Hit Man - Brian Hughes [67]
The pressure and speculation only added to the anticipation of 11,000 spectators inside the Cobo Arena, most of whom had come to see their local boy attempt to become only the ninth man in history to win three world championships in different weight divisions. They felt a fierce local pride in Hearns, who had been representing their city for ten years of his professional life, and they continued to greet him with acclaim from the moment his name was announced until referee Isaac Herrera had issued his instructions. The contrast between the two fighters was not just one of style and personality: Hearns looked sleek and sinewy; his upper body rippling with definition which was accentuated under the harsh arc lights, whilst Andries, at five feet and ten inches, was a stocky but well proportioned human bulldozer.
It looked one-sided from the beginning. Hearns shot out his long, spiteful jab and found the champion with ease as he relentlessly chugged forward, looking to get within range to throw his wild, flailing punches. Hearns was simply the classier boxer and the speed with which he unloaded his combination punches was dizzying. Andries, metronomic in his approach, absorbed the punches without taking a backward step. The second round, however, brought a reminder of Hearns’s fragility as he tasted his own blood, which rolled down his cheek from a deep cut along his right eye, caused by a stray elbow. This prompted Hearns to use his jab with even more frequency as he sought to prevent Andries getting too close to cause further damage. “When I felt the blood from the cut, it made me come alive,” Hearns remembered. “I immediately thought, ‘Go after this guy.’” He changed his strategy and began to hit Andries coming in with right leads. “The left jab was supposed to be the key,” Hearns said, “But his ability to counter made me wary.”
“Hearns was able to box at his own pace, to pump out the jab and pick his man off from outside,” reported Boxing News. “By the third he was so confident he waved his left arm up and down as if trying to mesmerise Andries. And the British fighter just couldn’t seem to do anything about it.”
Hearns kept proceedings at long range until the sixth round, when he dramatically crashed a right over the top of an Andries jab. The blow was so powerful it sent the British bulldog flying backwards and he landed heavily, hitting his head on the canvas. For a few seconds it looked as though he would not make it back up, and when he did manage to regain his feet, he was sent back down again by a brief series of punches, one of which seemed to land when he was on his knees with his arms clutching at his challenger’s legs. Hearns bounced on the balls of his feet, eager to attack again, as referee Herrera completed the mandatory eight count and checked that Andries was ready to continue. Hearns was like a blur as he dashed in and cracked home a sweeping left hook before Andries had time to raise his defences, sending him down for the third time. The Detroit Man raised his arms in triumph, sure now that the referee would stop it, and walked to a neutral corner to take the plaudits, only