sugar ray leonard vs thomas hearns 1 full fight

 

Skip to main content Shop by category Shop by category Enter … Leonard almost knocked Hearns out of the ring in round thirteen. And with that, Leonard sprang from his stool to start round thirteen, no longer tentative, but taking the fight to Hearns with urgency and eventually landing a crunching right hand over Tommy’s low left. But that’s when Hearns found another gear and his legs returned, rendering Leonard ineffective at the end of his jab. It was the classic confrontation: boxer vs puncher. Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns Signed Boxing Glove PSA COA. These rounds were an agonizing exercise in suspense as the fighters, feinting and jousting and probing for openings, tested each other, the crowd waiting to see what would happen when the stalking “Hitman” finally landed his cannon-like straight right. And now it was time for the trainers of these two champions to play their parts in this unlikely drama. Marvin Hagler, right, battles Thomas Hearns in a 1985 middleweight title fight. For the rest of that round a stunned Hearns was battered with power shots, Ray landing vicious hooks to both head and body. “When I didn’t hear anybody shouting at me from Hearns’ corner,” said Pearl, “I knew I had done the right thing.”, In terms of twists and turns, it was a drama worthy of Sophocles, and the excitement and action demanded a rematch. Instead of Leonard moving and staying one step ahead of the dangerous puncher, it was Hearns. If round six was a bad dream for Hearns, the seventh was a nightmare. Leonard filled the former category, his fast feet and faster hands thwarting even the toughest fighters, as all saw in his rematch with the dangerous Duran. When Leonard and Hearns fought for the first time, it was to unify titles at welterweight. Promoted as "The Showdown" Leonard (30-1 with 21 KO) fought Hearns (32-0 with 30 KO) on September 16, 1981 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, NV to unify the world welterweight championship in a scheduled fifteen-rounder. Although to be fair, there were rounds for Hearns that could have been scored 10-8 as well that were not. Now it was time for Angelo Dundee’s pivotal scene and yet another turning point in this dramatic struggle. Sugar Ray, the Olympic gold medalist, enjoyed celebrity status, his dazzling smile selling cars and soda pop. A round-by-round breakdown of the controversial 1989 rematch between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns. Sugar Ray Leonard recalls his fight of the year against Thomas Hearns in 1981 and calls it his most important bout. By the tenth, Tommy’s strength and confidence had fully returned and in the eleventh he took control, dictating the terms behind that long, snapping jab and finding openings for the right. Twelve years after he chose professional boxing for a career, it has become clear why Thomas Hearns’ opponent Monday night took the name Sugar Ray Leonard.Not only has Leonard … Leonard, becoming more aggressive, hurt Hearns in the sixth with a left hook to the chin. “You’ve got to be the boxer now,” said Steward. Eight years after their epic World Welterweight showdown, “Sugar Ray” Leonard and Thomas “Hitman” Hearns did battle, again in Las Vegas, and this time controversy, not a Leonard rally, robbed Hearns of his revenge. Near the end of the round a right lead followed by a sharp left jolted Leonard, punctuating a round which signaled another plot twist in this unpredictable drama. Hearns was Between rounds twelve and thirteen, Leonard's trainer, the legendary Angelo Dundee, said the now legendary words "You're blowing it now, son! Hearns won rounds nine through twelve on all three scorecards. But now Sugar Ray had fallen victim to the puncher’s common mistake, looking for the one big shot instead of working the opponent and letting the knockout come naturally. Al Bernstein remembers Leonard vs Hearns II - Boxing Social The surprising fact borne out by this complete reversal was that Leonard’s power, often underrated, proved just as deadly as The Hit Man’s. Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns. An overhand right almost put Tommy down and the crowd in Caesars Palace went berserk as Leonard chased and pounded his hurt opponent from corner to corner. While the highly experienced Angelo Dundee anchored Leonard’s corner, Hearns’ trainer and manager, Emanuel Steward, was a relative newcomer on the big-time boxing scene. He made three successful title defenses, stopping Luis Primera, Randy Shields, and Pablo Baez. Leonard battered Hearns in rounds six and seven, but Hearns miraculously regrouped. … We need fire and you’re not firing! Wally McNamee/Getty Images "What the fans got to understand is: It was hot as hell in that ring," said Leonard, pointing out that this event was staged outdoors in the searing desert heat of Vegas, with temperatures that climbed into the mid-90s. It was promoted as "The War". Sugar Ray was landing shots at will and beckoning to referee Davy Pearl, who finally did step in to raise Leonard’s hand. Hearns was more stoic, soft-spoken, exuding an air of mystery and menace. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sugar_Ray_Leonard_vs._Thomas_Hearns&oldid=1015152178, Boxing matches involving Sugar Ray Leonard, September 1981 sports events in the United States, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 30 March 2021, at 22:03. He was. In the twelfth the crowd was chanting “Tommy! Ray never beckoned for the referee to stop the fight.. A metropolis where hundreds of young warriors train and battle each day in its many gyms, it is where Archie Moore, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Bernard Hopkins all found greatness. Sugar Ray Leonard: 34-1 with 24 KOs; WBC Super Middleweight champion Thomas Hearns: 46-3 with 39 KOs; WBO Super Middleweight champion Duan: A little bit of history here as the Fabulous Four steps into a new division. A rugged looking, abusive Panamanian who verbally abused Leonard's then-wife Juania during the build-up of the super-fight by promising to kill her husband. “Boxing is the sport to which all other sports aspire.” Two factors no one anticipated defined the match: not Hearns’ punching power, but Leonard’s; not Leonard’s technical boxing ability, but Hearns’. He eradicated that defeated less than 10 months earlier with perhaps the finest outing of his career, shutting out and stopping Duran in the eighth round of their title bout which is known as the “No Mas” fight. An astonishing, rapid-fire flurry of twenty-five unanswered punches had Hearns dazed and staggering. Though not in ways fight fans could have expected. You’re blowing it … Ray, you’ve got to be quicker! Shipped with USPS Priority Mail. Speed!”, Dundee (left) exhorted Leonard to bring the “fire.”. And then we had Duran. Stick and move.”. Montreal is The Fight City. With one judge scoring the fight 113-112 for Leonard, another judge scoring it 113-112 in favor of Hearns and the third scoring it even at 112–112. The Classic bout between Sugar Ray Leonard V Thomas Hearns.Leonard Snatches Victory from the jaws of defeat with a dramatic late Stoppage! “Eight years of pain, with a little monster following me around,” was how “The Hit Man” described the time between Leonard vs Hearns I and Leonard vs Hearns II. Hearns had his rival on the floor twice in the fight, but Leonard had his moments also. Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns feature in fight one of a BBC Sounds look back at some of boxing's greatest fights. Thomas Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard mix it up during their welterweight championship fight at Caesars Palace on September 16, 1981. Sugar Ray Leonard won the WBC welterweight title with a fifteenth-round knockout of Wilfred Benítez in 1979. Sugar Ray Leonard won the WBC welterweight title with a fifteenth-round knockout of Wilfred Benítez in 1979. You had two of the best, if not the best, fighters on the planet with the winner to be regarded as the best in all of boxing.best, fighters on the planet with … Many felt that the ten-point must scoring system was not properly used and those rounds should have been scored 10-8. Thanks only to Tommy’s fighting heart, the knockout didn’t happen. Instead, Sugar Ray just kept coming, throwing heavy shots to the body to set up a beautiful uppercut-left hook combination that had Hearns reeling about the ring again. An Olympic champion, nicknamed "Sugar" - the same alias as Ray Robinson - with a gleaming smile and resounding presence of superstardom, Leonard was the posterboy of boxing. The first five rounds were razor close but belonged to “The Motor City Cobra,” his 6’1″ height and 78″ reach enabling him to land his jab and control the tempo. Leonard, with a badly swollen left eye, came out roaring for the thirteenth round. Billed as “The Showdown,” Leonard vs Hearns was finally set and few fights in boxing history aroused such anticipation. The rematch, billed as "The War", would happen eight years later June 12, 1989. Nothing happened. The next three rounds were a strange sight to anyone even barely familiar with the natural styles of the two fighters. Thomas Hearns (born October 18, 1958) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 2006. Since the previous fall, when both men won huge fights – Hearns knocking out the dangerous Pipino Cuevas; Leonard forcing the great Roberto Duran to quit — this was the biggest match boxing could offer, the contest the whole world wanted to see. Hearns was the knockout artist, the fearsome puncher they called “The Hitman.” He boasted a thunderous right hand and 30 knockouts in 32 wins. Leonard had difficulty with Hearns' long reach and sharp jab. Best Boxing Matches Best Boxing Matches Ever Please don't forget to Like Video :) Thanks For Watching And to everyone’s delight, the dramatic battle lived up to the hype. Hagler vs Leonard . In round fourteen that same courage kept Hearns on his feet though in fact he had nothing left. You're blowing it!". In June 1981, Leonard moved up to the light-middleweight division for one fight, knocking out Ayub Kalule in nine rounds to win the WBA light-middleweight title. — Michael Carbert. Tommy!” as Hearns pursued, while Leonard, his left eye badly swollen, appeared tentative, confused, his face bearing the wide-eyed look of a lost man scrutinizing a bus schedule. Even though Leonard dominated, hurting Hearns and battering him, all three judges gave both rounds to Leonard by a 10-9 margin. Sugar Ray Leonard vs Thomas Hearns II from Prize Fight Kings 7 years ago After almost eight years, the Leonard-Hearns rematch finally happened. When I saw that, I always thought he was taunting Hearns, but I saw an interview later where he stated that he was signaling to the ref to stop it because Hearns had enough. Hearns was leading by scores of 124-122, 125-122, and 125-121. [1] While the 10-point must system is now regarded as the international standard for scoring combat sports, at the time the Nevada Athletic Commission had only recently adopted it for all fights it sanctioned. For the first time since the seventh, Hearns’ legs buckled and Sugar Ray didn’t let “The Hitman” off the hook. After hurting Hearns with a right, Leonard exploded with a combination of punches and sent Hearns through the ropes. Hearns won the WBA welterweight title in 1980, scoring a second-round knockout of Jose 'Pipino' Cuevas in Detroit, Michigan. In the summer of 1981, only two boxers mattered in America: WBA welterweight champion Thomas Hearns, and WBC welterweight champion Sugar Ray Leonard. It is a city of fights and fighters, of hockey and heroes, of broken dreams and immortal glory, a city unlike any other. The backgrounds and personalities of the two champions contrasted sharply as well. Montreal is The Fight City. Ray Leonard fought Duran twice, fought Hearns — there seemed to be enough guys out there to fight. After the fight, there was controversy due to the scoring of rounds six and seven. Leonard vs Hearns II wasn’t about Sugar Ray adding to his legacy by blasting a shot fighter out of the ring; it was about Hearns getting the revenge for which he had waited so long. Marvelous Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns (originally billed as "The Fight", referred to afterward as "The War"), was a world middleweight championship boxing match between undisputed champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler and challenger Thomas Hearns, the world junior middleweight champion, who had gone up in weight for the bout. Check 55:18 onward from the YouTube video; he keeps waving his right glove at the ref (he doesn’t take his eyes off Hearns) before unloading on him. Leonard : I was at 147 pounds, and I didn’t have a problem making weight. But in round six it was Sugar Ray who struck first, connecting on Tommy’s chin with a wicked counter left hand, and the legs of “The Hitman” buckled. Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns, billed as "The Showdown", was a professional boxing match contested on September 16, 1981 for the WBA, WBC, The Ring and lineal welterweight titles. Hearns managed to rise, but was dropped again near the end of the round. No one questioned the stoppage. On the night of September 16, 1981, the biggest and most anticipated welterweight championship bout in boxing history was contested. You’ve gotta take it away from him! The Sugar Ray Leonard vs Thomas Hearns fight in 1981 was significant for so many reasons. Millions crowded into closed-circuit theaters around the world while ringside seats sold for record sums. A native of Detroit, his climb up the ranks, while just as fast and impressive as Leonard’s, was also more blue-collar, unaided by constant television exposure and lucrative endorsement deals. Of Jose 'Pipino ' Cuevas in Detroit, Michigan 12, 1989 s pivotal and. 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