I was tipped off by another boxing examiner (The White Gorilla) about what Thomas Hearns would be doing Saturday.
The IRS in Detroit will be auctioning off his boxing memorabilia and other personal items at The Auction Block on Greenfield Avenue in an attempt to help satisfy hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to Uncle Sam.
Hearns will apparently be there to sign autographs. If you can buy an item or two, you should and then hand them right back to the great champion. Heck, offer him a job if possible.
This is sad and humbling. “The Hit Man” didn’t just collect the belts, gloves and robes. He earned them in the first place. He made them rare and valuable.
Hearns was and is a legend to me. I have been in a few social situations near him and I always forgot what I wanted to say and ended up mumbling and stumbling like a kid. But I think he knew what I meant.
“The Hitman,” along with “Marvelous Marvin” and “Sugar Ray,” none of them weighing over 160 lbs. in their primes, literally owned the late 1970s, 1980s and just short of the 1990s.
You never had to remember the name of the titles or weight divisions they held. You just knew they were the best and nothing else really mattered.
Manny Pacquiao fans and historians will learn the seven and possibly an eighth weight division championships he wins aren’t necessary to bring up. Just his name and he can walk in the front door anywhere he goes along with Hearns, Hagler and Leonard.
But for the record, Hearns was the first to win four world titles in four different weight divisions. He was the first to go five for five and first to go six for six.
Hearns won his titles at 147, 154, 160, 168, 175 and 190 (welterweight through cruiserweight).
His 1985 battle with Hagler is considered the greatest three rounds in boxing history.
Hearns is 51 and lives in a Detroit suburb.
He has a lot of life left in him so he’s going to have to get a handle on his spending to say the least. I don’t know how much he earned but it had to be the mid tens of millions range during his ring career.
I don’t know the man personally, but he means a lot to me.
I wish I could help. I don’t know if he had too many sports cars or false friends or hanger’s on, or bad investments, but it was too much and eventually the money faucet dried up.
If you are in at least your late 30s or early 40s, amortized over a lifetime, Thomas Hearns has been worth more than a few pennies per boxing memory in your lifetime.
I doubt we’ll see another like “The Hitman.”
