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30 Years Later We Appreciate How Hagler And Hearns Elevated Each Other

It was early spring of 1985.
Larry Holmes was undefeated and considered the baddest heavyweight in the world.
Mike Tyson was 2-0 as a pro.
Michael Spinks was the undefeated/undisputed light heavyweight champ.
Sugar Ray Leonard was 11 months removed from his latest comeback fight.
Marvin Hagler was the undisputed middleweight champ and very disappointed that Leonard retired after beating Kevin Howard in his last fight.
Thomas Hearns was the WBC junior middleweight title holder and was lobbying for a fight with Hagler.
In 1985 boxing was thriving. Khaosai Galaxy was the man at junior bantamweight. Jeff Fenech, Daniel Zaragoza and Richie Sandoval were fighting it out at bantamweight. Juan Meza and Lupe Pintor were title holders at junior featherweight. Eusebio Pedroza, Azumah Nelson and Barry McGuigan were passing the title back and forth at featherweight. Julio Cesar Chavez, Rocky Lockridge and Wilfredo Gomez were title holders at junior lightweight. Hector Camacho, Livingstone Bramble and Jose Luis Ramirez were the top lightweights. Aaron Pryor was the king at junior welterweight and Donald Curry was going through the welterweight division like a hot knife through butter and would be the undisputed champ by year’s end.
Today, professional boxing is driven by the so-called must see fights that do nothing to enhance the sport usually headlined by Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, available only via PPV.
In 1985 there was only one PPV bout, Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns on April 15th for the undisputed middleweight championship (a fight that was originally scheduled for May of 1982. However, Hearns hurt his right hand and the fight was cancelled and never rescheduled, much to Hagler’s dismay, though they tangled in 1985).
At the time due to Sugar Ray Leonard’s retirement, Hagler 62-2-2 (50) and Hearns 40-1 (34) were the two biggest pound-for-pound stars in boxing. Both had their eyes on Leonard, who was either starting or squashing rumors that he was returning to the ring. Hearns felt that he had Leonard beat when they fought in their 1981 unification showdown before being stopped in the 14th round, and was trying to goad him into a rematch. Hagler felt stood up at the altar when Leonard invited him to his special dinner “A Night With Sugar Ray Leonard” in November of 1982, then looked Marvin in the eye and said that a fight between them is never going to happen.
Hagler smiled and kept churning along and beating every middleweight in the world who was qualified to fight him, and doing so in a convincing fashion. But Marvin was always griping about how much money Leonard made and often spewed he just wanted some of it and only fighting Leonard could bring it to him. At the time Hagler hadn’t lost in nine years and avenged the only two losses on his record by stopping the perennial Philadelphia contenders who beat him, Bobby “Boogaloo” Watts and Willie “The Worm” Monroe. Hearns was 8-0 since losing to Leonard and 10 months before fighting Hagler, knocked out Roberto Duran face first for the count, the same Duran who seven months earlier had gone 15 full rounds with Hagler for the middleweight title and was never hurt or in trouble once during the bout.
With Leonard on the sideline and working for HBO as color analyst, Hagler and Hearns was the next biggest fight that could be made. Hearns, 26, figuring that he was never going to get a rematch with Leonard, rationalized that beating Hagler would quell the sting he carried with him after losing to him.
As for Hagler, 30, the closest he’d ever been to a super fight was his battle against Duran a year and a half earlier. And in the eyes of the public, Marvin underperformed because he had to rally back during the last third of the fight to secure the decision victory he rightly earned. In the back of Hagler’s mind he had to take Hearns out faster and more impressively than Leonard did because everybody was using Duran as the measuring stick to compare him with Hearns. And Hearns never let Hagler forget during their press tour that he devastated Duran in two rounds with one punch, whereas Marvin had to go the full route with the former lightweight and welterweight champ. Which led many to speculate and believe that the matured Hearns would be too much for even a monster like Hagler.
The disdain between Hagler and Hearns was real and they almost came to blows more than once during the press tour to promote the fight. Hearns repeatedly called the 5’9″ Hagler a midget, and Hagler reciprocated, labeling the 6’1″ Hearns a freak. As the fight grew near the fighters personalities changed. Hagler closed his workouts and was very secretive and appeared uptight, whereas Hearns trained in front of the public and mixed with the crowd after his workouts. A confident Hearns quit sparring almost a week prior to the fight opposed to Hagler, who sparred as recently as two days before the bout.
The goal for Hearns going into the bout was to keep Hagler at the end of his long left jab and in line for his right hand that carried fight ending/altering power with one clean connect. For Hagler, he knew that allowing Hearns the distance to set up his right hand was the last thing he could do. Marvin was cognizant that he had to smother Hearns and force him to rush his right hand and not allow him to set it up. Hearns was a fighter who could really box and punch, and sometimes came out fast and sought the early knockout. That wasn’t Hagler; as champion he only won inside of three rounds three times in 10 title defenses before defending against Hearns. Hagler opened as a 13-10 favorite but a lot of late Detroit money came in and by the day of the fight Hagler was a 6-5 favorite.
Right before the bell sounded for the first round HBO’s Larry Merchant said, “Hagler is the strongest fighter Hearns has ever fought. Hearns is the best fighter Hagler has ever fought. We’re here to get the answers.”
During the pre-fight, Hagler proclaimed the fight “WAR” and that’s just what it was. Hagler started uncharacteristically fast against Hearns and forced the action with the first punch he threw. There was no feeling out process and he never gave Hearns a chance to box. Within the first seconds of the fight Hagler and Hearns were exchanging their Sunday best punches, and in the very early going Hearns really shook Hagler. However, Marvin had an all-world chin and Hearns fractured his right hand on Hagler’s head. They exchanged bombs for the entire first round, a round that many feel was/is the most exciting three minutes in boxing history, and it could’ve been scored for either fighter.
If you were a fan of Hearns you had to feel uneasy going into the second round because he nailed Hagler with the same right hand that pulverized Pipino Cuevas, Roberto Duran and changed the geography of Sugar Ray Leonard’s cheek and eye socket, and Hagler was still coming at him as if nothing happened. In the other corner if you were rooting for Hagler, you had to feel pretty good knowing that Hearns couldn’t hit him any harder than he already did and it wasn’t like Hearns was going to grow stronger as the fight progressed.
The intense pace resumed in the second round with Hagler still forcing the action and Hearns looking to find the time and space to launch a fight changing right hand with the hopes of impeding Hagler’s aggression, but it never happened. Tommy got off with some good right hands but he was usually off balance because of the non-stop pressure he was under. By the end of the second round Hagler looked strong and Hearns seemed to be running out of steam. In the third round Hagler went right at Hearns as he did in the previous two rounds, but the fight was briefly stopped because of a cut he sustained in the first round. When the ring doctor allowed the fight to continue Hagler went at Hearns as if living meant knocking him out and dying would be having the fight stopped because of the cut and losing. Hagler unloaded everything he had and knocked Hearns out at 1:52 of the third round.
This was Hagler’s finest hour as a pro and the showing had many observers saying “Sugar Who?” Today, 30 years later, everyone who saw the fight can recall it as if it were yesterday. The result boosted Marvin’s reputation as a destroyer and forced some to think of Hearns as not being durable, but neither is the least bit accurate. Don’t forget, Hagler had to hit Hearns with his Sunday best punch over a hundred times before he broke him, and Hearns took over a hundred of Hagler’s best punches–in three rounds!– before he went down just as many other greats would’ve. That’s hardly a guy who is not durable.
After the fight, Jerry Izenberg of the Newark Star Ledger summed it up best, saying, “What Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns fashioned here will make it forever impossible for anyone who saw it to call one’s name without thinking of the other.” And oh how right he was, both Hagler and Hearns were elevated by their historic “WAR” 30 years ago this April 15th, 2015.
Frank Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@Gmail.com
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Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser: Callum Walsh Returns to Madison Square Garden

On Sunday, March 16 (the night before St. Patrick’s Day), Callum Walsh continued his move up the junior-middleweight ranks with a brutal first-round knockout of Dean Sutherland at the Hulu Theatre at Madison Square Garden. The seven-bout card promoted by Tom Loeffler featured seven Irish boxers. Walsh stole the show but two non-Irish fighters on the undercard caught the eye.
In the third fight of the evening, Cletus Seldin (known as “The Hebrew Hammer) took on Yeis Gabriel Solano. The last time Seldin fought at Madison Square Garden (March 15, 2024), he took the ring announcer’s microphone after a majority-decision win, dropped to one knee, held out a diamond engagement ring, and asked one Jessica Ostrowski to marry him. The future Mrs. Seldin (who was clad in black leather) said yes, and the happy couple paraded around the ring together. They were married on September 7.
“So I’ve got a ring now,” Seldin says. “And I love married life because I love Jessica.”
A cynic at ringside on Sunday night wondered if Jessica might serve Cletus with a summons and complaint for divorce in the ring after the fight. Not to worry. The couple seems happily married and, after Seldin eked out a majority decision over Solano (now winless in five fights dating back to 2019), Cletus and Jessica announced in the ring that they’re expecting the birth of their first child.
In the next fight of the evening, Irish heavyweight Thomas Carty (255 pounds) brought a 10-0 (9 KOs) record into the ring to face 409-pound Dajuan Calloway (10-3, 9 KOs, 1 KO by).
Carty-Calloway was a poor match for a prospect. A fighter gets relatively little credit for beating a 400-pound opponent. And the problems posed by a physical confrontation with a 400-pound mountain are considerable.
With fifty seconds left in round two, Carty collapsed to the canvas as Calloway spun him around on the inside. Thomas rose, limping badly on a clearly-injured left knee. And referee Jamil Antoine foolishly allowed the bout to continue.
Carty tried to circle away, fell again. And Antoine – more foolishly – instructed the fighters to fight on. There was a third fall that the referee ruled a knockdown. The bell rang. And then the fight was stopped. It goes in the record book as a knockout at 3:00 of the second round.
Worse for Carty, he now appears to be facing surgery followed by a long rehabilitation. There’s no way to know how much further damage was done to his knee in the forty seconds that he was clearly impaired and under assault by a 409-pound man who was trying to knock him unconscious.
But the night belonged to 23-year-old Callum Walsh.
Walsh is from Cork, Ireland, trains in California with Freddie Roach, and came into the ring with a 12-0 (10 KOs) record.
“He’s a pretty good fighter,” Roach says. “He’s getting better. And he works his ass off in the gym.”
Equally important in an age when social media and hype often supersede a fighter’s accomplishments in the ring as the key to marketability. Walsh has the enthusiastic backing of Dana White.
Callum seems more at ease with the media now than when he fought at Madison Square Garden a year ago. And he has a new look. His hair is shorter and no longer dyed blond.
“It’s a new year, so time for a new look,” Walsh explained. Later, he added, “I don’t want to be a prospect anymore. I want to be a contender. I expected the road to be tough. I’ve never had anything easy in my life. I’ve worked as a fisherman. I’ve worked on a cargo ship. I like this job a lot more. They have big plans for me. But I still have to do my job.”
Sutherland, age 26, was born in Scotland and has lived there his entire life. He came to New York with a 19-1 (7 KOs, 1 KO by) record and, prior to fighting Walsh, noted, “I’m under no illusions. Fighting an Irishman on St. Patrick’s Day in New York; it’s all being built up for him. If it goes to the scorecards, no matter how the fight goes, I’m unlikely to get the decision. But when the bell rings, it will be only me and Callum. I’ve watched his fights. I’ve studied his habits and rhythm. I’ve been through hard fights. He’s untested. This is my big opportunity. I’m not here to be part of Callum’s record.”
Talking is easier than fighting. When the hour of reckoning came, Walsh was faster, stronger, better-skilled, and hit harder than Sutherland. Indeed, Callum was so dominant in the early going that round one had the look of a 10-8 round without a knockdown. Then Sutherland was flattened by a right hook at the 2:45 mark and any thoughts as to scoring became irrelevant.
It was Walsh’s best showing to date, although it’s hard to know the degree to which Sutheralnd’s deficiencies contributed to that showing. What’s clear is that Callum is evolving as a fighter. And he’s the kind of fighter who fits nicely with the concept that Turki Alalshikh and Dana White have voiced for a new boxing promotional company. Whether they’ll be willing to put Walsh in tough is an open issue. UFC puts its fighters in tough.
****
There was a void at ringside on Sunday night. After more than four decades on the job, George Ward is no longer with the New York State Athletic Commission.
Ward was the model of what a commission inspector should be. I watched him in the corner and in dressing rooms countless times over the years. A handful of inspectors were as good as he was. Nobody was better. Later, as a deputy commissioner, he performed the thankless back-of-the-house administrative duties on fight night while other deputy commissioners were enjoying the scene at ringside.
George and Robert Orlando (who, like George, is a former New York City corrections officer) also normally presided over pre-fight weigh-ins. That’s worth mentioning here because it ties to one of the more unfortunate incidents that occurred during the tenure of former NYSAC executive director Kim Sumbler.
On November 1, 2019, Kelvin Gastelum weighed in for a UFC 244 match against Darren Till to be contested at Madison Square Garden. The contract weight for the fight was 186 pounds. It was known throughout the MMA community that Gastelum had been having trouble making weight. Before stepping on the scale, he stripped down completely naked and a towel was lifted in front of him to shield his genitals from public view. Then, to everyone’s surprise, his weight was announced as 184 pounds (two pounds under the contract weight).
How did Gastelum make weight? Video of the weigh-in showed him resting his elbow on his coach as he stood on the scale.
Why am I mentioning this now?
Ward and Orlando know all the tricks. While they were readying for the Gastelum-Till weigh-in, Sumbler told them that they were being replaced on the scales by two other commission employees who had been brought to New York City from upstate. They asked why and were told, “Because I said so.”
George Ward was one of the behind-the-scenes people who make boxing work. He’ll be missed.
****
Six years ago, Gene Pantalone wrote a traditional biography of former world lightweight champion Lew Jenkins. Now he has written – shall we say – a creative biography of lightweight great Freddie Welsh.
Welsh was born in Wales in 1886 but spent most of his ring career in the United States. He captured the lightweight crown by decision over Willie Ritchie in 1914 and relinquished it to Benny Leonard three years later. BocRec.com credits him with a 74-5-7 (34 KOs) ring record in bouts that are verified and were officially scored. If “newspaper decisions” are added to the mix, the numbers rise to 121 wins, 29 losses, and 17 draws. Many of the losses came when Welsh was long past his prime. He’s on the short list of boxing’s greatest fighters. The only knock out he suffered was when he lost the title to Leonard.
Chasing The Great Gatsby is styled as a biography of Welsh and also an advocacy brief in support of the proposition that Welsh was the inspiration and model for the title character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s seminal novel The Great Gatsby. I’m unsure how factually accurate Pantalone’s work is in some places. Also, too often, he uses big words when small ones will suffice. For example:
“He was a pugilistic virtuoso, a pummeling poet with fists of fury and a keen intellect. His duality was evident in every aspect of his being, an amalgamation of the vicious and the benevolent.”
Over the course of 349 pages, that weighs a reader down.
Still, there are some interesting observations and nuggets of information to be mined in Chasing The Great Gatsby. Among my favorites are Pantalone’s description of Jack Dempsey training for his historic 1921 fight against George Carpentier at a “health farm” that Welsh owned in New Jersey; Pantelone’s description of how the stadium that hosted Dempsey-Carpentier was built; and Pantalone’s evaluation of the fight itself, which he calls “a spectacle of titanic proportions,” before adding,” The truth was inescapable. The fight had not lived up to its grandeur, but the event did.”
****
Several of the books that Robert Lipsyte has written during his storied career as a journalist focus on boxing; most notably, Free to Be Muhammad Ali and The Contender (a young adult novel). Lipsyte’s most recent book – Rhino’s Run (published by Harper) – is a young adult novel keyed to high school football, not the sweet science. But the opening sentence bears repeating:
“Punching Josh Kremens didn’t feel as good as I thought it would, and I’d been thinking about it for five years.”
Be honest! Don’t you want to read more?
Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and ME is a personal memoir available at Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1
In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
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Ever-Improving Callum Walsh KOs Dean Sutherland at Madison Square Garden

Irish luck was not involved as Callum Walsh won the battle of hard-hitting southpaws over Dean Sutherland by knockout on Sunday.
One right hook was all it took.
“You’re never going to beat the Irish,” said Walsh.
In a contest between Celtic super welterweights Walsh (13-0, 11 KOs) retained the WBC Continental America’s title against Sutherland (19-2, 7 KOs) in quick fashion at the Madison Square Garden Theater in Manhattan.
Usually fights between southpaws can be confusing to both contestants. But Walsh had expressed a fondness for fighting lefthanders then vividly exhibited the reasons why.
Walsh, 24, a native of Cork, Ireland, now living and training in Los Angeles, quickly demonstrated why he likes fighting lefties with a steady flow of combinations from the opening bell.
He did not hesitate.
Sutherland, 26, had only lost once before and that was more than two years ago. Against Walsh the Scottish fighter was not hesitant to advance forward but was caught with lefts and right hooks.
After two minutes of scattered blows, Sutherland fought back valiantly and when cornered, Walsh tapped two jabs then unleashed a right hook through the Scottish fighter’s gloves that floored the Aberdeen fighter for the count at 2:45 of the first round.
“I’m feeling very good. Dean Sutherland is a very good opponent. I knew he was going to be dangerous. That was my best opponent,” said Walsh.
It was the fourth consecutive knockout win for Walsh who seems to improve with every single combat.
“I’m looking forward to the future. I’m getting stronger and stronger,” said Walsh who is trained by Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach. “Anyone that comes to me I will take him out.”
Other Bouts
Super featherweight Feargal McCrory (17-1, 9 KOs) survived a knockdown in the fourth to out-muscle Keenan Carbajal (25-5-1, 17 KOs) and batter down the Arizona fighter in the seventh and again in the eighth with volume punching.
Carbajal was deducted a point early for holding in round two, but regained that point when he floored the Irish southpaw during an exchange in the fourth.
Despite suffering a knockdown, McCrory continued stalking Carbajal and floored him in the seventh and eighth with battering blows. Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. stopped the fight without a count.
A rematch between two Irish super middleweights saw Emmet Brennan (6-0) remain undefeated by unanimous decision over Kevin Cronin (9-3-1).
Cronin started quickly with a pressure style and punches flowing against Brennan who resorted to covering and countering. Though it looked like Cronin was building up a lead with a busier style, the judges preferred Brennan’s judicious counters. No knockdowns were scored as all three judges saw Brennan the winner 98-92 after 10 rounds.
Dajuan Calloway (11-3, 9 KOs) emerged the winner by technical knockout over Thomas Carty (10-1) who was unable to continue after two rounds when his leg tangled and thereafter was unable to stand. Because he could not continue the fight was ruled a technical knockout win for Calloway in the heavyweight match.
Also
Cletus “Hebrew Hammer” Seldin (29-1, 23 Kos) defeated Yeis Solano (15-5) by majority decision after eight rounds in a super lightweight contest.
Donagh Keary (1-0) defeated Geral Alicea-Romero (0-1-1) by decision after four.
Light heavyweights Sean O’Bradaigh (0-0-1) and Jefferson Almeida (0-1-1) fought to a majority draw after four.
Photo credit: JP Yim
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Nick Ball Wears Down and Stops TJ Doheny Before the Home Folks in Liverpool

Fighting in his hometown, Liverpool’s five-foot-two fireplug Nick “The Wrecking” Ball stopped TJ Doheny after 10 progressively more one-sided rounds to retain his WBA belt in the second defense of the featherweight title he won with a hard-earned decision over Raymond Ford in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Referee Michael Alexander, with the assent of Doheny’s corner, waived it off following the bell ending Round 10, much to the chagrin of the brave but mildewed Doheny who burst into tears. But then, Doheny’s right eye was closed shut and he was plainly exhausted. This may be the end of the line for the 38-year-old campaigner from Perth, Australia via Portlaois, Ireland who was 26-5 heading in following his first loss inside the distance which came against pound-for-pound king Naoya Inoue.
There were no knockdowns, but Ball (22-0-1, 13 KOs) was docked a point in round nine for throwing Doheny to the canvas after having previously been warned for this infraction. Earlier, both he and Doheny were warned for an incident that could have ended the bout prematurely. At the end of the first round, Ball extricated himself from a headlock by kicking Doheny in the back of his knee. The challenger’s leg appeared to buckle as he returned to his stool.
Going forward, Ball has many options. The 28-year-old Liverpudlian purportedly relishes a unification fight with WBC belt-holder Stephen Fulton, but the decision ultimately rests with Ball’s promoter Frank Warren.
Other Bouts of Note
In a 12-round bantamweight contest that was close on the scorecards but yet a monotonous affair, Liverpool’s Andrew Cain won a split decision over former WBC flyweight title-holder Charlie Edwards. The scores were 116-112 and 115-114 favoring Cain with judge Steve Gray submitting a disreputable 115-113 tally for Edwards. At stake were a trio of regional titles.
The science of boxing, they say, is about hitting without getting hit. Charlie Edwards is adept at the latter but the hitting part is not in his DNA. He was on his bicycle from the get-go, a style that periodically brought forth a cascade of boos. Cain, who trains in the same gym with Nick Ball, was never able to corner him – Edwards was too elusive – but Cain, to his credit, never lost his composure.
In improving to 14-1 (12), Cain achieved a measure of revenge, in a sense. In his last documented amateur bout, in 2014, Cain was defeated by Charlie’s brother Sunny Edwards, also a former world title-holder at the professional level. Heading in, Charlie Edwards (20-2, 1 NC) was unbeaten in his last 13 which included a comfortable decision over Cristofer Rosales in his flyweight title fight. Charlie relinquished that belt when he could no longer make the weight.
Showboating Cuban lightweight Jadier Herrera, who fought 13 of his first 14 pro fights in his adopted home of Dubai, advanced to 17-0 (15 KOs) with a seventh-round stoppage of spunky but outclassed Mexican import Jose Macias (21-4-2). The official time was 2:31 of round seven.
An all-Liverpool affair between super flyweights Jack Turner (11-0, 10 KOs) and Ryan Farrag (23-6) was over in a jiff. The match, which went next-to-last in the bout order, ended at the 42-second mark of round two. A barrage of punches climaxed by a left hook sent Farrag down hard and the referee waived it off.
The noted spoiler Ionut Baluta, whose former victims include Andrew Cain, forged another upset with a 10-round split decision over local fan favorite Brad Strand. The judges favored Baluta 98-91 and 96-94, out-voting the Italian judge whose 97-93 tally for Strand was deemed the most accurate by the TV pundits.
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