Thomas \”The Hitman\” Hearns: The Warrior Cannot Walk Away.

It was with great sadness that I reacted to Thomas “The Hit Man” Hearns’ recent announcement that he would be getting back into the ring at age forty-six. Hearns is one of my all-time favorite boxers. What I remember most about him is that he never seemed to have a boring, uneventful boxing match.

***The Hitmen*** © Mike Cleary

His fights were always fast and furious. Who can forget his first fight with “Sugar” Ray Leonard? An epic battle with many stage; Hearns standing flat-footed and trying to land the big right hand, Leonard dancing around looking for an opening, Leonard hurting Hearns to the body, Hearns turning boxer and shooting the jab at Leonard’s deteriorating left eye. It was a seesaw battle, with various changes in momentum, which finally ended in a dramatic TKO victory for Leonard. How about his three-round knockout at the hands of “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler in 1985? No other fight before or since has matched this one for pure, unadulterated savagery packed into three short rounds. Hearns’ fights were about knockouts, administered or received. It was the famous Hearns right hand which pulverized Jose “Pipino” Cuevas, and another right hand which shut the lights out for Roberto Durán during the eighties. This is the Hearns that I, and millions of boxing fans around the world, remember. Why then, is Hearns coming back, at the ancient boxing age of forty-six, for another go-round in the ring?

Hearns is by no means alone in his ill-conceived comeback. It seems we’ve arrived at the “Age of Comebacks.” Several other fighters from the past have either already come back and fought, many years after their retirement, or are planning to fight in the near future. To name a few, Durán, Julio Cesar Chavez, Riddick Bowe, Larry Holmes and Hector Camacho. In the case of Chavez and Camacho, they have already fought in the same card as their boxing sons, a “father-son” doubleheader, so to speak. Father-son combinations are fine in golf. Even a sport a bit more demanding than golf, such as race-car driving, has seen its share of father-son competition. But boxing? It just doesn’t seem right.

In 1994, former heavyweight champion George Foreman got the boxing world buzzing when he came back after many years in retirement and actually won the heavyweight title from defending champion Michael Moorer. That fight did more for the psyche of the “over-forty” generation than any amount of health club advertising would have done. People started looking at age in sports in a whole new way. In professional team sports, exceptional athletes compete into their forties, but those are the exception rather than the rule.

The advantage in professional team sports is that teams, in order to remain competitive, will automatically “retire” older athletes. In individual sports, it is up to the individual to realize when he/she can no longer compete at the elite level. In some individual sports, such as golf, they’ve come up with an outlet for the aging athlete, in this case the Senior PGA Tour. You become eligible when you’re fifty, and then you’re competing against other seniors. Tennis is another individual sport. But here, with all the teenage phenoms, even thirty is considered as being close to “over the hill.”

So why the sudden glut of retired boxers wanting to climb back into the ring? One of the obvious reasons is money. It’s hard to blame a retired big-name boxer, seeing the amount of purses today, for wanting a piece of the action. This is especially relevant when you consider that many of these boxers have squandered large amounts of money, partly due to their lack of knowledge and partly due to a surplus of associates willing to take their cut.

But there are other reasons as well. Unless you’ve been in those shoes, it’s difficult, if not impossible to know the psychological factors at work when you’ve been “the man” in the past, and now you’re watching from the outside, just another spectator. The thrill of battle, the adulation, the cheers as you make your grand entrance into the ring, the euphoria of winning and getting your hand raised at the end, the reporters hanging on your every word. It’s easy to see how that can be addictive. In some cases, it seems as if entire nations sit at the edge of their seats when their favorite boxing son is in a major championship fight. That’s got to be a tremendous adrenaline rush.

And finally, there’s the “George Foreman” factor. The fighters must be thinking: “Hey, if George can be heavyweight champion again at age forty-five, why can’t I?”

So how do we as fans react to this new phenomenon? Going back to Hearns, I’d rather remember him for his classic fights in his heyday, not for getting whacked around the ring by some “C-class bum.” He, and we, deserve better than that. Unfortunately, the decision is his. And if medically cleared to fight yet another match, he’s apparently more than willing to continue fighting. But until when? What does he have left to prove?

It’s a little like when “Gramps” begins to lose the motor skills, senses, and reactions necessary to drive his own car. Hopefully, the licensing agency will know when to revoke or deny the renewal of his license. If not, it’s up to a wise, compassionate and well-meaning relative or friend to say: “Gramps, please give me the keys to the car. Your driving days are over.”

Reynaldo Sambolin can be reached at RSAMBOLIN@libertypr.net