It lives in our minds like it happened yesterday: The fury, the blood, the raw violence, the technical brilliance. It still makes the heart pump a few beats quicker decades later. To fully remember Hagler-Hearns in real time, though, you’d likely need an AARP card at this stage.
Forty years ago today, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns put on a fight so vicious and dramatic, it almost defies belief.
It’s almost universally regarded as one of the greatest fights ever, and its reputation has only grown with time. A younger generation of boxing fans discovered it on YouTube and it’s had a renaissance of sorts.
“It was such an immediate explosion of violence in that first round, that it’s kind of become an urban legend,” said former Associated Press reporter/columnist Tim Dahlberg. “It’s all over YouTube now and it’s taken on a myth of its own. It’s a well-deserved myth, but a myth nonetheless.”
The fight was undeniably great, but it resonates in a way with the public that many other incredible fights do not. The Thrilla in Manila, my pick as the greatest fight ever, gets nowhere near the kind of love that Hagler-Hearns does.
Part of it is because of the condensed action. Hagler-Hearns was three of the most chaotic, fast-paced and violent rounds ever held.
Ali-Frazier III, nearly a decade earlier, was a war of wills stretched over 14 vicious, grueling rounds.
Those who saw and can remember that fight are in their 60s at the earliest now. It is a jaw-dropping battle, but it doesn’t have the cultural impact even despite the fact that Muhammad Ali, arguably the most famous athlete ever, won it.
The compressed action isn’t the only reason why Hagler-Hearns has created such a cultural footprint.
Boxing was massive in the 1980s with stars like Hagler, Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Alexis Arguello, Aaron Pryor, Ray Mancini, Salvador Sanchez, Larry Holmes, Michael Spinks, Evander Holyfield and Julio Cesar Chavez keeping boxing at the center of the sports universe.
Top Rank brilliantly sold Hagler-Hearns. Promoter Bob Arum sent the fighters on a 21-city media tour that generated massive interest. The fight was on income tax day in the U.S., and a TV commercial urged fans to file early so they wouldn’t miss the fight.
Al Bernstein, the International Boxing Hall of Famer, did the commentary for the fight next to the legendary Al Michaels. Curt Gowdy, the notable baseball and football play-by-play man, was the host.
Hagler, Hearns, Leonard and Duran were known collectively as ‘The Four Kings.’ Any fight involving them, Bernstein pointed out, was huge in that era.
Hagler-Hearns, though, has taken on a position of importance in our culture and within the sport’s framework that none of the other fights involving them managed to do.
“Going into it, everyone expected it to be a fantastic bout,” Bernstein said. “You just had these two guys who were so talented and so well-respected, and everyone knew before the fight that it was going to be special. But what happened made it become the fight that set the standard, maybe, for what other huge fights would become.
“They are two of the best ever and that first-round, how do you describe that? It was this insane pitched battle that even the people who had said this would be a fantastic fight couldn’t have imagined.”
Hearns broke his right hand seconds into the fight. And for two frenetic rounds, he stood toe-to-toe with a fire-breathing dragon, trading bombs disguised as punches.
After the first round, Ed Schuyler, the veteran AP Boxing reporter, tapped Dahlberg on the shoulder, his jaw slack.
“Eddie turned to me and said, ‘Can you believe what you just saw?’ ” Dahlberg said. “No. Who could believe it? It was unreal.”
In the third, as Hearns wilted from the pace and the impact of Hagler’s shot, the middleweight champion asserted his will and took command of the fight.
He stopped it in the third and Hearns memorably had to be carried from the ring like a wounded soldier being dragged from the battlefield.
Hagler-Hearns captured the imagination because of that ferocity and because of the skill level of the fighters involved. What Hagler did to Hearns — and vice versa — is far harder to do against a fighter of that caliber than a lesser opponent.The three Gatti-Ward bouts of the early 21st century are iconic, but the skill level of the two fighters was nowhere near that of Hagler and Hearns.
By that point, it was clear Hagler and Hearns weren’t just the best of their era — they were two of the best to step foot into the ring.
Two all-time greats fighting for the middleweight crown at Caesars Palace’s outdoor arena only added to the bout’s legend.
“The Gatti-Ward fights were just great and a lot of fun, no doubt about it,” Bernstein said. “But neither Arturo nor Micky were as talented and gifted as Marvin and Tommy. And as big as their rematches got, the fights never had the importance globally that Marvin versus Tommy did.”Dahlberg and Bernstein both can never forget the frenzy of the crowd watching these two gladiators put on an all-time show.
Dahlberg said the eruption at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas when George Foreman knocked out Michael Moorer in the 10th round was the loudest he ever heard a crowd, but said the scene at Hagler-Hearns is unforgettable.
“It was a great crowd, with lots of celebrities and boxing fans, and there was this feeling something great was going to happen,” Dahlberg said. “The crowd was ready. There was a tension in the air. Everything came together. It was always magical at Caesars in that outdoor stadium, but on this night, it went to another level.
“For all the expectations, the fight for once exceeded the hype. It was eight minutes and one second of incredible action. It was an amazing night.”
Think of that: One of the greatest sporting events ever lasted just 8:01.
It didn’t last long, but then again, it didn’t need to. That’s the beauty of Hagler-Hearns. It said everything it needed to in three unforgettable rounds.