On This Day: Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns

There have been numerous great fights in the history of boxing like Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling II, Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier I, Micky Ward vs. Arturo Gatti I and Diego Corrales vs Jose Luis Castillo I. However, there is one fight that is truly special for this writer. The night Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas ‘Hitman’ Hearns squared off in the ring for the unified welterweight championship of the world at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, in 1981, was a truly special event: an action-packed legacy-defining fight and one surrounded by greatness.

It was a phenomenal showdown between two young, pound-for-pound greats and two men amongst the best welterweights ever. The fight provided a valuable lesson of what happens when two great fighters meet whilst in their primes. The ebb and flow made it a brilliant fight, one of the best in welterweight history. However, looking beyond the two combatants in the ring made this a special event and a perfect embodiment of boxing royalty.

Sugar Ray Leonard

Starting with the combatants, there was the WBC welterweight champion, Leonard, in the blue corner. Leonard combined elements of the skill and will of Sugar Ray Robinson, arguably the greatest fighter of all time, inside the ring and the charisma of Muhammad Ali outside the ring. Behind that dazzling smile laid a ferocious killer instinct, and Leonard fought the best of his era, including Hearns, Roberto Duran, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Wilfred Benitez, and beat every single one of them. Beating such high-profile hall of famers means Leonard possesses one of the finest resumes in the history of boxing. He became a five division champion from welterweight to light heavyweight.

In Leonard’s corner was legendary trainer Angelo Dundee. As a cornerman, Dundee helped Ali reach the pinnacle of boxing in the 70s and did the same with Leonard in the 80s. Dundee was absolutely pivotal in the key moments of certain fights, which became the makings of both legendary fighters. After the fourth round in then-Cassius Clay’s showdown with the feared Sonny Liston, a burning sensation in his eyes had left Clay frustrated, squinting and telling Dundee to remove his gloves and stop the fight. Dundee refused, made Clay get up, and gave him one simple instruction. RUN! Clay’s vision later cleared, and Liston quit on his stool at the end of the sixth round. This fight started the legend of Muhammad Ali and his path to greatness. If not for Dundee, then Clay would have been the one quitting, and history would have been very different for the man known as ‘The Greatest.’

In this showdown against Hearns, with ‘The Hitman’ rallying after the 12th round and Leonard’s left eye badly swollen with his reputation at stake, Dundee fired Leonard up by famously saying: “You’re blowing it now, son, you’re blowing it. Ray, we need fire; you’re not firing.” Leonard came out in the 13th, fighting with urgency and aware that there was no outboxing Hearns, and to win, he had to stop ‘The Hitman.’ Leonard took the fight to Hearns, then landed a crushing right hand which buckled the knees of Hearns, and Leonard did not let ‘The Hitman’ off the hook. A quick-fire flurry of unanswered punches had Hearns staggered, and he fell through the ropes. Hearns got up, and Leonard pounced on him again, and Hearns was slumped on the ropes, with a referee’s count this time.

Hearns showed courage to make it out the 13th round, but he was on shaky legs in the 14th, and once Ray caught him with a big right hand again, being the great finisher he was and smelling blood in the water, he started ripping inside to the body and head of Hearns. With the ‘Motor City Cobra’ deemed defenseless and unable to clinch and hold, referee Davey Pearl stopped the fight. Hearns had proved to be the better fighter for the first twelve rounds, with his size and jab giving Ray a horrible time, and with Leonard trailing on all three judges’ scorecards and needing a knockout in the final three rounds to get a victory, he pulled it out of the bag. Dundee provided Leonard with the motivation necessary to score this late remarkable knockout that boosted his standing as a boxing legend.

It is no mere coincidence that two of Dundee’s most high-profile fighters are known to have had endless reservoirs of heart in the ring, which helped them to prevail in the most testing of fights. Leonard stated in an interview with the Los Angeles Times: “He (Dundee) activated that nerve, that thing inside you. . . . Ali spoke of that feeling, too, when he said beating Joe Frazier in their third fight was the closest thing to death he’d ever experienced. People can do more than they ever believe they can do.”