After the retirement of Sugar Ray Leonard in May of 1984, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns were on a collision course to meet after each took care of their mandatory title defenses. In September, Thomas knockout out Fred Hutchings in 3 rounds in Saginaw, Michigan on September 14, 1984. On October 19, Marvin knocked out Mustafo Hamsho in 3 rounds at Madison Square Garden on HBO. Hagler won he rematch with Hamsho much easier than he did their first bout 3 years earlier, setting up the April 15, 1985 fight nicknamed ‘WAR’, at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
Both fighters went on a tour to promote the fight in different cities in January, with Thomas predicting an early knockout of Hagler, like he had done with Duran.
I didn’t believe him for a second, since Marvin had a granite chin and Thomas didn’t. Although I wanted Hearns to win, I knew he was going to lose, but went to see the fight because I knew it would be exciting while it lasted.
To see the closed-circuit card, I drove to the Spectrum in south Philadelphia on Monday, April 15, 1985 and took my seat on the floor of the arena. It was nice to see my favorite all time announcer, Curt Gowdy as the emcee for the evening, and after sitting through the undercard, waited for the opening bell to ring. Hagler rushed right at Hearns from the start, thwarting Tommy’s plan to box from the outside. Both men traded big bombs, and a hard Hearns right nailed Hagler on the way coming in. Marvin shook off the blow and landed his own big shots as both guys fought at a tremendous pace for all 3 minutes. The second round slowed down and by the end of it, you could see Tommy was tiring. In the third, referee Richard Steele called timeout to look at the bad cut on Marvin’s forehead. Undeterred, Hagler charged after Hearns and finished him off with combination, knocking him out.
Hagler had proved he was the best fighter in the world with his performance. Tommy was gracious in defeat, but didn’t have the chin to hang with Hagler, and in my opinion, would have lost 10 times out of 10 to him. Marvin started to get tv commercials and endorsements off the victory, finally quenching his thirst for recognition that he had been seeking for years.
I went home knowing I had seen a boxing classic, and even though I felt bad for Hearns, knew both men had given the fans everything they had.
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