The Stage Is Set for Hagler-Hearns Showdown

Eugene “Cyclone” Hart, a tall, powerful Philadelphia middleweight with a devastating left hook, waited until the bell had sounded ending the sixth round. Marvin Hagler dropped his hands and Cyclone unloaded.

The punch came from the suburbs, a whistling left hook that caught Hagler flush on the jaw and snapped his head back violently. Cyclone Hart stepped back, waiting for Hagler to topple.

Hagler spit at him. Then he sneered and walked back to his corner.

Nine years later, Hagler’s co-managers, Pat and Goody Petronelli, still remember the moment.

“That left hook came from the floor,” Pat recalled. “It almost took Marvin’s head off. It snapped his neck so hard. I was really worried.

“I think it hurt him for one second. Maybe.”

Goody said Hagler wasn’t hurt even for a second.

“It was unbelievable how hard Hart hit him,” he said. “It was unbelievable. Marvin didn’t even blink. I was looking right at his face when he got hit, and he didn’t even blink. He sat down and smiled at us.

“I told him, ‘Marvin keep your hands up all the time.’ He told me, ‘No (bleep).”’

Anyone looking for a hint as to the outcome of Monday night’s showdown for the undisputed middleweight championship between Hagler, the champion, and World Boxing Council super welterweight champion Thomas Hearns, might not have to look past “Cyclone” Hart.

“I don’t think there’s a big secret to this fight,” Hagler said. “I’ve been hit by just about everyone I’ve fought. I know I’m gonna have to take a few punches from Hearns.

“But people forget that Thomas Hearns is going to have to take a few punches from me, too. Then we’ll find out who the big man is in there.”

The scheduled 12-round bout shapes up as one of the biggest in several years, a fight that could rival thee great Sugar Ray Leonard-Roberto Duran bouts in the early ‘80s.

It has attracted more than 600 writers from 25 nations including such boxing hot spots as Lebanon, Austria and Yugoslavia. It drew a feature article from Business Week magazine and among those covering the bout will be a reporter from the Wall Street Journal.

This is not Pinklon Thomas versus Terrible Tim Witherspoon.

It is one of few fights in recent history that needed no hype, no crazed promotions. That it received both -- including a wild 25-city tour of America with Hagler and Hearns insulting each other with the same lines in each city -- says more about modern public relations than it does about the fight.

The bout is, very simply, a matchup between two of the very best fighters of this era, two fighters with a combined record of 100-3-2.

The 30-year-old Hagler, 5-foot-9 with a shaved head, is a smart, powerful boxer and puncher. His soft, gentle eyes betray a rare fierceness even among boxers. He is 60-2-2 and has knocked out 50 of his opponents. He knocked out a 51st last week at his Palm Springs training camp during a “light” sparring session.

Hagler has dominated the middleweight division since Sept. 27, 1980, when he pounded Alan Minter into a bloody pulp in London to capture the undisputed championship. He has defended the crown 10 times, ending nine of those fights by knockout.

The 26-year-old Hearns, 6-foot-1, may be even more of a devastating puncher than Hagler. He has piled up a 40-1 record with 34 knockouts fighting mostly as a welterweight. His lone loss came against Sugar Ray Leonard when he was stopped in the 14th round after leading on all three judges’ scorecards after 13 rounds.

Hearns is a slick, precise boxer, but he dominates with a wrecking ball of a right hand. It is considered to be perhaps the hardest punch ever possessed by a welterweight.

Aye, Hagler would tell you. There’s the rub. Hearns has yet to unload a fight-ending right hand on a middleweight.

The difference between a 147-pound fighter and a 160-pounder can be enormous. Hearns has had trouble against one full-fledged middleweight, Murray Sutherland, and Hagler said he’ll have much more trouble against him.

“Now he’s facing the king of the middleweights,” Hagler said.

“That right hand was a game-ender in the welterweight class,” Goody Petronelli said. “But not in the middleweight class. He was a freak as a welterweight, but he’s no freak against 160-pounders.”

Comparing the results against their lone common opponent--Duran--could be misleading.

Against Hagler in November of 1983, Duran was at his meanest and nastiest. He swore at Hagler in every round, laughed at him and fought one of the best fights of his life. Hagler won a close 15-round decision.

Seven months later, Hearns ended Duran’s career with a brutal second-round knockout. But the Duran in that fight was a different Duran than the one Hagler fought. This Duran stepped into the ring and sat on his stool, still and unemotional, for nearly 10 minutes. When the fight started, he threw virtually no punches, leaned against he ropes and let Hearns unload.

Hearns, however, appears to have two ways to win the fight. He could outbox Hagler for 12 rounds, piling up points with a steaming jab and then running, or he could prove that any jaw, even Hagler’s is vulnerable to a mule-kick right.

“I will knock him out in three rounds,” the bold Hearns has predicted. “He will not be able to handle my power.”

Hagler will probably have to stop Hearns to win the fight. His brawling style has brought him trouble from the judges in other close fights, especially in Las Vegas.

The bout will be held in an outdoor arena at Caesars Palace with each fighter guaranteed about $5 million.

The money, however, becomes secondary when the bell rings sending the two closely matched fighters into combat.

Former champion Jake “Raging Bull” LaMotta said the fight may be decided by the mind rather than fists.

“One of them might get real nervous when they get into the ring together, he said. “If that happens the fight is over. One of them just might get scared scared of getting knocked out.”