Barkley Beats Hearns Again for WBA Title

The “new” Thomas Hearns took an old-fashioned beating by Iran Barkley in a light-heavyweight title fight before 4,250 at Caesars Palace on Friday night.

Barkley, who upset Hearns four years ago when both were middleweights, refused to let Hearns employ his new standup, classic boxing style, the form Hearns used to take Virgil Hill’s World Boxing Assn. light-heavyweight title in June.

Barkley charged straight into the longer-armed, taller Hearns for 12 rounds, spending most of the fight with his shaved head tucked tightly into Hearns’ chest and forcing the champion into corners and to lean against the ropes.

Hearns never showed the hitting power that enabled him to knock out 40 opponents, most of them when he was a welterweight and middleweight.

During the fourth round, Barkley caught Hearns on the chin with a solid, short left hook that dropped Hearns. But he was up quickly, and finished the round in strong fashion.

Barkley came to the interview tent with an ice pack over a swollen right eye and his left hand wrapped. He said he broke the hand during the fight but couldn’t say in what round.

Of Hearns, Barkley said: “I was in deep water with a very tough man tonight, so I had to swim or drown. I felt the fight was sort of close, but I felt I was doing more.”

At no time did Barkley permit Hearns to fight like the jabbing boxer he was against Hill. This time, Hearns had to fight for his life.

During the 10th round, when Hearns appeared to need a knockout to win, he seemed to pass up several chances to land the long, hard right hand that might give him one.

Lou Tabat called the fight 114-113 for Hearns, and Chuck Giampa and Jerry Roth had it for Barkley, 115-113 and 114-113, respectively.

The Times card had Barkley by 115-112.

Before the fight, Hearns’ new trainer, Alex Sherer, said he expected Barkley to come out and “wage war” on Hearns, and that much of Hearns preparation was on “staying cool” under the assault.

And that is how it went, in every round. Barkley never stopped pressing the action, and Hearns stayed cool for the most part. But he couldn’t win.

Barkley went through the last two rounds with blood streaming into his right eye from a cut atop his head, apparently from a butt. Hearns finished with a puffed-up left cheek.

Hearns, 33, who earned $1.2 million, is 50-4-1 and a former champion in five weight classes, from welter to light-heavyweight. Barkley, 31, who made $500,000, is 28-8.

Hearns, asked if he would retire, said: “I don’t know. I want to go home and think. I have no excuses. I fought a bad fight. I fought the fight inside, just where Iran wanted me. For some strange reason, I didn’t want to box.”

In a bout for the heavyweight championship of Oklahoma, Tommy Morrison, in his second successful outing since Ray Mercer knocked him out, stopped Wimpy Halstead during the fifth round.

Morrison dominated Halstead, who fouled Morrison repeatedly and lost two points, taken from him by referee Toby Gibson.

Morrison (30-1) dropped Halstead (77-9-1) early in the fifth round with a right-left combination. He got up, but Gibson stopped the fight 30 seconds into the round.

Also, 1988 Olympic bantamweight champion Kennedy McKinney scored a technical knockout over former world super-bantamweight champion Paul Banke.

Ringside physician Flip Homansky ordered referee Richard Steele to stop the bout after the sixth round. Afterward, Banke (21-7) said he would retire. McKinney is 21-0-1.