Hearns Is Down and Then Out : Barkley Flattens Champion, Puts Him Through Ropes in 3rd

LAS VEGAS —  In perhaps the most stunning finish to a middleweight championship fight since Sugar Ray Robinson stiffened Gene Fullmer with one punch in 1957, a bloodied, battered and hopelessly beaten warrior from the Bronx may have retired a legend Monday night.

Iran Barkley, blood streaming down his face from deep cuts over both eyes, launched a wild right hand from Desperation City late in the third round, and it connected solidly on Thomas Hearns’ jaw. For a fraction of a second, Hearns was frozen like a marble statue, his hands down.

Then a second right, a thudding, punishing punch that lashed Hearns’ head backward and knocked him off his feet.

And there he was, boxing’s only four-division champion, flat on his back. He arose, helpless, at the count of 8. Barkley, a 4-1 underdog, pounced upon Hearns again, and knocked Hearns through the ropes. When referee Richard Steele leaned through the ropes, he waved off Barkley and the World Boxing Council championship had changed hands.

At first, the Las Vegas Hilton crowd of 8,541 seemed too shocked to respond. What they had seen to that point wasn’t pretty. Hearns was not only in control, he was on the verge of turning it into a slaughter. Until Hearns went down, some might have looked at the awful cuts over Barkley’s eyes and thought maybe boxing should be banned after all.

Barkley seemed in trouble even before he started bleeding. In the first round, he was lunging toward Hearns, seemingly offering up his head and chin on a platter.

In the second, Hearns started finding Barkley’s rib cage with some solid left hooks. After one of them, Barkley winced in pain. One wild Barkley left hook caught Hearns on the side of the head midway through the second, but it had little effect.

After the second round, Barkley had two cuts over both eyes and was examined closely by ring doctor Donald Romeo. Barkley was also bleeding from a cut in his mouth. If ever a guy was ready to go, it was Barkley.

He came out of his corner in a rage, leaping directly at the champion with wild combinations, all from which Hearns easily danced away from.

Afterward, Barkley said his corner had told him to “go for it” in the third. According to Barkley, the following exchange occurred in his corner between the second and third rounds:

Trainer Al Bolden: “You’re cut, you better go for it.”

Barkley: “You want me to go for it now?”

Bolden: “Now!”

The news conference afterward was an emotional crusher for the victor, not the vanquished.

Barkley paid tribute to an old teammate from his amateur days, Davey Moore, who died in a freak auto accident Friday. He started by saying: “ . . . I want to pay tribute to a very good friend, a brother . . . Davey Moore . . . “

At that point, it all caught up to Barkley, and he lost it. His face twisted into an anguished cry, he put his head on the table, and sobbed uncontrollably.

He started over, and paid tribute to Hearns.

“I want to thank Thomas Hearns for giving me a shot,” he said. “He was a great middleweight champion. He was a legend. Anytime he wants a rematch, he can have it.”

At that, Hearns walked into the room, and Barkley was among the first to rise and applaud. And the two men who battered each other savagely only 30 minutes before, embraced warmly.

Hearns spoke eloquently, of being a champion in America, of being blessed with his considerable physical gifts.

“Even though I was defeated tonight, even though tonight Iran Barkley was the better man, I’m still happy,” he said.

“You know what? An awful lot of people would like to be where I am right now. I’ve had a beautiful career. I feel like a guy who’s lost a battle, but I also feel like I’ve won the war.”

But 30 minutes later, he said: “Retire? I’m going home (to Detroit) and give it a lot of thought. Boxing has been very good to me. I want to go home, relax and enjoy my summer.”

If Hearns, 29, decides he’s happy with a 45-3 record that includes 38 knockouts, he won’t soon forget his final tribute. When he left the mob scene in the ring and made his way up the aisle, spectators surged to the roped aisle and shook his hand, patted his back.

Hearns smiled, and shook hands. In the bleachers, rows of fans stood up and cheered, believing perhaps it was their last chance to salute a man who has been a champion, in one division or another, four times in the 1980s.

Remembered well were his historic, losing battles with Sugar Ray Leonard in 1981, and Marvelous Marvin Hagler in 1985.

Unhappily for Hearns, so too will they remember their last, shocking view of him in the ring: On his back, struggling to rise, his eyes cocked crazily to the right and above, a gaze that seemed to be locked onto unseen danger from the ceiling.

And even more crazily, there were Barkley’s bloodied eyes. While Hearns was through the ropes, splayed out on the apron, and obviously finished, Barkley looked over at his already celebrating cornermen. And a flicker of a smile crossed his mouth, and he opened his bleeding eyes wide.

In the two other world championship bouts on the card, Roger Mayweather (32-5) retained his WBC super-lightweight title with a split decision over Harold Brazier (55-8-1), and Virgil Hill retained his WBA light-heavyweight championship over Ramzi Hassan.

Mayweather-Brazier was a battle of big punchers, with Mayweather surviving desperate trouble in the last four rounds. He seemed to be out on his feet in parts of all four final rounds.

In the ninth, Brazier rocked him with a half-dozen right hands in a neutral corner. And in the last 20 seconds of the 10th, he hit him with 12 unanswered punches.

Brazier had Mayweather in a daze in the 11th, but the champion snapped out of it with a cracking right hand to Brazier’s head. Surely, it seemed, Mayweather would never survive the 12th. With a left-right-left combination at center-ring, Brazier turned Mayweather’s knees to jelly.

But he finished the fight, and retained his title. Judges Carol Castellano and Spyder Bynum scored it 116-111 and 114-113 for Mayweather. Judge Abraham Chavarria had it for Brazier, 116-115. The Times card had Brazier ahead, 117-110.

In the light-heavyweight bout, Hill won nearly every round over his Jordanian challenger. Hill was much quicker than his slow opponent, who didn’t connect with one combination. He did, however, tag Hill with occasional straight right hands.

Hassan complained of low blows in the seventh and eighth rounds, and dropped to one knee from another, in the 11th. Referee Mills Lane took a point away from Hill, but he was far ahead by then.