Thomas Hearns won his third title in three weight divisions when he knocked out Dennis Andries on March 7, 1987 in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. He had moved up from junior middleweight to win the light heavyweight championship, a remarkable feat in itself and now set his sights on the vacant WBC Middleweight belt 7 months later against rugged Juan Roldan. A victory would make him the first boxer in history to win 4 titles in 4 different weight classes, a tremendous feat.
The week of the fight, I called my brother since we didn’t have cable at our house to see if the fight was on pay-per-view. He told me no and the reason I found out later was because the bout was being shown in a limited number of areas since it didn’t have enough appeal to sell it nationwide. Having to settle on sports reports on the radio and newspaper clippings, I anxiously awaited the results.
When I learned that Tommy had knocked Roldan out in 4 rounds at the Outdoor Arena at the Hilton in Las Vegas, I was thrilled. When I saw the replay on CBS, I realized what an exciting and tough fight it was. Tommy dropped Roldan twice in the opening round and again in the second, but Roldan was still aggressive and dangerous throughout the entire fight. He hurt Hearns badly early in the fourth round, but Tommy recovered and knocked him out cold with a right hand in the same round. The ‘Hit-Man’ was the new middleweight champ and the first 4 division champion in history, helping him to erase the losses to Leonard and Hagler in the public’s eyes. I had developed a new respect for Tommy since his first fight with Ray Leonard on September 16, 1981 and was now what one my favorites. It is still one of my favorite all- time knockouts and remains to me a ‘Boxing Classic’.
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