McGuigan Loses Title; Hearns Stops Medal : Eighth-Round TKO Wins It for One-Handed Hit Man

Even Thomas Hearns, whose name provided Monday night’s Triple-Hitter fight card with most of its cachet, admitted this was all interim action, a show that was really a marketing tool, building up a mega-bucks promotion on down the road. Not that so many people took the fights seriously. But you’d have thought Hearns would have.

Yet there he was, having proved in the first round that he could rework Mark Medal’s face like putty, gearing himself for his next fight. After that first round, in which he floored the former International Boxing Federation super welterweight champion, Hearns uncocked his potent right hand, thinking of Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s bald dome.

“It was a big mistake,” Hearns admitted, after he won a loudly booed eight-round TKO against Medal. The World Boxing Council super-welterweight champion, making his first defense of that title in nearly two years, said: “It was funny. My mind shifted gears during the fight, from Mark Medal to Marvin Hagler. A big mistake on my part.”

While Hearns was musing on the ultimate rematch, which will surely reward him with the $6 million he got for that first fight, Medal was managing to survive in the ring, even bounce a few punches of his own off the hooded one.

The end finally came in the eighth when referee Davey Pearl of Los Angeles summoned Dr. Flip Homanski into the ring to examine Medal’s left eye, which was closed. Homanski then told Pearl to stop the fight at 2:20 of the eighth round.

Hearns, who said he was badly hurt and baffled by the booing, nevertheless admitted that he was holding his right hand back, saving it for Hagler. “I hurt my hand a little bit in the second round,” he said. “I felt a pressure from my finger to my shoulder. It’s not broken, but it hurt. Anyway, I knew I could hit Mark when I wanted so I saved it, if I’d need it later.”

Like later when? “I had Marvin on my mind,” he admitted.

Hagler, the middleweight champion who has already turned everybody back a first time, was the theme to this three-fight card at Caesars Palace. Hearns, who had already scored a one-round knockout immediately after Hagler had destroyed him, is angling for a rematch. He needed to look good every time so the public will want to pay big money to see that fight.

Whether Monday night’s performance before 10,200 people qualifies him for a rematch appears to be up to Hagler to decide. Hagler already has one payday on the table; Sugar Ray Leonard, who retired with eye problems just short of a fight with Hagler, now wants to come back. Hagler must decide between Hearns and Leonard.

Leonard surely means more dollars for Hagler and was expected to be the choice. Hagler was expected to choose him this morning, in fact, at a press conference. But just as Hearns disappointed the crowd, so did Hagler disappoint Hearns. He didn’t show up, either.

Hagler stayed home in Brockton, Mass., with the flu. He’ll announce his decision later in the week from Boston.

Meanwhile Hearns must defend his performance, in which he outclassed but only barely outworked the No. 7 WBC challenger. After nearly destroying Medal in the first round with his giant right hand, he decided to peck away, to box him. It worked as he puffed Medal’s right eye to cantaloupe size. But even with the right eye closed, Hearns refused to bring his own right hand out. Certainly there was no way Medal could have seen it coming. But, then, it wasn’t coming.

“You people don’t know how it feels to be booed,” he complained afterward. “It’s a helluva feeling.” He went on to extol Medal, who certainly was game enough if not quite able.

“Let me tell you about this man,” Hearns said. “I gave it all I had, he has a hard head. He chewed up and spit everything I gave him. Nothing I could do but box.”

Medal agreed, if nobody else. “He was magnificent,” said Medal, sounding not only like a man lucky to be in a ring with Hearns but one lucky enough to get out. “And I have no doubt he’ll be a great middleweight champion.”

“Whenever he fights him.”

And so on to the next super-card. Pray that Hagler is in this one.