On April 25, 1981, Thomas Hearns took on Randy Shields, an experienced veteran on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. What I remember most about that broadcast, was how critical and annoying Howard Cosell could be. Thomas didn’t run right over Shields, and didn’t stop him until the twelfth round. I saw it as a good learning experience for Hearns, in his preparation for the proposed fall fight against Sugar Ray Leonard.
His next bout was on June 25, 1981 at the Houston Astrodome. His opponent was Pablo Baez, on a closed circuit show featuring the top welterweights, including Pipino Cuevas and Sugar Ray Leonard.
I went to see this one at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, paid $25 for my seat, and was able to go right on the way home from my airline training class outside of Philadelphia. Thomas didn’t disappoint, hurt Baez with a punch to the throat, and finished him in the fourth.
Sugar Ray Leonard moved up in weight class to 154 lbs. for his bout, with the WBA champ Ayub Kalule. The tough southpaw was awkward, but Leonard didn’t box, sat down on his punches, and was the aggressor throughout. Ray proved to be the superior boxer, and stopped Kalule in the eighth, becoming the new junior middleweight champ.
This set up the ‘Showdown’, the name pinned on the Thomas Hearns vs. Ray Leonard fight on September 16, 1981, at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. I looked forward to this one all summer, and as September approached, I counted the days until I drove to Atlantic City to see it at Convention Hall on the big screen.
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