Hit Man by Hughes Damian & Hughes Brian

Author:Hughes, Damian & Hughes, Brian [Hughes, Damian]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: thomas hearns, boxing, hit man
Publisher: Milo Books Ltd
Published: 2011-05-03T16:00:00+00:00

NO ONE HAD EVER done that to Roberto Duran. Thomas Hearns was now in demand. The inactivity that drove him to distraction after his loss to Leonard would be a thing of the past. Just three months after his sensational victory, he was back between the ropes to fight twenty-five-year old Californian Fred Hutchings, at the Civic Centre in Saginaw, Michigan. The rangy Hutchings had an impressive record of twenty-seven victories, seventeen inside the distance, against just one loss and had been elevated to third in the light-middleweight ratings. Despite this pedigree, he gave the impression of a callow novice meeting an experienced master. At the press conference called to announce the fight, Hutchings constantly referred to his opponent as “Mr Hearns” and described him in awed tones as “class.” He spoke with wide-eyed wonder about Hearns’s earning power and said he still worked in a gas station, pumping gas six days a week in order to support his wife and infant son, which explained his rather odd ring nickname, “The Pumper.” The job did not pay too well. “Right now, I’m broke,” he confessed. He expressed his frustration that when he had initially signed to fight the champion in January, he was offered $275,000, yet was now expected to accept half that amount. However, he assured the reporters, “Once I get into the ring, I won’t be afraid about doing my own thing and proving my real class.”

Despite this bold statement, Hutchings was not given a hope by the sporting press. Their only question was how long Hutchings would last. Emanuel Steward refused to rise to the bait and paid tribute to Hutchings’ reputation as a clever and elusive boxer. Hearns followed suit and refused to make a prediction about the length of the fight. Instead, he vowed to maintain his career-long strategy of seeking a quick end by applying non-stop pressure in the opening two rounds and then seeing what was required. He claimed his respect for Hutchings was evidenced by the fact that he had broken with his own longstanding tradition and had actually watched recordings of several fights involving his foe.

Hearns stepped into the ring bang on the division limit of 154 pounds, a quarter-pound heavier than Hutchings. The more significant tale-of-the-tape statistic was that Hearns’s seventy-eight-inch reach was six inches longer than the Californian’s, and this advantage was leveraged from the opening bell as he stalked his opponent and flashed his left jab like a cobra’s forked tongue. Just about everything he threw connected as Hutchings looked like a rabbit trapped in headlights. A straightforward right cross toppled Hutchings to the floor for the first knockdown and a left-right combination dropped him again just before the bell to end the first session. “After the first round, I knew that he would not go the full distance,” Hearns later said. “I could feel that my punches were hurting him and so it was only a matter of time and patience before the end came.”

During the second round, Hearns stayed relaxed.

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