Tommy Hearns: Boxing’s First Four-Division Champion

[00:00:00] On October 29th, 1978 was a day that changed boxing history where Tommy the Hitman Hearns made history becoming the first fighter to win world titles in four different weight classes by beating Juan Domingo Rodin in a four-round knockout, giving him the middleweight title and showing his true greatness in the ring.

[00:00:25] Today, we're going to dive into Tommy Hearns and how he got to win these four titles and broke down how people are able to win titles in different classes today on Daily Sports History.

[00:00:44] Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge.

[00:00:55] And today's trivia question is, how many knockouts did Tommy Hearns have in his boxing career?

[00:01:03] Tommy Hearns grew up in Tennessee and was the youngest of three children from his mother's first marriage and her second marriage added six more kids until they moved the family up to Detroit, Michigan, where Hearns got into boxing and had an amateur record, won 155 fights and only lost eight.

[00:01:22] And he won the National Amateur Athletic Union Lightweight Championship in 1977 and won the National Gold Glove Lightweight Championship.

[00:01:32] That same year, he won the National Gold Glove Championship.

[00:01:36] So he was quickly rocketing up the boxing world and turned pro following his Gold Glove win.

[00:01:44] And his first fight was November 25th, 1977 against Jerome Hill, who he knocked out in the second round.

[00:01:51] And to continue this streak, he got the nickname Hitman as he would knock out so many opponents.

[00:01:57] He knocked out the first 17 opponents he faced professionally.

[00:02:01] And in 1980, he would win the USBA title, beating Angel Espedida.

[00:02:07] And he would win his first WBA title that same year, facing off against Jose Jouvez, who had a four-year run as the title holder.

[00:02:16] And he knocked him out in the second round.

[00:02:20] And Hearns was voted Fighter of the Year by Ring Magazine that same year.

[00:02:24] Then in 1981, having a perfect record, he was set to fight Sugar Ray Leonard for the World Welterweight title.

[00:02:33] To maintain the World Welterweight title.

[00:02:35] This was one of the biggest fights at the time.

[00:02:37] And it was a unique fight because it wasn't against just the heavyweights.

[00:02:41] It was the welterweights.

[00:02:43] And the 1960s and 70s were dominated by heavyweight competition led by Muhammad Ali.

[00:02:49] But this was a different kind of fight.

[00:02:52] And him and Sugar Ray went toe-to-toe.

[00:02:54] And he lost his very first fight by technical knockout in the 14th round, losing his welterweight title.

[00:03:01] But he would come back the next year after winning three fights to fight Wilford Benitez for the middleweight title.

[00:03:10] Now we're talking about weight classes.

[00:03:12] And it can get a little confusing with the different weight classes.

[00:03:16] So the lightest weight class is flyweight, which is 100 to 112.

[00:03:22] And then there's banterweight, featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight.

[00:03:30] And heavyweight is anything above 200 pounds.

[00:03:33] Now there have been some other weight classes that are kind of tweener weight classes that have been adopted as well.

[00:03:39] But really these weight classes are meant to keep the fights fair.

[00:03:44] You know, if you're going against someone that's much bigger than you, chances are the fight isn't going to be a fair fight.

[00:03:49] You could be a better skilled fighter and win a fight.

[00:03:52] Technically, a featherweight, delightsweight class could beat a heavyweight.

[00:03:56] But does it seem fair?

[00:03:58] This makes the fights more fair, more enjoyable.

[00:04:00] And Thomas was fighting in multiple weight classes.

[00:04:03] And he would go, he would fight between the weights of 140 and 175.

[00:04:09] Which there are multiple weight classes in between there, as well as tweener weight classes.

[00:04:14] So after losing to Sugar Ray, he moved up to the super welterweight class.

[00:04:18] And won the WBC title there, beating Wilford Benitez.

[00:04:23] Giving him his second weight class title for the WBC.

[00:04:27] Winning the light middleweight title.

[00:04:30] And he'd go on to defend this title for multiple years.

[00:04:33] Until 1985.

[00:04:35] When he lost to Marvin Hagler in a knockout in the third round.

[00:04:40] But he would come back the next fight to win the middleweight title for the NABF from Jane Scholler.

[00:04:48] And he would continue to move up.

[00:04:50] And in 1987, he would win the WBC light heavyweight title against Dennis Andres.

[00:04:56] In a 10 round technical knockout.

[00:04:59] And so, in October, he had to decide whether he wanted to keep the light heavyweight title.

[00:05:04] Or drop down to try to capture the middleweight title.

[00:05:08] Facing off against the number two fighter, Juan Roldin.

[00:05:13] Now the fight opened up.

[00:05:14] And Roldin actually was an aggressive fighter.

[00:05:16] And he threw some powerful punches at Hearns.

[00:05:19] Though Hearns was able to fight this off.

[00:05:22] And Hearns was able to land a three punch combination.

[00:05:25] Just as the round ended to give him the win for that round.

[00:05:29] In the second round, Hearns continued his dominance.

[00:05:32] Even though Roldin tried to be aggressive.

[00:05:34] Hearns was able to counter with the left hook.

[00:05:37] That took Roldin down to the canvas for the third time.

[00:05:41] And he was continuously getting knocked down by Hearns.

[00:05:43] And by the fourth round, Hearns was able to land a cross across Juan's face.

[00:05:49] Knocking him down to the canvas for the final time.

[00:05:51] Giving the knockout victory to Hearns.

[00:05:54] As he won his fourth different weight class title.

[00:05:57] Becoming the first boxer to ever do so.

[00:06:00] Making him a unique kind of fighter.

[00:06:02] And he would actually go on to win even more different fights.

[00:06:06] As he would go on to win a total of five different weight classes in his time.

[00:06:11] But he wasn't the only one.

[00:06:12] Sure, Ray was able to accomplish this feat a year later.

[00:06:14] And other greats.

[00:06:16] As Roy Jones Jr. had seven.

[00:06:18] Floyd Mayweather had eight.

[00:06:20] And Manny Pacquiao had nine.

[00:06:23] And it's a unique experience.

[00:06:25] As you know, like I said before, heavyweights dominated in the pre-1980s.

[00:06:30] And if you're a heavyweight, you're not going to go down as much.

[00:06:33] But if you're a lighter fighter, it's easier to go up in weight class than go down.

[00:06:39] And so you can jump through these weight classes.

[00:06:41] Because there's not a whole lot of weight actually differences between some of these classes.

[00:06:45] So you can jump from one to one.

[00:06:47] And it really makes it a unique experience.

[00:06:49] And Thomas would continue his greatness and finish with a career record of 61-5.

[00:06:55] With one draw to Sugar Ray Leonard later in his career.

[00:06:59] And he won 48 of those fights by a knockout.

[00:07:03] Giving him a great knockout percentage for his fights.

[00:07:07] He would retire in 2000.

[00:07:08] But make a comeback in 2005 and 2006.

[00:07:12] And officially retire after that.

[00:07:14] And Hearns is still a fixture at memorabilia conferences and things like that.

[00:07:18] He had.

[00:07:19] So he's still around the boxing world a little bit.

[00:07:21] But unfortunately he got into debt with the IRS.

[00:07:23] And lost a lot of what he had built up.

[00:07:26] Which is a sad thing to see.

[00:07:27] But he is still a part of the boxing community.

[00:07:30] And still around to this day.

[00:07:32] And is a fixture in the Detroit sports scene.

[00:07:37] And if you want to get more into boxing.

[00:07:39] Check out the Box Hard Podcast.

[00:07:42] Where Joey Coastman and Fast Eddie Chambers.

[00:07:46] Dive into all that goes on into boxing.

[00:07:48] From boxing history to what's going on today.

[00:07:50] So you can get your boxing fix.

[00:07:53] And if you enjoyed today's episode.

[00:07:54] Please leave us a review wherever you're listening.

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[00:08:02] And we'll get that done just for you.

[00:08:06] And today's trivia question is.

[00:08:08] How many knockouts did Tommy Hearns have in his boxing career?

[00:08:13] And the answer is.

[00:08:15] He had 48 knockouts.

[00:08:17] Out of his 61 career wins.

[00:08:21] Which is why he had the nickname.

[00:08:22] Hitman.