Al Bernstein was a few years into his career as a boxing broadcaster when he received the assignment of a lifetime. He had been calling ESPN’s weekly Top Rank Boxing series and had worked one other superfight. But this was different.
This was Marvelous Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas “Hitman” Hearns.
“It was quite an event for me,” said Bernstein, who was 34 years old on April 15, 1985, when he called Top Rank’s closed-circuit broadcast of “The Fight!” for the undisputed middleweight championship of the world from the makeshift outdoor stadium at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. “The enormity of it was really something. It’s not like I was a neophyte. I had been doing it for five years. I had been around big fight atmospheres. But this felt like another level.”
In the 40 years since, Bernstein has gone on to be one of the most accomplished and respected broadcast analysts in the game. A member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, Bernstein made his career at ESPN and Showtime. But he will forever be linked to Top Rank’s closed-circuit television broadcast of the Hagler-Hearns fight, where he served as the analyst in what is considered the greatest first round in boxing history.
“I can remember almost everything about that weekend. It is indelibly etched in my mind,” said the Chicago native who now lives in Las Vegas. “Not just the fight but all the circumstances: the magic atmosphere at Caesars Palace and the broadcast itself, in which I was surrounded by Hall of Fame talent. (Legendary sportscaster) Curt Gowdy was the host, and Al Michaels did the play-by-play. For me, it was a heady time.”
This was Bernstein’s second closed-circuit assignment. The first had been Hagler’s decision over Roberto Duran in the same Caesars arena in November 1983. But this time, the stakes were higher for his career. He was being considered for the analyst position at ABC – back when ABC regularly televised boxing – and his work at Hagler-Hearns was considered a test-run.
“ABC had asked (Top Rank President) Bob Arum if he could hire Al Michaels to do the play-by-play for (the closed-circuit broadcast of Hagler-Hearns) because they wanted to hear us together,” Bernstein said. “Because of that, it was me and Al Michaels doing it. Ironically, the person that ABC ended up hiring was Alex Wallau, who was not an announcer but a producer. He ended up getting (the job) for whatever reason.”
Getting Ready For An Unforgettable Night
To prepare for the biggest assignment of his career, Bernstein attended two of the press conferences in Top Rank’s whirlwind 25-city tour to promote the fight. One was at the beginning of the tour; the other was at the end. By the second, he could see that the bad blood between Hagler and Hearns – the two best pound-for-pound fighters in boxing – had escalated.
“Sometimes things become boxing folklore as to how testy fighters are with each other. This wasn’t folklore,” Bernstein said. “By the time they got to the end of this press tour, Marvin said he wanted to rip Tommy’s head off, and I’m sure Tommy wanted to do the same. They were under each other’s skin in a huge way. Now, of course, something like a press tour is hardly needed because you can reach everybody by the Internet. But back then, you couldn’t, so you had to do this dog and pony show and go around the world. But that press tour really did influence the intensity and the zeal with which they fought with.”
Monday, April 15, 1985, arrived, and Bernstein called the undercard action with Michaels, the veteran broadcaster famous for the “Do you believe in miracles?” line when the United States hockey team upset the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics. Michaels was his usual calm, professional self. Bernstein wondered about the lack of buzz in the arena before the fight.
“I was telling (Top Rank Hall of Fame matchmaker) Bruce Trampler, ‘does this crowd seem subdued to you?’ But what happened was, instead of cheering and yelling, the crowd was anticipatory,” he said.
Once Brockton, Massachusetts’s Hagler, 60-2-2 (50 knockouts), and Detroit’s Hearns, 40-1 (34 KO’s), made their way to the ring, the vibe changed.
“The walk-ins started to liven the crowd up, and by the time you got to the second walk with Hagler, the place was already on fire. At that moment, after the second walk-in, I did something that the producers wouldn’t love me to do, but I had to. I took my headset off for 5-10 seconds and looked around just to get a feel for it. It became practice for me and now I do it almost every fight. I want to get a feel for what’s going on in the arena.”
The WAR
Finally, after an intense staredown and prefight introductions, the first-round bell rang, and all that animosity that Hagler and Hearns had built up over the press tour was unleashed. Hagler was aggressive early, pursuing and smashing a right hand against Hearns’ temple that put the “Hitman’s” back on the ropes in the opening seconds. From there, the fighters erupted – both trying to decapitate the other with their biggest shots.
“That first round started off with them walking in and immediately Tommy Hearns lands a monstrous right hand,” Bernstein said. “It wasn’t as if Marvin Hagler staggered backwards. But everyone could see that it was a right hand that made a little bit of impact. Because no punches had ever made an impact on Marvin Hagler. We were so used to seeing people bounce punches off him, and nothing seemed to faze him. And Hagler being Hagler, he started responding, and the war was on.”
In that opening, furious sequence, Hearns landed that monstrous right uppercut as Hagler pressed. It caught Marvelous directly on the chin and made him retreat before forcing him to clinch – a rare sight. In 64 professional fights, Hagler had almost never been wobbled and had only been dropped once – and even that was highly disputed.
So – how hurt was Hagler?
“He told me later that that was as stunned as he’s been in a boxing ring,” Bernstein said. “He wasn’t ready to go down or anything. I was around Marvin a lot later in life; we became really close. He said there were two times in that first round (where he was stunned). He said even John Mugabi didn’t hurt him like Tommy did.
“It was the uppercut that really stunned him.”
After that incredible opening sequence, the fight settled into a street brawl. Hagler fielded a couple of right hands before nailing Hearns with a big left hand that brought the crowd to its feet. They brawled along the ropes before Hearns tried to get some space, continuing to land big right hands. Hagler doggedly pursued.
At this point, even the typically unflappable Michaels was taken in by the intense action.
“He’s not the kind of broadcaster that gets super excited,” Bernstein said. “I was trying to get the rhythm of what we were trying to do because I’d never worked with him. During the undercard, he was not as animated. But once round one of the Hagler-Hearns fight started, it was like Jekyll and Hyde. It was a different guy. I’m thinking: ‘Two-and-a-half hours of working with one rhythm – now I have to work with another.’ It was ok. I was glad he got excited. It demonstrated how exciting it was.”
The two continued to brawl as the fight moved from the center of the ring back to the ropes. Hagler had Hearns where he wanted him, but the Hitman was firing back with fury, connecting with right hands, left hooks, and uppercuts. Hagler belted away at the Hearns’ ribcage. He finally broke through and sent Hearns reeling with a combination, but then Hearns fired right back with his own flurry. Finally, the round ended. The crowd was in a frenzy as Hagler and Hearns returned to their corners, staring at each other.
Bernstein immediately proclaimed the first round “one of the best in middleweight history.”
“I’m not given to hyperbole, but that just spilled out my mouth, that it was one of the great middleweight rounds of all time,” he said. “Who could possibly argue with that statement? It just came out.
Little did everybody know, however, that Hearns had broken his right hand on Hagler’s head.
“The interesting thing about that round – every portion of that round had something astonishing. And what amazes me when I look back is Tommy Hearns hurt his right hand with that first right,” he said. “And when you look at rounds one and two, he’s still throwing the right hand. It’s not as if he stopped throwing it. He was still throwing that punch. Not to take anything away from Hagler, but I always think to myself: what would’ve happened had Tommy Hearns not hurt his right hand with that first right hand he threw? I’m not saying he would’ve won the fight, but it might’ve taken on a different complexion.”
The brawl continued in round two. Bernstein pointed out that there is a misconception that Hagler dominated after the first round. He says that wasn’t the case. Hearns continued to punch back with abandon, even with the broken hand. At one point, he caught Hagler with a shot that stopped him in his tracks.
“If you look at round two, Tommy Hearns really had good numbers. It’s not like he folded his tent. He fought pretty well,” Bernstein said. “What was telling to me was the stumbling. We had seen him when he got hurt against Sugar Ray Leonard and he became Tommy Hearns the boxer and boxed beautifully. He couldn’t do that against Hagler. His legs were gone.”
Hearns’ late trainer, the great Emanuel Steward, had claimed that a massage from a hanger-on hours before the fight weakened the Hitman’s legs.
“Emanuel contended to his dying day that that was a factor,” Bernstein said.
When the third round began, Hagler started to exert his dominance. Hearns was weak, and he was looking tired. Then, a cut opened up on Hagler’s forehead, and the complexion of the fight changed yet again. Referee Richard Steele called time to allow Hagler’s cut to be examined by the ring doctor.
“It wasn’t good,” Bernstein said of the cut. “It was the kind of cut that ultimately could’ve stopped the fight. It was bad enough that Hagler knew he was in trouble.”
When the ringside physician said Hagler could go, the Marvelous One had a renewed sense of urgency. As in the opening seconds, he went right after Hearns. And this time, the Hitman didn’t have the strength to fend him off. A looping right hand made Hearns lurch forward, then against the ropes. That’s when Hagler leaped in with a massive right hand that caught Hearns perfectly on the chin and dropped him onto his back.
The Hitman got up on wobbly legs, but referee Richard Steele immediately stopped the fight.
It was a sudden ending to what had been an unbelievable fight.
“The world would’ve exploded had they stopped the fight due to that cut,” Bernstein said. “Had Tommy Hearns been able to move better in that fight and jab and be more of a boxer, it is conceivable he could’ve exacerbated that cut. Marvin knew he had to get the job done and in typical Marvin Hagler fashion, once they looked at the cut, it was a hellbent for leather effort designed to put Tommy Hearns out.”
Bernstein interviewed Hagler after the fight, and he said Hagler struck him as content and happy. Months earlier, Hagler had been not as impressive in beating Duran. This was his vindication.
“Going into the Hearns fight, he was still an unfulfilled man in boxing,” he said. “It’s part of what fueled him. Not getting the credit (he) should. He needed a big signature win over someone like Tommy Hearns. When I was in the ring, it felt different than at other times I’d interviewed him after a fight. He felt satisfied and happy as could be. You could feel that a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.”
So, was it the greatest fight Bernstein has ever called? No. That distinction would go to the 2005 Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo fight, which Corrales won by an incredible 10th-round TKO. He said that one lasted 9 ½ rounds – not three – and every round was a gem.
Not that Hagler-Hearns doesn’t stand out to him. He’s glad to have been part of that and Corrales-Castillo – perhaps the two greatest fights of the last 40 years.
“I’m lucky to have been on hand for both of those. You don’t always get those opportunities,” Bernstein said.
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