The Greatest Round In Boxing History?

Marvin Hagler v Thomas Hearns, first round, Las Vegas, 15 April 1985 (Hagler won by third-round knockout)


It was billed, simply, as The Fight. Marvellous Marvin Hagler, the undisputed middleweight champion of the world and unbeaten since 1976, against the world's best light-middleweight, Tommy 'The Hitman' Hearns.

Hagler could box, brawl, switch-hit, punch – and his shaven skull seemed impervious to pain. Few disputed his claim never to have been hurt in the ring. Even so, many smart analysts believed Hearns possessed the tools to trouble him: he was four inches taller, a smart boxer and his outstanding record – 40-1 with 35 knockouts – advertised his punching power. Hearns was briefly a betting favourite in the week leading up to the fight. The big question was, could he use his physical advantages to outbox Hagler?

The Caesars Palace crowd never got a chance to find out. In the ring beforehand, Tommy's brother Billy taunted Hagler as he shadowboxed. "I saw him," Hagler said later. "I was thinking right then: 'All you're gonna do is get your brother's ass kicked.'"

Hagler was as good as his word. He leapt off his stool and threw a hard right, which missed, followed by a left to the body that sent Hearns towards the ropes. As Hugh McIllvaney wrote in the Observer: "The fighter who had come off the stool at him when the first bell sounded was not a Marvin Hagler anyone had ever seen before. He was a man possessed, the very incarnation of furious hostility, an enemy who shrank the ring with the heat of his malevolent intent."

Hearns, who believed that a pre-fight massage had weakened his legs, decided he had no choice but to pour hot oil on Hagler's raging fire.

He threw four hard right hands in a row, including a brutal uppercut that forced Hagler to clinch. In a matter of seconds the pattern had been set, the rules of combat laid down: Hagler the hunter, Hearns firing back at every opportunity. The gasps from the crowd whenever a punch landed told their own story.

With just over a minute left of the round, Hagler was cut on the top of his forehead. Unbeknown to anyone, Hearns had also broken his right hand on Hagler's skull. But they continued to unload bombs, with Hagler wobbling Hearns just before the bell, before glaring at him as he walked back to his corner.

As McIllvaney wrote: "Hooks, swings and anything else that might rock or demoralise Hearns were hurled across with what might have been mistaken for wild abandon. In fact, only Hagler's spirit was really wild, for there was always a pronounced element of calculation in what he did with those powerful arms … the surge of mayhem seemed to go on forever".

It was all too much for Harry Mullan, the editor of Boxing News, who confessed: "I was praying for it to end, I thought I was going to have a heart-attack."

Unsurprisingly Hagler, never a sentimentalist, took a different view. "I was sorry to see that round end," he said. "I hated to give Tommy a chance to go back to his corner and recover."

Two rounds later, Hagler got his man, chopping him down to the canvas.

But Hearns played his part too. As his trainer Emanuel Steward later revealed: "After the first round his hand was broke and his legs were gone. But that night Tommy told me not to mention anything about the hand. He said he didn't want to take anything away from Hagler's victory. That's the kind of guy Tommy was."