‘The War’ Produces Stalemate : Leonard Is Decked Twice by Hearns but Gains Draw

Thomas Hearns, teetering and tottering at the finish as he was nearly eight years ago, survived a furious Sugar Ray Leonard finish this time.

He survived, but he didn’t win, as most thought he had. Leonard didn’t win, either.

That’s right, they held a $70-million fight Monday night and called it a draw, because one judge, Dalby Shirley, couldn’t make a decision and called it even. Both Hearns and Leonard fought heroically, almost to complete exhaustion, and the result was no result.

On a hot night in the desert, a full house of 15,336 in the Caesars Palace tennis court stadium booed lustily at the announcement that neither man had won.

They also booed because Hearns, who most thought had won a clear decision in the super-middleweight bout, had been denied the redemption he sought, after waiting nearly eight years. Nearly eight years ago here, Hearns was ahead on points when Leonard stopped him in the 14th round.

On Monday night, Hearns put Leonard on the deck twice, in the 3rd and 11th rounds, stayed on his feet throughout, and when he survived Leonard’s wild charge in the 12th and final round, seemed like the winner.

At the final bell, as he sagged on the ropes from Leonard’s desperate pounding, he stared at Leonard and gave him a bloody, meaningful smile.

“This one’s mine, Ray,” the smile seemed to say.

It seemed that way to nearly everyone, but it wasn’t.

Nevada judge Jerry Roth called it 113-112 for Hearns and Tommy Kaczmarek of New Jersey had it 113-112 for Leonard. Then when the ring announcer wnet public with Shirley’s card, the boos began thundering down from the cheap seats, the $100 seats.

Two Times’ cards had Hearns winning, 114-112, and 113-111.

Leonard (35-1-1), denied victory for only the second time in his 13-year career, seemed on the verge of putting Hearns (46-3-1) away a half-dozen times. Yet Hearns remained atop his suspect legs during every crisis, and had Leonard in great difficulty several times, too.

Leonard effusively praised Herarns after the exciting, concussive show.

“I think what you must understand is the fact that all of a sudden Tommy Hearns is a greater fighter than was expected,” Leonard said. “The legs were there . . . his chin was there. All the attributes you (the media) said were not there, I think you should apologize to Tommy. He fought a courageous fight.

“I hurt Tommy Hearns a number of times and he hung in there. He’s a tough cookie.”

Leonard, 33, started more slowly than Hearns, 30, and seemed to concede the first four rounds to Hearns,30.

Hearns surprised many by not answering the first bell with bombs. Performances in his last three bouts indicated that Hearns’ legs weren’t capable of carrying him the distance in a tough contest. On Monday night, they were--barely.

Both of Hearns’ knockdown punches were from his right hand, but both seemed to catch Leonard off-balance. Other right hands, seemingly thrown with more authority, caught Leonard flush in the face and didn’t put him down.

Hearns clearly won the first two rounds, then Leonard turned up the heat in the third round, trying to counter Hearns’ long, snapping jabs. Hearns caught Leonard with a big right and Leonard stepped back and smiled.

But the next time Hearns threw the right, it caught Leonard on the side of the head and he went down briefly.

For most of the fifth, Leonard seemed ready to finish it. Hearns began the round by landing a series of hard, jolting jabs and Leonard chose to remain in range, trying to counter.

Leonard caught him with a right-left combination, driving a wobbling Hearns into the ropes. In seconds, Leonard had chased Hearns to the other side of the ring and was hitting him freely. But Hearns somehow survived and Leonard seemed to pay tribute to his courage at the bell, when he tapped Hearns on his heart, with his glove.

Hearns showed Leonard early in the sixth that he was by no means calling it a night. He whacked Leonard in the ribs with a huge left hook. Leonard leaped inside Hearns’ longer reach and landed a good jab, and Hearns--now bleeding from a cut inside the mouth--stuck out a bloody tongue at Leonard.

Hearns seemed to have Leonard on the edge of a knockout early in the seventh when he cracked him on the jaw with a short, powerful right. Leonard was hurt, and hurt even more when Hearns slammed a left hook into Leonard’s ribs.

In short order, however, as has been a trademark during his career, Leonard cleared his head quickly and resumed his assault. Two body shots landed and he then drove Hearns back into the ropes with a combination. Hearns threw a wild right hand and when he missed completely, he stumbled awkwardly on the overthrow.

Now, many thought, Hearns’ legs would say good night.

Instead it was Hearns’ right hand that departed. Midway through the eighth, he caught Leonard flush on the face with a long, straight right, the kind that could crack a wall a decade ago. This one, however, didn’t faze Leonard.

Hearns seemed to be on the verge of victory after the 11th, when he put Leonard down, earned a 10-8 round, and on most cards had a lead ranging from two to four points going into the last round.

And Leonard, amazingly enough, seemed one round from defeat. But that’s how it seemed at Leonard-Hearns I, too, when Leonard’s desperate 14th round rally stopped Hearns.

This time, though, Hearns wasn’t sittiing on a lead, and not backing up. Hearns stayed at center-ring and traded heavy blows with Leonard... until Leonard caught him with a big right and sent him to the ropes again.

Until the bell sounded, Leonard drove Hearns all over the ring. In one stretch, he threw 13 unanswered punches.

And so Hearns survived, a triumph in itself. He had waited nearly eight years, and events even in the days before the fight, events seemed to be ganging up on him.

Hearns’ youngest brother, Henry, was charged with first-degree murder by Detroit police Monday, after the shooting death of his girlfriend Saturday in a Southfield, Mich., home owned by Thomas Hearns.

But no tears will flow for Hearns’ not getting what most thought he earned.

The combatants’ guarantees for “The War” were $13 million for Leonard and $11 million for Hearns. But if pay-per-view sales nationwide were as hot as they were in Southern California the past 10 days, those numbers could increase to $14 million and $12 million.

Rick Kulis, the Southern California Leonard-Hearns exhibitor, said at mid-afternoon Monday that his 68 Southland cable systems seemed headed to a record buy rate for PPV boxing show.

He estimated sales to be at an 11% penetration at 3 p.m. Monday. Late orders, he said, would push the final rate well above the record figure, 11.9%, for Leonard-Hagler in 1987.

One system, American Cable in Westchester, Kulis said, had already reported a buy rate of 24% by Monday afternoon.

And so professional boxing, a strange enterprise which has craftily learned to manipulate cable television technology and reward its athletes with multi-million dollar paydays, will once again have to address a decades old question: Why can’t it seem eliminate draws, as amateur boxing did, about a half-century ago.