Boxing

Teddy Atlas Remembers Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns On 40th Anniversary

Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns delivered one of the greatest fights in boxing history on April 15, 1985.
Nathaniel Marrero|
Marvin Hagler (left) and Tommy Hearns (right).
Marvin Hagler (left) and Tommy Hearns (right). | IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire

On April 15, 1985, one of the greatest fights in boxing history lit the world ablaze.

Hall of Fame broadcaster Jim Lampley described it as the "most hellacious eight minutes of combat in modern boxing history." Forty years ago, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas "Hitman" Hearns left a piece of themselves in the ring and gave boxing one of the most iconic fights in sports history.

Hearns personified his nickname, boasting a straight right hand that could knock anyone out. Meanwhile, Hagler was the immovable object and wore a hat that said war in all caps.

That hat foreshadowed what lied ahead when the two Hall of Famers met for the middleweight title.

Hall of Fame trainer Teddy Atlas described Hearns as a gunslinger, and Hagler as someone who sought to seek and destroy and was hardened by the journey he took to arrive at boxing's pinnacle. Atlas said he expected the taller and longer Hearns to use those attributes to keep his range against the stronger Hagler.

Instead, an all-out war broke out in the opening seconds of the bout.

"Tommy Hearns understood," Atlas said on his podcast, The Fight with Teddy Atlas. "He understood what [Hagler] was. He understood this guy is coming. I could pretend that I could go out there in my head and say I'm gonna be smart, I'm gonna box, I'm gonna stay on the outside [and] I'm gonna keep range. There's no way I can do that all night with this freaking guy. No, no. This guy that's like the snatcher of souls. There's no way. There's only one way. He made up his mind, I have to hurt him. I have to hurt him because he came here to hurt me."

What followed after the opening bell was one of the greatest rounds in boxing history.

Hagler and Hearns combined to land 106 punches in the first round, 95 of which were power shots, per CompuBox. Hearns landed his devastating straight right hand and appeared to momentarily rock Hagler, but the reigning middleweight champion stayed on his feet and kept pushing with his patent pressure and iron will that couldn't be deterred.

With both fighters surviving a first round that was fought at a torrid pace, Atlas believed the tide had turned in Hagler's favor.

"I am here until I die," Atlas said of Hagler's thought process. "We always hear that saying I'm going out on my shield. You're gonna have to kill me. We hear it. We've heard it before, but we don't always believe it. We believed it when Marvin Hagler said it...By the end of the round, the fight was over."

Two more back-and-forth rounds ensued, and Hagler's title reign was in even more danger when referee Richard Steele called time in the middle of the third round to allow a doctor to look at a cut on Hagler's forehead that had left his face a bloody mess. Sensing he may not have much longer to get Hearns out of there, Hagler somehow found another gear and moments later, he gunned down the Hitman late in the third round, winning one of boxing's greatest fights by third-round stoppage.

The hat that Hagler wore that said war had come to life. Hagler and Hearns delivered beyond anyone's wildest imagination of what that fight could have been.

"Hagler wore a hat with the letters war written on it, but the intent to actually do war was burned into his soul from the day the fight was signed, and perhaps even the day he first put on a pair of gloves," Atlas said. "The first round quickly became a building on fire. An inferno, if you will. "Anywhere you went, flames were there. But as the round burned to an end, something happened. The flames searched for fuel, something else to burn..

Atlas added: "Then in the next round, Hagler was no longer just one of the flames. He had become the furnace, a place where fire grows. Where it breathes and where it looks for things to grow with. It looks for food. In that round, in that moment, Hearns became the log to be fed to the fire. But in the third round, it was ablaze. Hearn's body and his spirit had been consumed. The war was over and Hagler walked through the ashes. Three rounds of hell was over."

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Nathaniel Marrero
NATHANIEL MARRERO

Nathaniel Marrero is a writer for the Boxing, Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Ravens On SI sites. He's also written for the Orlando Sentinel and MLB.com, and was a part of UCF's sports show, Hitting The Field. He attended UCF and graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 2023. Twitter/X: Nate_Marrero

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