Hit Man - Brian Hughes [6]
A year after arriving there, Steward was distinctly unimpressed when a stick-thin thirteen-year-old came asking for membership. “First time I saw this kid was in 1970,” Steward later told Boxing Illustrated. “He was just eleven years old and he’d already been fighting for a year. He was so scrawny it was awful; he weighted fifty-five pounds and his little old boxing pants were falling right off.” Instead, it was Walter Smith, the gym’s sixty-four-year-old veteran trainer, who saw beyond the initial impression. “Even as a beginner, Hearns had fortitude,” Smith said. “Thomas listened attentively. He respected his elders. That made a difference.”
Smith spoke up for the young man and Steward knew better than to ignore his sage counsel. He began to take notice of the quiet youngster who never seemed to miss training. Steward observed that despite his reticence, Thomas was frightened of nobody. “I’d never seen anybody, ever, who had no fear of nobody,” Steward would recount. “But Tommy didn’t.” He would box whoever his trainer suggested and never questioned advice. He was also inordinately determined. He had to take two buses to reach the gym from his east side home yet would never miss a training session. After gym training, he enjoyed playing basketball with his close group of friends but avoided trouble with the police. He seemed to live and breathe boxing. Steward discovered that Hearns had a steely resolution. He wanted to win championships, as this was the route to the fame and riches that would allow him to look after his mother and siblings. He idolised his mother and recognised the sacrifices she had made for her young family. He told the Kronk trainer that he was determined to achieve these goals and would do whatever it took. Steward smiled at the youngster’s fierce determination and agreed to help him make it a reality.
In 1974, Hearns took his first steps to future glory by winning both the Midwest Regional Junior Olympics and the Michigan Golden Gloves. Two years later, aged seventeen, he lost a points decision to the stylish amateur star Howard Davis, who went on to represent the USA at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and to take the lightweight gold medal and the trophy for Most Outstanding Boxer. To his great disappointment, it meant that Hearns missed out on Olympic selection, though he garnished his reputation further by reaching the National Golden Gloves final, which he lost to future world light-welterweight champion Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor. A year later, at the National Amateur Tournament, held at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Hearns finally earned the country’s number one ranking at light-welterweight. He went on to represent the USA on twelve occasions, his only defeat coming with a debatable 3-2 points decision to hometown favourite Syamsul Anwar in the President’s Cup tournament of champions in Jakarta, Indonesia. He won both the National AAU and Golden Gloves championships in the 139lb class, in the AAU final outpointing Ohio’s Bobby Joe Young, a top amateur who would later become a well-respected professional.
Touring with the US team took Hearns not only to Asia but to Europe, and broadened his limited horizons. But success inside the ring came at the expense of failure outside. After repeating eleventh grade and beginning his senior year at North-eastern High School, Hearns finally dropped out. “I was nearly eighteen years old and had to make a decision. It was either boxing or high school. Although I had no problem with school,