Boxing: Leonard vs Hearns I on ESPN-Classic.

[H2O Man]

ESPN- Classic is replaying the first Leonard vs Hearns match twice tonight. Hard to believe it was 25 years ago tonight.

[Awsi Dooger]

1. I realized as soon as I saw your headline

that it had to be the 25th anniversary since I knew it was September 1981.

What an awesome fight. I think it was in the middle of the week, like Wednesday or Thursday night. I was in college and my friend and I walked around trying to find someone who had the PPV and would let us watch. We gave up after several hours and wobbled into my friend's apartment, dead tired. When we told our story they started to laugh then pointed at the TV. They had it right there.

Most dramatic change of momentum and role reversal I've ever seen in a huge fight. Plus a famous summation from Angelo Dundee between rounds, "You're blowin' it, kid. You're blowin' it."

[H2O Man]

2. Angelo Dundee

added to the intensity of the fight with that statement. Had Tommy continued to simply outbox Ray, it would have been a forgotten moment. But as it stands, it is now one of those wonderful quotes, with the power of Howard Cosell's, "Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!"

Twice in the fight, the Hit Man becomes overconfident: in the 5th, he mocks Leonard's bolo, and at the beginning of the 12th, he plays to the crowd's chant of "Ali! Ali!" Each time, he pays a heavy price in the next round.

I have read Ray Leonard's saying that Tommy continues to call him every so often, and challenge him to a third match. (Ray is decent enough to admit that Hearns won the second fight.) In the studio, at the end of ESPN's show, Tommy indeed suggests they should fight again. Ray did not want to say that Hearns has become a sad case, and it is an uncomfortable moment. Hearns can't drop it: he just said it over and over.

Ray Leonard was not one of the professional fighters I liked. I admired him in the amateurs, and had great respect for his skills in the ring as a pro, but he was an extremely obnoxious man. In the ESPN show about his career, his ex-wife notes that she believed "Ray Leonard" was still in there -- somewhere -- but "Sugar Ray" refused to let him out. I thought that we had a glimpse of him, somewhat obscured by Sugar Ray, but still visible in that studio in the gym setting. I thought he treated Tommy with respect, and that was important to me. Tommy was always a very decent man outside the ring, and it is sad to see him reduced by the punishment he took in an explosive, exciting career. That career should have ended long ago.

[Awsi Dooger]

3. That is sad about Hearns

I didn't realize he was still calling for a third fight. Gad. The second fight was '89, if I remember correctly, and while it had its moments there was plenty of talk that both fighters were well past their peak. Imagine 17 or 18 years later.

I like Leonard but in both fights I rooted for Hearns, partially because of the same impression, that he was a more genuine person. And IMO the juding in the second fight was absurd. Yes, Leonard hurt Tommy in a few rounds but not to the extent of the first fight, plus Tommy scored two clean knock downs. I watched it PPV at the old Aladdin theater in Las Vegas and the crowd was in an uproar when they scored it a draw. I'm not sure Tommy would have fought as long if he had that one satisfying win over Leonard under his belt. He knew he matched up well against Ray, with that long piston jab.

I haven't seen the first fight in years but I can picture the two incidents of overconfidence. The first one is somewhat understandable, because Hearns had dictated the fight until that point. I was watching with about 15 guys in that small off campus apartment and everyone loved it when Tommy mocked the bolo.

But the second one was ridiculous. I was rooting for Tommy to somehow jab and elude over the final rounds and not get rocked again. Then the big overhand right that caught Tommy on the side of the face and wobbled him, to the point Leonard raised his hands in triumph. I knew it was over right there.