Thomas Hearns vs. Roberto Durán, billed as Malice at the Palace, was a professional boxing match contested on June 15, 1984 for the WBC and The Ring super welterweight titles.[3]
Background
Roberto Durán had captured the WBA super welterweight title after defeating the reigning champion Davey Moore on June 16, 1983. Durán's first defense of his newly won title was put on hold when it was announced two weeks after his victory that he would be moving up to the middleweight division to challenge Marvin Hagler for Hagler's undisputed middleweight crown.[4] After losing a close unanimous decision to Hagler in November, Durán would opt to return to the super welterweight division. Durán was scheduled to make a mandatory defense against the WBA's number-one ranked contender Mike McCallum with promoter Dan Duva negotiating with both fighters in February 1984.[5] However, in a press conference the following month, Durán announced that he would instead face WBC super welterweight titlist Thomas Hearns and that he would vacate his title if the WBA would not grant an extension that would allow him to make his mandatory defense after his fight with Hearns rather than before.[6] After the WBA refused an extension, Durán announced in early May that he would indeed vacate the title and move forward with his fight against Hearns.[7]
The bout was originally scheduled to take place in The Bahamas, but when the site proved incompatible due to both logistical and financial issues, it was instead moved to Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.[8] Caesars Palace had become available when a heavyweight title bout between Larry Holmes and Gerrie Coetzee scheduled for June 8 was cancelled by the site due to breach of contract three weeks before it was to take place.[9]
The fight
From the outset, Hearns was able to use his height and reach advantage to prevent Durán from fighting him on the inside as he wanted to. The champion kept Durán away with repeated use of his left jab, then cut Duran’s eye with a left hook counter at the two-minute mark of the first round.
With thirty seconds remaining in the opening round, Hearns dropped Durán with a hard right hand. Referee Carlos Padilla administered the standing eight count to the challenger and allowed him to continue, but Durán would go down again following a barrage of punches from Hearns that would end with a hard shot to the body. A dazed Durán would rise again as the round closed, but had to be guided to his corner by his trainer.
In round two, Hearns immediately resumed the attack on Durán and laid into him with several vicious combinations. Durán went down for a third time at the 1:07 mark of the second, after which Padilla immediately stopped the fight. Hearns retained his championship, becoming the first fighter to knock Durán out in the Panamanian champion's career to that point (although his second fight against Sugar Ray Leonard, the infamous No Más fight, was recorded as a technical knockout despite Duran electing to retire from the fight).[10]
Aftermath
Durán decided to retire from boxing for the second time following the fight. However, as with his prior retirement, it did not last long and he resumed fighting in early 1986 as a middleweight by knocking out two journeymen fighters. He would only suffer two more knockout defeats before finally retiring for good in 2000, once against Pat Lawlor in 1991 and once against WBA middleweight champion William Joppy in 1998.
After knocking out Fred Hutchings in his next defense of the WBC title, Hearns decided to move up to challenge Marvin Hagler for the middleweight world championship. In a hard-hitting contest, Hearns lost by TKO in the third round. He would make one more defense of his super welterweight title in 1986, defeating Mark Medal by TKO. Then, in 1987, Hearns would move up in weight to challenge Dennis Andries for the WBC's light heavyweight championship, knocking him down six times to win by TKO; he would follow this up by winning the WBC middleweight championship by defeating Juan Roldán later that year.
