Hearns Happy to Have Second Chance He Thought Might Never Come

On Monday night, one of two things is going to happen to the little monster that Thomas Hearns says has been following him around since 1981:

--Hearns will make the little monster disappear.

--The monster will become even more monstrous, and follow Hearns for all of his days.

Hearns suffered a painful defeat to Sugar Ray Leonard here in 1981, and for more than seven years it has been eating away at him.

“The little monster that follows me around,” he calls it.

His publicist and friend, Irving Rudd, described a conversation he had with Hearns one night in 1986, when it was beginning to look as if Hearns would never get his rematch with Leonard.

“He said to me one night, when he opened up and talked about Ray, ‘Irving, I see his face in front of me, all the time. I can be on a date with a pretty girl and . . . bam, there’s his face, right in front of me.’ ”

Hearns has also told friends that he has had a recurring dream since 1981, of knocking out Leonard in the fourth round of a rematch.

Hearns freely admits he hasn’t stopped thinking of redemption since the Leonard fight. But at times, with reporters, he has grown weary of talking about him. At every single major fight he has had since 1981--he has fought 16 times since Leonard stopped him in September of 1981--someone has asked at least one Leonard question:

“Tommy, have you just about given up hope of ever getting Ray again?”

“Tommy, how often do you think about Ray?”

“Tommy, how bad does it hurt that Ray won’t give you a rematch?”

It hurt plenty, and he’s probably talked as much about it this week as he has at any time since Leonard stopped him in 14 rounds in 1981.

“It was the way he beat me, plus the fact I was unbeaten (32-0) at the time,” he said.

“I was way ahead on points and I made the mistake of relaxing in the late rounds. I was so close, and then to have it get away from me . . . This time, it won’t get away from me. I’m going to do something about that little monster on June 12.”

Madame Cleo, though, doesn’t see it that way.

Madame Cleo is a Detroit astrologer. One of her clients is Hearns’ manager-trainer, Emanuel Steward.

Steward visited Madame Cleo several weeks ago, he said, and later wished he hadn’t. Madame Cleo predicted Hearns’ defeats by Leonard and Marvin Hagler, in 1985. This time, she told Steward, Leonard’s stars “are even higher than the last time.”

In the past year and a half, Hearns had good reason to believe he would never be given the opportunity to avenge his loss to Leonard. He is 30 now--Leonard is 33--and in October, 1987, he began to show signs of having passed his peak as a world-class fighter.

Against Juan Domingo Roldan, Hearns was in desperate trouble twice before he knocked out Roldan in the fourth round. Then, a year ago this week, he looked as if he had reached the end when he was knocked out by Iran Barkley, a 4-1 underdog. Last November, he won a decision over James Kinchen, but was not sharp.

The knockout by Barkley was a shocker. Hearns was battering a badly cut Barkley all over the ring when Barkley connected with a desperation right hand that put Hearns on his back.

Afterward, as always, win or lose, Hearns showed up for the news conference and was asked the inevitable question.

“Retire? I’m going home, give it a lot of thought and enjoy my summer,” he said.

Even in defeat, Hearns is a class act, as he was after Barkley had humiliated him.

“An awful lot of people would like to be where I am right now,” he said. “I’ve had a beautiful career. I feel like a guy who’s lost a battle, but I also feel like I’ve won the war.”

Even before Barkley, Hearns had just about abandoned all hope, and was allowing the old wound to scar over.

“It’s time to get on with my life,” he said. “If I don’t get Leonard or Hagler again . . . yeah, it’ll be a monkey on my back. It’ll always bother me. But I’ll still be happy with my career.”

Rudd remembers another defeat, another crusher, and a class postfight show by Hearns.

Hearns, 46-3, was the loser in two fights rated by many as the most exciting major fights of the 1980s, the 1981 Leonard fight and the Hagler firestorm of 1985. In that one, Hearns and Hagler fought with breathtaking intensity for slightly short of three rounds. When it ended, Hearns was unconscious.

Rudd, recalling that night this week, said he walked into Hearns’ dressing room/trailer, as more than 1,000 media representatives waited at the interview area.

“It was awful,” Rudd said. “I felt like such an intruder on the man’s privacy.

“Tommy had his head in his hands, Manny was staring at the floor, and Tommy’s mother sat in a corner, crying. I kneeled down and whispered to Tommy: ‘Look, if I tell the news guys you’re just not up to it, every one of them will understand, Tommy.’

“Tommy looked up at me, and said: ‘Irving, there’s good times and there’s bad times. You gotta take the bad with the good. Let’s go.’ ”

A couple of years later, the Leonard loss still hurt more than the knockout by Hagler.

“I fought my heart out against Hagler and I lost,” he said. “Barkley caught me with a great punch I didn’t see. I can live with both of those. But I can’t live with Leonard.”