Hit Man - Brian Hughes [16]
Emanuel Steward shared Gray’s sense of caution and believed that his charge needed further schooling. Hearns, however, possessed that impetuousness of youth and thought that he was ready to box for a title straight away. He told reporters that he had a preference for a fight against Wilfred Benitez, who six days after the Gray fight dethroned WBC welter champ Carlos Palomino by decision in Puerto Rico. Steward played down this championship talk both privately and publicly and urged Hearns to concentrate on his next foe, “Slithering” Sammy Ruckard. He had thirty-nine professional fights on his record although he had emerged victorious on just nineteen occasions. Clyde Gray had beaten Ruckard in three rounds but he had extended a number of class fighters like Johnny Gant and Floyd Mayweather, the father of the future world welterweight champion of the same name. Hearns took heed of his trainer’s warnings and stopped his South Carolina-based opponent in eight one-sided rounds.
Five weeks later, CBS television screened highlights of Hearns’ next bout against the Continental American welterweight champion, Segundo Murillo. Murillo was ranked eighth by the WBC and had never been stopped, but all his contests had been in his native Ecuador and it was difficult to assess his true quality. Hearns was announced as the “Motor City Cobra,” partly out of sensitivity about the “Hit Man” tag in a city with the highest murder rate in the USA. Hearns himself was uncomfortable with the Hit Man tag. “I don’t try to kill nobody,” he protested. He could have fooled Murillo, who was decked five times and stopped in eight rounds. The delayed highlights of the fight, at the Olympic, were broadcast nationally, bringing Hearns to a nationwide audience.
The media was now buzzing about him, and the New York Boxing Writers’ Association named him Fighter of the Year and Emanuel Steward, Manager of the Year. Argentina’s Daniel Gonzalez was offered $15,000 to face Hearns, while Harold Weston was offered $40,000, Pete Ranzany $35,000. Former champion Carlos Palomino was reportedly tempted by the $100,000 being cited and his successor, Wilfred Benitez, was even more so by the reported $500,000. Despite this, however, the eventual answer from each one was an emphatic refusal. It was a testimony to Hearns’s rising confidence that he was not intimidated by the prospect of facing any of these fighters. In one interview, he was asked about the possible outcome of a match against the WBA welterweight king, Pipino Cuevas. Hearns said he had watched Cuevas on quite a few occasions and declared, “I can knock him out.” He explained that “he’s a converted southpaw and he stands square on, making him easy to hit. I’m too big and fast for him, and would outbox him until I saw an opening for my straight right to the chin, which would finish him.”
Before he could deliver on this boast, he had to resume the business of building his reputation. His next bout, on 20 April, was against the tough Philadelphian brawler Alfonso Hayman. Hayman, a thirty-year-old veteran, had fought thirty-six times and had knocked out the respectable Johnny Gant and had also fought the likes of Clyde Gray and Maurice Hope, the world’s best light-middleweight. He entered the ring buoyed by victories in his previous two fights. Hearns’s burgeoning reputation meant that CBS decided that this was the appropriate time to broadcast the young star for his live television debut.
Unfortunately, Hearns was suffering from a bout of flu and his fists were troubling him, although he kept this quiet. It turned out to be a competitive contest, with Hayman exceeding himself while Hearns seemed content to box beautifully and avoid looking for a