Hit Man - Brian Hughes [70]
One day after training, Steward sprung a surprise on his charge when he interrupted a video session to study Roldan’s style with some old, black-and-white films of Hearns fighting as an amateur. They laughed at the skinny kid from the east side with arms as long as poles and cringed when he threw a punch and lost his balance. After a short while, Hearns, never one to dwell too long on the past, stopped the show and said, “It is no good spending too much time looking back at yesterday because today will hit you with a punch in the mouth.”
Soon afterwards, Hearns was walking through the lobby of the Las Vegas Hilton when he noticed Elvis Presley’s famous white sequined jumpsuit displayed in a glass case. Hearns had occasionally cited the Memphis singer and Muhammad Ali as his two heroes and the suit caused him to reflect on his two idols’ legacies. He said, “People only remember Elvis Presley for two things: being a great music maker and then looking like a fat junkie.” He then drew parallels with his fighting idol: “It is similar to when people see Muhammad Ali. They remember him in two ways. Some look at the soul of boxing, still the most recognizable athlete on the planet. Others only see a helpless invalid.” This prompted him to tell members of his entourage that he wanted to stay in boxing as long as he could, and wanted to secure his own place in the sport’s history by winning four separate world championships, although he knew it was a race against the clock. “I understand the dangers of hanging around boxing for too long,” he said.
Hearns chose to follow Marvin Hagler’s example and based his training camp at the Johnny Tocco’s spartan gym, situated just off the Las Vegas strip. Emanuel Steward focused on correcting errors he had observed in the previous fight against Dennis Andries. He hadn’t failed to notice that Hearns would stagger slightly after taking certain punches, especially right hooks. Steward maintained that Roldan possessed an unrefined style of fighting which could upset their plans, and so he drilled Hearns in defensive techniques for hours at a time. In the last press conference before the fight, he declared himself pleased with the smooth running of his camp and dismissed concerns that weight loss might drain him. “I bulked up to one hundred and seventy-three pounds to box Dennis Andries but I feel even stronger now,” he said. “Believe it or not, it wasn’t very hard to lose the weight. I did it by just training and working out every day.”
Meanwhile, Roldan’s camp was rocked by the news that one of his training team had been arrested and charged with shoplifting at a local K-Mart department store. Roldan dismissed the importance of the thief and claimed that he was not one of his primary trainers. But the stigma was hard to shake and Roldan expressed his frustration at being forced to defend his camp at every press conference in the build-up to the biggest fight of his life.
By the time of the fight both men had put aside their concerns and distractions and were completely focused on the task ahead. When the opening bell chimed, the bullish Argentinian tore across the apron and took Hearns by surprise. The opening minute saw Hearns forced on to his back foot and he pawed away with his left jab to keep Roldan at bay. Then, against the early flow of the fight, Hearns thwacked a beautifully timed right cross to the side of the temple and Roldan dropped for a count of six. Mills Lane, the famous referee who also served as a Washoe County judge, appeared momentarily surprised that the Argentinian had recovered so quickly from such a hard punch but Roldan plowed forward again, winging punches and forcing Hearns to hold on. But just before the opening three minutes were up, Hearns smashed home three consecutive right hands which dropped him again. He was saved by the bell before a count had to be administered. It had been quite a round.
Roldan’s corner worked furiously