Flashback Friday Fights: Hagler vs. Hearns

We are big fight fans over here at the Peanut Gallery and we are aiming to bring you a weekly entry revisiting some of the great fights from yesteryear in boxing and MMA.

Let’s move on to the subject of the week. Caesars Palace hosted one of boxing’s most entertaining fights ever back on April 15, 1985.

The undisputed middleweight champion “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler defeated Thomas “The Hitman” Hearns in “The War” by way of knockout in the 3rd round.

Hagler bull-rushed Hearns right away attacking him inside with shots to the body. Hearns stood toe-to-toe and landed a big right hand to Hagler’s face which began a melee of punches from each fighter. Hearns continued to pummel Hagler with thunderous right hands opening up a large cut to his face.

Hagler’s face was a curtain of blood pouring profusely from the bridge of his nose, yet he continued to stand in the pocket exchanging blow for blow and landing his own fair share of power shots, hurting Hearns with less than a minute to go in the round. Neither man walked away from the first round without being hurt.

This first round exploded with action and set the tone for what many boxing fans consider the best fight of all time.

Hagler, again, shot across the ring at the opening bell of the second round. He switched up his stance from southpaw to the right side and immediately connected but then started to taper off in effectiveness. He switched back to southpaw and found his groove again. Tommy Hearns traded shots here and there moving just enough to stay out of trouble for most of the round. Exhaustion and physical punishment appeared to be taking their toll on Hearns with the commentators frequently pointing out his “rubber legs”.

“The Hitman” had no hit left by round 3. Hearns connected with a couple of good rights but he has nothing behind his punches. Hagler did not appear to be phased. Despite his relentless effort to wear his opponent down, the referee briefly broke the action for the ring doctor to take a look at his cut. Haggler was cleared to return and the break in the action was short, but it still worked against his strategy of dragging Hearns into deep water to tire him out.

Fortunately for Hagler, who would have had to have had another doctor’s evaluation for his cut at the round break, he did not put the fight into someone else’s hands.

“Marvelous” Marvin Hagler made another explosive run and chased Tommy Hearns down as he tried to dance away and Hagler caught him with a skull-crushing overhand right sending him into the ropes. Hagler then cocked back and fired another booming right hand to the jaw of Hearns for the finishing blow sending him crashing to the canvas.

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