Thomas Hearns

Thomas Hearns
Data
Birth Name	Thomas Hearns
Weight class	Cruiser weight
nationality	US-american
birthday	October 18, 1958
place of birth	Memphis
style	Left delivery
size	1.85 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	67
Victories	61
Knockout victories	48
Defeats	5
draw	1

Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns (born October 18, 1958 in Memphis , Tennessee ) is a former American professional boxer, former WBA world champion in world and light heavyweight, WBC world champion in light, light and middleweight, as well as WBO - World champion in super middleweight. In addition, he won the "world championship title" of the internationally less important associations WBU and IBO in the cruiserweight division .

He is Ring Magazine Boxer of the Year 1980 and 1984, and his fights against Sugar Ray Leonard in 1981 and Marvin Hagler in 1985 were each named Ring Magazine Fight of the Year . In 2012 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

amateur

His record was 155 wins and 8 losses. At the Golden Gloves tournament in 1976 he finished second in the lightweight after a final defeat by Aaron Pryor , but was able to win the tournament in the light welterweight division the following year. He was also the American light welterweight champion in 1977. During his time as an amateur boxer, in contrast to his professional career, he showed little clout and only won eleven fights prematurely.

Professional career

The tall Hearns began his professional career in 1977 in Detroit under the leadership of boxing coach Emanuel Steward .

Even in the build-up phase, he beat well-known opponents, for example the multiple World Cup challenger Clyde Gray and Bruce Curry, the brother of Donald Curry .

After winning 28 fights in three years, he won on August 2, 1980 against the Mexican Pipino Cuevas the WBA welterweight championship by technical knockout in the second round. Much of the “puncher” image of Hearns is derived from this fight, because the powerful Cuevas had never been on the ground and was highly regarded.

After three successful title defenses, he met WBC World Champion Sugar Ray Leonard in a unification fight on September 16, 1981 to determine the undisputed world champion in this weight class. He lost the fight, leading on points, by technical knockout in the fourteenth round.

He then rose to the light middleweight division and won on December 3, 1982 against Wilfred Benitez on points the WBC title of this weight class. Both boxers had to go to the ground in the course of the fight, and Hearns injured his punching hand in the eighth round.

He defended the belt a total of five times, including against Roberto Durán , whom he inflicted his first knockout defeat. Hearns remained undefeated in this weight class and is listed as the best light middleweight of all time at Ring Magazine before Mike McCallum .

During his time as light middleweight world champion, he boxed several times in the middleweight division, so he went on April 15, 1985 against the middleweight world champion Marvin Hagler , but lost in a spectacular fight by technical knockout in the third round.

At the end of 1986 he finally put down the light middleweight title and won the following year with an interval of seven months, the WBC light heavyweight title against Dennis Andries and middleweight against Juan Roldán . He gave up the light heavyweight title a short time later, and sensationally lost the middleweight title in his first title defense in June 1988 to Iran Barkley , who was almost standing knocked out and was able to turn the fight in round 3 with a "lucky punch".

That prompted Hearns to switch to the super middleweight division. There he secured the vacant world championship title of the newly founded WBO in November 1988 . Then it came on June 12, 1989 again to a union fight with Sugar Ray Leonard, who was in possession of the WBC belt at that time. The fight officially ended in a draw, so both defended their titles. However, almost all observers saw Hearns in front, who knocked Leonard down twice in the course of the fight.

But even in the super middleweight division, Hearns did not last long: After defending his title again, he laid down the WBO title, won the WBA light heavyweight championship on June 3, 1991, defeating the previously unbeaten Virgil Hill on points. But he also had to give this belt back to his feared opponent Barkley in his first title defense in March 1992. He was back on the ground and eventually lost on points.

By the year 2000 he completed ten more athletically meaningless cruiserweight fights and then resigned. In June 2005, however, he returned to the ring for a comeback at the age of 46.

Thomas Hearns was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012.

successes

amateur

• 1977: AAU light welterweight champion
• 1977: National Golden Gloves light welterweight champion

professional

• March 2, 1980: American welterweight champion
• August 2, 1980: WBA welterweight champion (3 title defenses)
• December 3, 1982: WBC light middleweight world champion (3 title defenses)
• March 10, 1986: North American Middleweight Champion (1 title defense)
• June 23, 1986: WBC light middleweight champion
• March 7, 1987: WBC light heavyweight champion
• October 29, 1987: WBC middleweight champion
• November 4, 1988: North American super middleweight champion
• November 4, 1988: WBO Super Middleweight Champion (2 title defenses)
• June 3, 1991: WBA light heavyweight champion
• January 29, 1994: North American Cruiserweight Champion (1 title defense)
• March 31, 1995: WBU world cruiserweight champion
• April 10, 1999: IBO cruiserweight world champion

watch TV

1987: Who's the boss here (title: Hausmann in the boxing ring , role: Wilbur)

Web links

• Thomas Hearns in the BoxRec database