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in retirement continued to grow. Hearns refused to accede and maintained that he could and would continue to operate at world level. He kept in training but it was fourteen months before he would return to action, when he travelled to the boxing outpost of Virginia’s Roanoake Civic Centre to meet Karl Willis, an uninspiring Tennessee cruiserweight. Willis had started his professional career in a promising manner by recording a one hundred per cent record in his first twenty contests, before he was brutally knocked out by Denmark’s Ole Klemetson, which dented his fragile confidence and condemned him to a career on the sport’s fringes, where he enjoyed sporadic success. The night he faced Hearns was not destined to be one of those bright spots. He appeared in awe of the reputation of the fabled big-punching Hit Man and the five rounds which preceded the inevitable knockout were one-way traffic, with Hearns using Willis as a punchbag.

Hearns entered 1997 with a determination to fight with a greater frequency. In January, he returned to Inglewood, California, to dismantle “Irish” Ed Dalton. Hearns rarely moved out of first gear as he opened up the outclassed Alaskan-born fighter at will and eventually forced the local referee to step in to halt the slaughter just before the end of round five. Hearns declared himself satisfied but noticed a change in the attitude of those around him, who urged him to re-consider his continued involvement in the sport. They were led by Emanuel Steward. The trainer assured him that they all had his best wishes at heart and it caused Hearns to stop training for a while and spend a long period of isolated reflection in the bosom of his family.

Nearly two years later and a month after celebrating his fortieth birthday, Hearns had resolved to embark on one final assault on the summit. He would start it back where it all began, in the Cobo Arena, Detroit, and persuaded his old team to remain loyal and back him up. His opponent was thirty-seven-year-old Toledo-based Jay Snyder, who had adopted the unmistakeable nickname of the “Swamp Man.” It would also be the first boxing tournament to be staged by Kronk 11, a new promotional venture led by Emanuel Steward. Headlining the six-bout undercard was Tom “Boom Boom” Johnson, a former IBF featherweight champion. Another feature was the International Women’s Boxing Federation featherweight championship between Beverly Szymanski and Gena Davis. Steward had managed to woo Mills Lane to referee and obtain former Channel 7 news mega-star Bill Bonds as the ring announcer.

Snyder had a modest record of nineteen wins and five losses. At the pre-fight press conference, he declared his love for his opponent. “I grew up hearing the name of Tommy Hearns and his rivals Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler. These guys, and especially Thomas, were legends to me.” He said the opportunity to step into the same ring as the Hit Man was “a big honour for me, my family and the entire state of South Carolina. I am here to help Tommy on his comeback trail and he should consider me a friend.” Snyder was equally accommodating when the contest began in front of 5,000 loyal fans. Hearns’s first meaningful punch, a straight right hand, came eighty-eight seconds into the first round. As it connected, Hearns himself was thrown off balance and was grazed by a flailing punch from Snyder, causing them both to hit the canvas in sync. Hearns bounced up immediately while Lane knelt beside the prostrate figure of his opponent, who never looked like beating the count.

When Snyder recovered, he told ringsiders, “Power is the last thing a fighter loses and he has still got it!” Hearns smiled his thanks and was quickly swallowed up by friends and handlers, who crowded around and chanted, “Hit Man’s back!” long into the night.

19 TWILIGHT

IN THE SPRING of 1999, Thomas Hearns brought his fading talent to Europe for the first time since his amateur days. That April, he fought on the undercard of boxing’s latest rising star, Prince Naseem Hamed, in front of 18,000 fans at the MEN Arena in