Four Kings by George Kimball

Author:George Kimball
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781590131626
Publisher: McBooks Press
Published: 2008-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Malice at the Palace

Duran–Hearns

Caesars Palace, June 15, 1984

The right hand Hearns had broken on Wilfred Benitez’ head remained in a cast until April 1983 and occasioned an eight-month hiatus from boxing, at least part of which was spent at sea.

Hearns owned a fifty-six-foot boat. Each spring he paid a bareboat captain to deliver the Natasha (named for his baby daughter) to Detroit from its wintertime slip at the Fort Lauderdale Marina. In the spring of ’83, with time to spare, Tommy decided to make the trip himself, and spent the better part of a month on a leisurely cruise up the Atlantic coast to the St. Lawrence Seaway and onward to the Great Lakes.

Hearns didn’t fight again until that July, when he decisioned Scottish veteran Murray Sutherland in Atlantic City. He didn’t make his first defense of the WBC junior middleweight title until February ’84, when he outpointed Luigi Minchillo of Italy in Detroit.

Hearns had won six straight since his loss to Leonard, but he had been forced to go the distance three straight times. He had barely used the right against Sutherland, and, said Steward, “he was even afraid to throw it in sparring.”

The “Hit Man” appellation seemed suddenly inappropriate, and Hearns began billing himself instead as the “Motor City Cobra.” Between fights, he became a virtual recluse.

Frederick Lewerenz was Hearns’ physician in Detroit, but he might as well have been his psychiatrist.

“You have to understand Thomas,” Dr. Lewerenz told Sports Illustrated ’s Pat Putnam. “His whole value judgment is based on how hard he can hit. This man actually lives and exists mentally from the power of his right hand. It’s his self-image.”

Ray Leonard had his own medical issues in early 1984.

Sugar Ray had grown restive in retirement. His ringside work for CBS and HBO kept him close to the sport, but the proximity constantly reminded him how much he missed it.

When Leonard asked Mike Trainer to initiate preparations for his comeback, the direction in which he planned to go was self-evident. The first opponent Trainer contacted was, like Hagler, a lefthander, and he was approached about fighting in New England.

Sean Mannion was a rugged southpaw who answered to the nom de guerre of “the Galway Gouger.” Mannion was a former Irish national amateur champion who had boxed for his entire career in the United States, and by 1984 he was rated No. 2 among junior-middleweights by the WBA. “The only stipulation was that the guy had to be free of promotional entanglements and in a position to make a deal,” said Trainer. “We didn’t want to be wrangling with any outside promoters over this thing, and I told [Mannion manager] Jimmy Connelly that more than once.”

Although it was never announced, Ray’s older brother Kenny and match-maker J.D. Brown had undertaken preparations for a new company that would have promoted Leonard’s future bouts−including, presumably, a fight against Hagler, had it occurred in 1984. Entering into a contract with an opponent encumbered by promotional baggage might have complicated that plan.

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