/uppercut hybrid on the inside, then went on a rampage as Hearns stumbled. Leonard ripped a vicious left hook to the body. Hearns doubled in agony. That punch brought the crowd to its feet. For the first time in the fight, Leonard was in command. At this point, Marv Albert wrote a note to me, asking, “Do you think Hearns suffered a broken rib?” I wrote back, “Will check.” I ran over to Hearns’ corner, where manager/trainer Emanuel Steward confirmed that Hearns merely had the wind knocked out of him. Through the next few rounds, Hearns was very alert to getting hit with another of those body hooks. Every time Leonard moved in, Hearns would tuck his right elbow in close to his body to protect his side from the onslaught that he knew was coming. “BODY, RAY, BODY!” screamed a voice from Leonard’s corner. “BODY!” In the ninth round, Hearns reverted to becoming the boxer he was as an amateur, when he won almost 170 fights but knocked out only 11 opponents. Leonard’s problem was that every time he stepped within range, he got popped by a jab and then his target moved away. And so it went from the ninth round through the 12th. Hearns moved and boxed. Leonard pursued and stalked, though rather ineffectively. After a listless 11th and even slower 12th round, Leonard returned to his
One cannot overstate how crucial Angelo Dundee was in Leonard’s corner.
corner and was admonished by trainer Angelo Dundee. “You’re blowing it son! You’re blowing it!” The fact is, both were exhausted from the pace of the fight and from the brutal heat. Leonard came out for Round 13 invigorated by Dundee’s urgency. Working in close, Leonard leaned on Hearns, who toppled backward. Then, in an effort to stay up, his legs entwined with Leonard’s and he went down. He was up right away, but Leonard produced the most brutal attack of the fight. The Hitman was hit. Again and again. Hearns backed to the ropes. Then, with Leonard still in pursuit and still throwing, Hearns folded up in the middle and began to slide through the ropes. He was as much outside the ropes as he was inside them. Referee Davey Pearl then
round of the fight. So did the 23,618 fans in attendance and the millions watching on worldwide closed-circuit. Leonard doubled his hook to the body and head, following with crisp rights upstairs. Yet Hearns remained upright. Leonard punched in volleys, then motioned to Pearl to stop the fight. When the ref did not end it, Leonard hammered away at Hearns some more. At that point, at 1:45 of the round, Pearl stepped in and pushed Leonard off of Hearns. The victory was further proof of Leonard’s right to be called “Sugar Ray.” He had certainly earned the name. In defeat, Hearns’ stock also rose. We all knew going into “The Showdown” that it was going to be a terrific fight. None of us dreamed, however, that it was going to be an all-time classic.
told Hearns to “get up.” Dundee was enraged. He had felt Hearns exiting the ring was because of punches. He jumped up on the ring apron screaming, “Bullshit!” Pearl was quick and adamant in telling Dundee to get down from the ring apron. Leonard pounced back on Hearns. Another flurry put him down. This time, Pearl ruled it a knockdown. Somehow, a weary Hearns managed to rise at the count of nine, just as the bell sounded. As tired and battered as Leonard was, one glance across the ring let him know that Hearns was in worse shape. Far worse shape. Leonard knew this would be the last
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