Hearns says Pacquaio and Mayweather should "go for it"

Back in the day there wasn’t a problem to get a match made in the sport of boxing. I grew up in an era of great heavyweights with a stellar middleweight/welterweight class. Fighters had no problem taking on a megafight. You  think Marvin Hagler had any second thoughts about fighting Thomas Hearns? No. It seemed that the only fighter that ducked anyone was Sugar Ray Leonard. That’s another story for a different day.

Thomas Hearns fought in what is considered to be a golden age of boxing, especially the welterweight and middleweight classes. So when he hears about all this posturing and bull about why Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao won’t fight, he’ll say they should just “go for it”.

 Hearns said Mayweather and Pacquiao need to “put it all on the line and go for it.”

“We believed in taking on all comers,” Hearns said. “Every fight wasn’t necessarily a good fight, but to us we knew we had to take the fight in order to move on. If we didn’t take a fight, we couldn’t move ahead.


“We knew we had to perform because if we didn’t do that, another man would get up on us. We never wanted anybody to have the upper hand over us. You wanted to have the upper hand.”


In other words, they were willing to take on the best to be the best because that’s where the big money was. Hearns believes that Mayweather and Pacquiao will settle their differences, but every time you look up one of the two are fighting someone else. Hearns wouldn’t say he’s disappointed but would like the two to come together.

It’s not my concern,” he said. 


Hearns endured some tough losses but doesn’t look back on his career with any regrets.

“If not, just think how fights would have been different,” he said. “You wouldn’t have had the chance to see all the fights you saw. You wouldn’t have had a chance to have all the thrills from seeing us fight, me and Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran. You would have never seen that.


“I thank God because God allowed that to happen in my time and I fought great fights.”


Too bad enough boxers today don’t have the same mindset about taking on all comers.

Ronald Hearns To Get A Title Shot

Ronald Hearns, the son of legendary Thomas “Hitman” Hearns will get a shot at the middleweight championship that his father held 23 years ago. He’ll have to go a long way to do it. Hearns will be fighting WBA champion Felix Sturm in his backyard in Germany on February 19. This will be Hearns’ toughest test by far. Sturm has held the title since 2007 and has one of the best chins out there. And for those that forget, there were others who felt Sturm was robbed against Oscar De La Hoya back in 2004.

Even though Hearns boasts an impressive record with 20 knockouts in his 27 fights (26-1), but Hearns is not ranked in the WBA top 15 and hasn’t beaten anyone of note in his career. Many feel that Sturm is taking this fight so he doesn’t have to face the top middleweights in the game (Sergio Martinez,Paul Williams). It’s what you would call a safe fight. On his home turf against an unheralded opponent.

It’s a big opportunity for Hearns. It’ll be tough but he does have a puncher’s chance to win. Only if he had Manny Steward in his corner and can avoid getting hit with a big shot, I’d have a lot more confidence in Hearns to go into enemy territory to come out with a win. In his only loss to Harry Joe Yorgey he was knocked out in the ninth round. Even though he exhibits his dad’s punching power, he also has his suspect chin. I wish the best of luck to Ronald.

Hearns fighting foreclosure

According to a report in the Detroit News,boxing legend and seven time world champion Thomas Hearns is facing foreclosure on his Southfield home.Records show that Hearns owes $961,156 in delinquent taxes and mortgage payments.The “Hitman”made $40 million dollars over his career,but this is another setback in a with a long string of financial problems.Hearns says he is working to keep the house and pay the debts.I’m just hoping he can get this straightned out and that he’s not broke.There seems to be a lot of former athletes that go broke due to being ripped off by “financial advisors”,bad business deals,and “helping” others maintain a lavish lifestyle.Being one of my favorite boxers of all time,also one of the most entertaining,I would like to see the Hitman knockout these taxes and debt and restore some order to this current mess.