Q 13

PLAYBOY: Care to share your true feelings about each other?

Thomas Hearns: We don't have much to say to each other and never have, because boxing's a very competitive sport. You can be friends with other fighters, though. I have a total like for Larry Holmes. And whenever I see him, Leonard and I talk to each other. I have a positive attitude and there's no reason for me to have any animosity toward an opponent. I don't have anything against Marvin at all.

Marvin Hagler: That's bull. That's Thomas already at work, trying to settle me down. That's not gonna work, because I'm gonna be the meanest I've ever been. There are no nice guys inside those four corners. Thomas is a total enemy.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: Both of you abstain from sex for more than a month before your bouts. Why?

Marvin Hagler: Sex just isn't good for you before a fight; it messes with you mentally--you forget about all the hard work you've done getting ready. When I step into the ring, I want to remember everything I've had to go through to get there. I become like a monster whose motto is "Destruct and destroy."

Thomas Hearns: I sacrifice being with my woman for a month and a half. That doesn't make me happy, and it certainly doesn't put her in the greatest mood, either. Well, somebody's got to pay for that, and money is not the payment I want. Marvin's going to have to pay for that.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: According to your biographies, Thomas, you're 26 and, Marvin, you'll be 31 a month after the bout takes place. Will age be a factor in this fight?

Thomas Hearns: Marvin is 32 now and even though he denies it, he'll be 33 in May. He is now what we call over the hill--and I have never let an old man get into the ring and do anything to me. My youth is a very big factor in this fight.

Marvin Hagler: First of all, I am 30 years old, but I actually like the idea that Thomas thinks I'm an old man, because he's been waiting for me to get gray hair and to slow down. Right now, I'm exactly at my peak.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: The American Medical Association has started a campaign to abolish boxing. The sport probably will survive the A.M.A.'s initiative, but many people think it should be made safer, especially in view of Muhammad Ali's condition. What are your thoughts?

Thomas Hearns: Enough's been done already to make the sport safer. If they do any more, they'll hurt it more than they'll help it. A man like Ali has to know when he's had enough. He was definitely the best, but you gotta know when to walk away.

Marvin Hagler: Two decades of boxing is too long for anyone, and Ali took a lot of punishment toward the end of his career. What I'd like to see is for boxing to become safer by having better referees, better doctors, better judges, and making sure that managers and trainers are licensed.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: What are you like on the day of a fight?

Marvin Hagler: I'm very nasty and bitchy. I don't like to be bothered by anything or anyone. But all of that changes when I step into the ring, because then I have someone to take it out on.

Thomas Hearns: Come the day of a fight, I'm real tense, so geared up, so ready. I stay to myself and visualize what's going to happen in the ring. I can tell whether it's going to be a long fight or a short fight. This one's going to be a short fight.

Q 18

PLAYBOY: Are you making a prediction?

Thomas Hearns: I'm going to knock Marvin out in three rounds.

Marvin Hagler: I like to hear Tommy talking that way, because it means he's going to come out fighting--I won't have to chase him. He's going to give me the chance to do the same thing to him that he did to Duran, except this time it'll be his butt lying on the canvas.

Q 19

PLAYBOY: One of you is going to lose this fight. Would that cause either of you to think about retiring from the ring?

Marvin Hagler: Win or lose, if I wanted to retire, I would. Every once in a while, I have thoughts about it, but I haven't been abused in the ring. I have at least two years left.

Thomas Hearns: I haven't thought about losing, because I don't doubt that I can win. But I do know when I'm going to retire: I give myself 18 more months, and then I'll be gone. You're the first people I've told this to, but I've been studying acting at the Henry Ford Community College; and after I leave boxing, I'm moving to Los Angeles to try to break into movies. Acting's a lot of fun, and it will give me the sort of challenges I've gotten from boxing.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: How do you want boxing fans to remember you?

Thomas Hearns: As the greatest--greater than Muhammad Ali and greater than all the old-time champions. If I beat Marvin for the middleweight championship and then beat Michael Spinks for the light-heavyweight championship and then retire having won four titles--which no boxer's ever done--I will be considered the greatest for a long time.

Marvin Hagler: I'm not looking for the greatest or anything like that. I just want to be remembered as a good champion, one of the best. I worked at being the best and I want people to respect me for that.