He’s Been Waiting for 8 Years : Hearns Gets Chance to Avenge ’81 Loss to Leonard Tonight

No more silly stuff. No more phony stare-downs. No more sound bites. No more hype. No more tasteless comparisons of the Normandy Invasion to a prize fight. No more Bob Arum news conferences.

Tonight, finally, Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns will glove up for an exercise in nostalgia that should gross something between $60 million and $80 million.

It’s a rematch that should have occurred in 1982 or 1983. These two fought here in 1981 when Leonard, rallying from almost certain defeat, stopped Hearns in the 14th round. It’s still called one of the two or three most exciting fights of the 1980s.

That night, both men were welterweights. Leonard was 25, Hearns 22. Leonard was a 7-5 favorite. Leonard, in a fight that grossed $50 million, made roughly $10 million and Hearns earned $5 million.

Tonight, both are super-middleweights and are expected to weigh slightly more than 160 pounds. Leonard is 33, Hearns 30. Leonard is a 3-1 favorite. The guarantees this time are $13 million for Leonard, $11 million for Hearns.

Leonard-Hearns II doesn’t figure to match the intensity of Leonard-Hearns I. But it doesn’t seem to matter to the pay-per-view public, which is buying up this one at a record pace, according to exhibitors.

In his last three fights, Hearns (46-3) seems to have slipped markedly. He was in desperate trouble with Juan Domingo Roldan in October, 1987, before knocking him out; was knocked out by underdog Iran Barkely a year ago, and struggled to earn a close decision over James Kinchen last November.

Leonard (35-1), who has fought three times since 1982, sat out 35 months before coming back to upset Marvelous Marvin Hagler in April, 1987. And last November, Leonard knocked out Donnie La Londe. Since winning a gold medal at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, Leonard has lost only once, to Roberto Duran in 1980, then beat him in the rematch.

And if Leonard wins tonight, his next opponent probably will be Duran. Meanwhile, it is rumored that Hagler, who retired after his loss to Leonard, is here for tonight’s fight and might be ready to take on Leonard again.

Hagler said Sunday that he wants to remain retired but that $20 million could change his mind.

“My heart still wants me to fight,” said Hagler, 37. “But I really don’t think I’ll fight again. I’d like to show young fighters that you can walk away from boxing.”

Where does all this leave Michael Nunn, the undefeated International Boxing Federation champion from North Hollywood? Nowhere. Nunn is 26, too young for this group. Hope is fading for Leonard-Nunn, the fight most insiders want to see.

“It’s starting to look like Leonard will be in his late 30s by the time he fights all the other old guys again,” said Dan Goossen, Nunn’s manager.

“A Leonard fight would be a nice goal for Michael, but we’ve never pinned his whole career on that,” Goossen said.

No, but Hearns has decided to do exactly that tonight.

Hearns’ camp has indicated that a second loss to Leonard would be Hearns’ final appearance. Unless someone goes for Hearns-Cuevas II. In fact, some of Hearns’ people wanted him to retire after the Barkley and Kinchen fights.

Hearns calls Leonard “The little monster who follows me around.” His other two career defeats, to Hagler and Barkley, he says, never hurt him like the loss to Leonard did.

“I fought my heart out against Hagler and he beat me,” Hearns said. “I wasn’t prepared properly for Barkley and he caught me with one punch. I can live with those two. But Leonard . . . I can’t live with Leonard. To have had the fight won like I did, and then to let it get away from me like it did. . . . “

Hearns, it seems, is followed by a curse as well as by the monster represented by Leonard.

In one of four homes Hearns owns in the Detroit area, this one in Southfield, Mich., a shooting occurred Saturday night. A woman was killed and one of those held by police was Hearns’ youngest brother, Henry Hearns. Police said an arraignment would be held this morning.

This is the third Hearns fight to be preceded by an unnerving event involving his family.

In 1980, the night before he fought Eddie Gazo in Detroit, his father died of a heart attack.

In 1988, several weeks before he fought Barkley, Kimberly Craig, his former girl friend and the mother of his daughter, was shot and wounded as she sat in a car on a Detroit street.

And now, again. And again, on with the show. Hearns’ brother John and his sister Mary left Las Vegas for Detroit on Sunday. Promoter Bob Arum said that Hearns told him late Saturday night: “I’ve been waiting eight years to knock this guy out. This is not going to affect me.”

At Thursday’s news conference, Hearns, possibly irritated by remarks by Leonard moments earlier, tried to get under Leonard’s skin.

Speaking before a thousand people, Leonard needled Hearns about changes in his training program.

“What intrigues me about Tommy is that he’s changing his training procedures at this late date,” Leonard said.

“I believe if something isn’t broke, don’t change it. Me, I still run 3 to 5 miles every morning, I hit the speed bag and the big bag, I jump rope and I spar. Now I hear Tommy’s doing all this futuristic stuff, like riding his stationary bicycle.

“So something must be wrong, right? I also hear Tommy’s going to use one of those anti-trauma mouthpieces.”

At that, Leonard turned toward Hearns and, smiling, said: “Tommy, Donnie La Londe used one of those, too.”

Hearns’ turn at the microphone:

“Ray, it’s true, I’ve been working on my legs. And you’ve been working on your body, right, Ray? You been taking steroids? I’m bringing a pin Monday night and I’m gonna let all that air out. Ray, you’re blown up bigger than me.” Laughs all around.

The next morning, when Hearns saw that some reporters had treated the remark seriously, he continued with the theme.

“I would never have made the statement if (I thought) it wasn’t true. . . . I don’t know much about it, but I do know he bulked up real quickly. On the (promotional) tour, he was a whole lot smaller than I was, now he’s bigger than me, and I ain’t taking reducing pills.”

Mike Trainer, Leonard’s lawyer/manager, laughed at the remark Thursday, but seemed angry when Hearns was still expanding upon it Friday.

“We accepted it for what it was at the time, a funny remark,” he said. “But now there’s a negative side, that a silly remark is now seen by part of the public as a serious remark.”

There is rumored to be a written agreement stipulating that Hearns will be paid $500,000 less for each pound heavier he is than Leonard at today’s weigh-in. Officially, the fight contract calls only for both boxers to weigh 168 or less. The unofficial agreement, it has been reported, calls for Hearns to weigh 164 or less or pay for any excess.

Part of boxing’s future is on tonight’s undercard. U.S. Olympic medalists Ray Mercer (heavyweight), Andrew Maynard (light-heavyweight), Kennedy McKinney (featherweight) and Michael Carbajal (flyweight) all will box in six-rounders.