HIT MAN RETURNS : Thomas Hearns Is Getting On With His Career, but He Would Still Like to Fight Leonard and Hagler Again

LAS VEGAS â€”  In the 1980s, one of the most enduring--and troubled--of boxing’s champions has been Thomas Hearns.

And because he possesses one of boxing’s most lethal right hands, he’s been called The Hit Man. But for much of the 1980s, in his heart, he’s been The Hate Man.

The source of his anguish are two crushing defeats for which he has nearly abandoned all hope of ever being given a chance for redemption:

--In 1981, Sugar Ray Leonard, behind on all the judges’ cards, took out Hearns in the 14th round.

--In 1985, in a wild, memorable three rounds against Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Hearns went out feet first.

In 47 fights, those are Hearns’ only two losses. For years, he all but begged Leonard and Hagler for rematches. It never happened. He was left alone, to ponder forever, it seemed, what might have been.

Hearns, who defends his World Boxing Council middleweight championship against Iran Barkley at the Las Vegas Hilton Monday night, talked freely the other day about his burden.

At 29, he says the old wounds have finally scarred over. He says he has come to grips with the likelihood that he will never get rematches with either of his two conquerors.

“It’s time to get on with my life,� he said. “If I don’t get Leonard or Hagler again . . . yeah, it’ll be a monkey on my back. It’ll always bother me. But I’ll still be happy with my career. A lot of guys, you know, would like to be in my position.�

Hearns’ position is that he’s won pieces of four world championships but never an undisputed championship. He also doesn’t appreciate being reminded of this by writers. Goal One, he says now, is middleweight unification.

“I want to unify the middleweight division, and then unify the light-heavyweight division,� he said.

Our first memories of this athlete are of the tall, thin welterweight who burst upon the scene with knockouts in his first 17 fights. He won his first championship, the World Boxing Assn. welterweight title, with a two-round knockout of Mexican idol Pipino Cuevas in 1980. For all but a few months in 1981 and 1982, he has been a champion. And always, a class act. In 1986, after he knocked out James Shuler in one round, Shuler died in a motorcycle accident several days later. Hearns, at the funeral, gave Shuler’s family the North American Boxing Federation championship belt he’d won from Shuler a few days before.

Memories. If Hearns has his way, our last boxing memories of him will be as the undisputed middleweight and, then, light-heavyweight champion.

Hearns talks about unified middleweight and light-heavy titles only when asked, and insists he isn’t looking beyond Barkley, over whom he is a 4-1 favorite.

“Right now, Iran Barkley is my future,� Hearns said.

Hearns would be a heavier choice Monday, except for a rocky performance in his last fight, a four-round knockout of an over-the-hill Juan Roldan. Before Hearns took Roldan out, he was staggered in the second round.

Hagler, who says he’ll announce June 12 if he will fight again, indicated recently he’d like to fight the winner of a Hearns-Leonard fight.

That’s talk, and Hearns has heard it for years.

“I’m not going to believe anything those guys say,� Hearns said. “I’m not even going to get my hopes up again until I see a signature on a contract.�

Hearns, who trained in Scottsdale, Ariz., before arriving in Las Vegas two weeks ago, said he was in a Phoenix disco one May night when word spread through the place that Leonard had just walked in.

“Someone told me Ray had walked in, so I went over to where he was supposed to be. I had something I wanted to tell him. When I got there, he was gone.

What were you going to tell him, Tommy?

“I’m not going to tell you that--you couldn’t print it anyway,� Hearns responded.

Obvious question: Why not retire now?

Hearns pondered that one a few seconds, then answered: “Fighting is like having a loved one . . . it’s something I still enjoy doing. I enjoy performing . . . it makes me happy.

“I’ve got new goals now. If I can unify the middleweight and light- heavyweight titles, I’ll give everybody a big smile, wave goodby, and retire a happy man.�

Someone asked him if the big money fights made it any easier to pay the price in training.

“This is a terribly tough sport,� he said. “Sure, the money means a lot. (Hearns is getting $1.5 million Monday, Barkley $350,000.) When you go out there . . . you want to be paid, and paid well.

“The mental preparation for a fight has gotten to be the tough part for me, at this stage . . . the getting up every morning, going to the gym. That’s never been easy, but now it’s tougher for me.�

It has often been pointed out that while Hearns’ four world championships may be a unique achievement, none of them are undisputed championships. As he has in the past, Hearns bristled a bit when the subject came up again the other day.

“In all walks of life, people always look for flaws in you,� he said. “You don’t have to even be a fighter. Some of you guys (boxing writers) sound like you want to retire me. Maybe I’ll retire you instead.�

His two losses were both tough, brutal fights . . . for all participants. Leonard’s left eye was swollen shut the morning after he beat Hearns. Hagler-Hearns was a three-round war. Some still call it a classic, at least the best fight of the decade.

Hearns was asked if he would give Thomas Hearns a rematch, were he Hagler or Leonard.

“Well, I’d probably be a little hesitant, if I’d gone through what they did.�

In both defeats, Hearns’ legs failed him. Leonard had Hearns immobilized on the ropes in the 14th, unable to escape. When the referee stopped it, Leonard was punching freely. Against Hagler, Hearns said, his legs were gone during the introductions.

“I was overtrained for Hagler,� he said. “I tried to do too much in training, and my legs were gone by fight time. I was running as much as eight miles at one point, before that fight.�

The Hearns camp has had a special visitor since May 18. She’s a fleaweight, Hearns’ 5-year-old daughter, Natasha.

On May 17, Hearns’ former girlfriend and Natasha’s mother, Kimberly Craig, was murdered in Detroit. The next day, Natasha was flown to Hearns’ camp in Scottsdale, and accompanied Team Hearns to Las Vegas.

While Daddy trained to fight Barkley, Natasha was “adopted� by 70-year-old Irving Rudd, longtime press agent who once was the Brooklyn Dodgers’ publicity man.

“I have four grandchildren who I miss terribly, so for me Natasha has been a delight,� Rudd said. “The first thing I did was go out and buy her a Pinnochio book, so I could read her to sleep every night. Eventually, she started calling me “Uncle Irving.’ �