Hit Man - Brian Hughes [68]
The gutsy Andries clambered back to his feet, only to stagger around the ring as Hearns blazed punches at him. He fell again under an avalanche of blows, but rose once more in an extraordinary display of courage and endurance. He even swung an enormous roundhouse right at Hearns, only to miss by a mile and fall once again to his knees, though this time it was ruled a slip. The bout was descending into farce and many at ringside called for it to be stopped, but Hearns seemed to have temporarily punched himself out and the game champion lasted to the bell.
The Detroit crowd acknowledged the champion’s courage and resolution when he returned to his corner and this gave him the impetus to stage a rally in the next round. He even managed to connect with some powerful punches, whilst Hearns looked weary and was breathing heavily after his bombardment of the previous round. After the break, he raised his game, although at one stage he was pulled to the ground and the referee warned Andries about wrestling. As they resumed, Andries launched another of his huge right swings. Hearns easily ducked it and countered with a short right of his own, sending Andries down for what was, officially, the fifth time. This time the champion was all in. He somehow dragged himself to his feet but looked in desperate straits and headed to his own corner instead of towards his opponent. Referee Herrera had little option but to stop the fight and declare Hearns the new world champion.
The Hit Man was full of praise for his game opponent, though he felt the fight should have been stopped in the sixth. He also wasted no time in declaring that his real target was elsewhere: the victor of the upcoming Hagler-Leonard fight. “I really want the winner of that fight – I don’t care who wins,” he said. “It’s not the money, I want to be the only man to win four titles.” Licking his lips, Bob Arum felt that such a lucrative bout was now there to be made. “Tommy is now an established superstar again,” he said. “There’s no doubt he’ll get a multi-million dollar fight out of this.”
On 6 April 1987, Ray Leonard pulled off the upset of the decade when he returned from retirement to beat Marvin Hagler by a close, controversial decision. Infuriatingly for Hearns, Leonard prevaricated for a while before retiring again, leaving the middleweight title vacant.
13 THE HAMMER
BOB ARUM URGED Hearns to remain active and keep his name in the minds of the public. His stock had risen considerably. Although the fight he really wanted, against Ray Leonard, seemed to have slipped tantalisingly away, there were other opportunities. Arum mooted plans for him to drop back down to middleweight and meet Juan Domingo Roldan, a rugged Argentinian, for the vacant WBC crown. Hearns and Steward looked into the possibilities, not least because victory would make Hearns the first man to officially win world titles in four different weight categories: welterweight, light-middleweight, middleweight and light-heavyweight. Greats like Henry Armstrong, Roberto Duran and Alexis Arguello had tried and failed to win four titles, and Hearns’s place in the history books would be assured. After Leonard’s retirement had left the middleweight throne empty, Frank Tate won the International Boxing Federation title, while Sumbu Kalambay beat Iran Barkley for the WBA crown. The WBC belt remained unclaimed, and it was for that that Hearns now signed to fight.
The muscular, broad-chested Roldan, who came from a village in the province of Cordoba in Argentina, was eager to meet him, as beating such a big name was the best way to gain the recognition he felt he deserved. He traded on his nickname, “The Hammer,” an apt