Ronald Hearns and Thomas Hitman Hearns: Son Not Like Motor City Cobra Father
Editorial By Robert Brizel, Head RCM Boxing Correspondent
Father and son professional boxers. Once in a while, names repeat of legend. Names like Mayweather, Berlenbach, Chavez, Camacho, Espadas, Escalera, Miske, Cobb Foreman, Galindez, Vazquez, Cerdan, Cuevas, Fitzsimmons, Geraldo,Giardello, Johansson, Zarate, Frazier, Jackson, Duran, Mathis, Mancini, McCall, McGirt, Papke, Patterson, Pinot, Paez, Tapia, Haugen, Smith, Witherspoon, Minter, Pryor, Seldon, Spinks, Gamache, LaPorte, Mundine, and Eubank. Sometimes the famous names do live up to expectations, and sometimes they do not.
Bornin 1958, Thomas HitmanHearns is a boxing legend, having fought from welterweight to cruiserweight between 1977 and 2006, compiling a professional record of 61 wins, five losses, and one draw, with 48 knockouts. Also known as ‘The Motor City Cobra’, his ring battles with Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, and Marvelous Marvin Hagler are now legendary in the annals of boxing history.
Born in 1978, Ronald ‘The Chosen One’ Hearns turned pro in 2009, and has compiled a professional record of 26 wins and five losses, with 20 knockouts fighting between light middleweight and super middleweight. Since being stopped by Felix Sturm in a World Boxing Association Super World Middleweight title bout in 2011 in Germany, Ronald has failed in three comeback attempts. After being stopped four times in a row, the most recent being by Eddie Hunter in the sixth round in January 2014, Ronald’s boxing career would seem near the end of the trail.
An American University college graduate, Ronald won the 2004 National Middleweight Amateur Championship. Hearns, like some others, tried to follow in his father’s footsteps.
Male and female children of boxers becoming boxers was and still is generally rare. Joe Louis Jr., Archie Moore Jr. and Rocky Marciano Jr. are three living sons of famous boxers. The boxers Young Jack Johnson and Young Joe Louis, incidentally, were not related to their famous namesakes. Salvador Sanchez Castro and Mauricio Pintor were the nephews of their famous namesakes.
To actually try to hold up any of professional boxing’s famous names to be the same as their fathers, with the same expectations is wrong. Then again, Laila Ali, like Floyd Mayweather Jr., proves sometimes it’s simply in the genes. Ronald Hearns most certainly has no resemblance to his famous father. That he got a world title shot makes his effort all the more remarkable. Boxing, like other sports, is a tremendous discipline at the amateur and professional level. The son or daughter of a famous boxer would have to acquire the same discipline and hunger to win as their famous fathers. Without the hunger, ascending to the world class level is rare, because few can equal a famous name for reputation or accomplishment in the world of boxing.
COMMENTS
English