SportsDystopia

“I don’t write much about boxing anymore, because there’s not much in boxing anymore worth writing much about”  Ralph Wiley wrote that in April of 2004, not too long before he died unexpectedly and the sports world lost one of it’s all-time great commentators.

It’s truer now than ever, but the golden age of boxing still lives on, through the YouTube community.  Here’s Thomas “The Hit Man” Hearns vs. Roberto Duran, in June of 1984, from Caesar’s Palace.  This is the high water mark for Hearns, who takes about a minute and a half to measure out Duran and then dominate him, culminating in a 2nd round KO that ranks as one of the most devastating in boxing history.  Those pressed for time should skip to 6:46. 

The Motor City Cobra had a fantastic career, which went on long after he’d lost the hand speed which made him such a joy to watch in his early career.  The hand problems the announcers in this fight reference would rear up again, as he broke his right hand during the 1st round the following year in the brutal fight with Marvelous Marvin Hagler.  The image most people remember him by comes from that fight, getting caught by an overhand right hook and loping away from Hagler dazed, not seeming to realize where he was before Marvin chased him down and sent him to the canvas.  But on this night, there were no such problems, and his destruction of one of the all-time great champions, Duran, is a more fitting image to remember him by.

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