Hit Man - Brian Hughes [41]
Hanging like a spectre over the fight announcement was the figure of Ray Leonard. He was on holiday in Mexico City when he was asked for his reaction. He admitted that before he had announced his latest retirement, he had wanted to fight Hagler and suggested that he would have received $20 million as his purse. The only stipulation he demanded was that Hagler would weigh less than 155 pounds, despite the middleweight limit being 160 pounds. When Hearns was informed of this, he was scornful: “Marvin Hagler is the world middleweight champion. Why should he have to come to the scales at one hundred and fifty-five pounds?” Emanuel Steward sensed an opportunity to win PR points and agreed that Hearns would be happy to accommodate Leonard’s demands and come in at any weight he wanted. In fact, Steward clarified that Hearns saw the Hagler match as a stepping stone towards eventually getting back in the ring with Leonard. Hagler refused to be drawn into the discussion and offered, “I’m just happy to see the fight materialize. It shapes up as by far the biggest payday of my career.”
It was soon after this announcement that plans for the promotion started to go awry. Whilst doing his roadwork, Hearns tripped, and he sprained a finger in trying to break his fall. He later reported that he “felt like needles were shooting through my arm” when he landed a right hand during sparring. Doctors instructed him to desist from sparring for at least thirty days. When the news came out, Hagler was scathing. “Thomas Hearns is a sissy,” he spat. “Boxers are used to fighting with pain. I suffer with sore hands all the time. In fact, all great fighters have sore hands. For a million dollars they could cut my finger off.” This reaction caused an outrage amongst the Kronk fraternity. Emanuel Steward reassured them that Hearns was in great shape and wanted the fight to go on. He also denied claims that they were delaying the fight to allow Hearns to put on more weight and improve his condition. Steward pointed out that Hearns had fully participated in all the public appearances during the nine-day, eleven-city promotional tour to hype the fight, in contrast to Hagler, who cited flu as the reason for his non-attendance, even in Boston, just twenty-three miles from his hometown of Brockton.
Yet despite the positive news from Hearns and his team, fight promoter Bob Arum announced that the fight would be postponed. This was a contradictory message completely at odds with the fighter’s own statements. Hearns conducted a Detroit press conference to announce that the May bout was still on. Within hours, Arum issued a statement from New York declaring, “The fight was postponed indefinitely.” Arum claimed that the injury to the little finger on Hearns’s right hand was the sole cause for the postponement. To support his actions he claimed he had consulted the three doctors who had examined Hearns and all three had attested that he should rest the hand for at least thirty days. This was in direct contrast to remarks made by two doctors who had appeared at Hearns’s press conference.
It appeared that the real reason for the delay was more complex. In a Los Angeles federal courtroom, Judge Laughlin Waters had issued a temporary injunction on the bout, ruling against SelecTV and a pay television company which had the rights for a home telecast of the bout. Home Box Office, another pay television company,