Hearns Criticizes Luck of the Draw : Fighter Decries Judge’s Scoring of Last Round for Leonard

When Thomas Hearns awoke Tuesday morning, he knew he had been in a fight. His body ached. His face was cut.

But he still was able to crack a smile. After years of agonizing over his 1981 loss to Sugar Ray Leonard on a 14th-round knockout, Hearns believes he was exonerated by Monday night’s 12-round super-middleweight bout that ended in a draw with Leonard.

“Nobody knows what it means to go through life thinking things like I have,” Hearns said at a news conference. “It’s tough. Whatever I would do, (Leonard) would pop into my head. I was tired. Tired of thinking about the man. I knew I would have to do something to erase him from my head.

“When I woke up this morning, I had a clear head. I wonder who Ray is thinking about now?”

Leonard said his thoughts are focused inward.

“I want to get home, look at the tapes and evaluate whether this was a bad performance on my part or if it was just Thomas Hearns,” he said. “I felt I was somewhat tentative. I never had the snap in my punches. Right from the beginning, I couldn’t get in the flow. From the minute I got in the ring, I didn’t have the magic. I had a bad night--and I have very few bad nights.”

Monday night, Hearns had smiled at the judges’ decision. Tuesday, he criticized the officiating for the first time--particularly judge Dalby Shirley, who scored the match a draw after giving Leonard the final round, 10-8.

“Maybe that judge saw a different fight,” Hearns said. “If he had seen this fight, he could not have possibly given the last round a 10-8.”

So why hadn’t Hearns complained Monday night?

“Once the judges make the decision, you cannot argue,” he said. “You cannot fight with them. But I thought I had the fight. I thought I had rounds in the bank (going into the final three minutes). But I must accept the decision.”

It was a decision that might have gone another way, Hearns said, had it not been for Emanuel Steward, his longtime trainer.

At the end of the fifth round, Hearns was in deep trouble. Leonard had staggered him, leaving him hanging on and waiting for the bell.

Between rounds, Steward stared into Hearns’ face and told him: “Your entire career is on the line in the next three minutes. If you want a spot in history, you’ve got to work for it.”

Hearns did, thereby creating long lines at the Las Vegas betting windows afterward. Legal bookmakers made full refunds on bets on either fighter. The only winners, other than those who picked the fight to go more than eight rounds, were the few who bet on a draw.

So what’s next? Will this fight, labeled “The War” by promoter Bob Arum, be followed by the third act in a Leonard-Hearns trilogy?

That’s up to Leonard. If he continues fighting, there probably will be a third.

If not, there are a number of possibilities. Roberto Duran is waiting in the wings. Marvelous Marvin Hagler is waiting for a reason to come out of retirement. And Michael Nunn is waiting down the road.

Hearns said Tuesday that he would like another shot at Hagler, who beat him in a third-round knockout in 1985.

Arum said that without Leonard, “the best fight out there is Hearns-Nunn.”

Nunn, who fights out of North Hollywood, will first attempt to defend his International Boxing Federation middleweight title against Iran Barkley on Aug. 14 at Reno.

During the news conference, Leonard was told that Nunn had said he could have knocked out either Leonard or Hearns.

Leonard thought over the remark, smiled, and replied, “He’s right.”