The legendary Thomas Hearns once expressed an interest in a showdown with a formidable heavyweight champion.
Hearns is widely considered to be one of the greatest fighters to have ever laced up the gloves, proving his credentials throughout the course of his 29-year professional career which spanned between 1977 and 2006.
He became the first fighter in the history of boxing to capture world titles in five weight classes, achieving this feat back in 1987 when he defeated Britain’s Dennis Andries to capture the WBC light-heavyweight title.
The height of his glittering professional career came during the 1980s where he would become a member of the iconic ‘Four Kings’ alongside former rivals Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
As revealed to the Detroit Free Press during the early 1990s, Hearns once made a sensational call-out to former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
”I’m a walking-around 182 pounds right now, so I can get near enough to 200. If Tyson will come down to 200 and train the way he did for Buster Douglas, I’d fight him in a minute. Everybody wants a piece of him now.’”
It was said that trainer Emanuel Steward talked his charge out of the pursuit.
Tyson is often regarded as being one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, rising to stardom during the late 1980s where he became the youngest world heavyweight champion of all time, a record that remains unbroken to this very day.
He would go on to become the undisputed heavyweight champion shortly after, making a handful of successful title defences before he suffered the first defeat of his career to James ‘Buster’ Douglas in 1990, one of the biggest upsets in the history of boxing.