The rumors turned into reality when Thomas Hearns vs. Sugar Ray Leonard 2 was announced for June 12, 1989 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. As for me personally, I would be rooting hard for Tommy time, the opposite of their first meeting in 1981, when I pulled for Ray.
I was able to go to a great venue to see the closed circuit broadcast of this one, at the Pavilion in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, about seven miles from my house. On my drive to the fight that Monday night in June, it seemed like another lifetime when they met the first time in September of 1981.
This time the bout would be in the super middleweight division at 168 lbs. Leonard weighed in at 160 lbs., while Tommy tipped the scales at 162 1/2 lbs. Leonard had persuaded Tommy to come in at a catchweight, or pay him a penalty of $500,000 a pound above 164 lbs. I thought it was pathetic how they let Leonard dictate the rules, and it was why I didn’t like him anymore. It had started after his gloating after beating Hagler, and when he fought Donny LaLonde in November of 1988, I was hoping that he’d get knocked out!
The ‘War’ as the rematch had been named, starting out as expected, with both men feeling each other out. Punches started to land, and in the third, Thomas dropped Leonard, and I leapt to my feel with excitement. Ray came back to hurt Hearns in the fifth, but I thought for the most part, Tommy was controlling the action. In the eleventh, he knocked Leonard down again, with a thudding combination, that caused him to fall in a bizarre way. Whatever the case, this sealed the victory in my book, and I couldn’t be happier.
Both men fought well in an even final round, but there was not doubt at the final bell who the winner was. When he judges called it a draw, I was livid. Another lousy decision, in a sport where fighters get screwed more than anyone in any other sport. I went home in a rage, and wondered how in the world they could have called that fight a draw. Gil Clancy agreed me that night as one of the commentators, which justified my feelings. What could I do, but deal with it wait for the next big fight.
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