Dundee: Ray fought like a champion ABC Sports Online

ABC Sports
Ray liked to call Thomas Hearns 'freaky.' Explain what your concerns were about him fighting a great puncher like Hearns?

Angelo Dundee
I've got to give you a little history on this thing, because people don't know that the fight was made before. I was in England with another fighter, and then I got back to the U.S. and I hear Ray Leonard's fighting Tommy Hearns in Providence. A promoter called me up and said, "Ang, when are you coming up with Ray? He's fighting Tommy Hearns."

ABC Sports
What was your plan with Ray for that fight?

Dundee
When you, when you prepare, research some situations for fights, what you do, you don't plan a thing, because everything, when the bell rings, changes. The ball game is completely different.

Each and every fight you got to, it's all according to the guy you're fighting. In your own mind you think you're the fighter. How are you going to fight this guy? What's the dos and the don'ts? You know the strong points of the individual you're fighting, so you make your fighter aware of it. Don't ever program a fighter. You let the fighter handle him in his own right, because this guy's going to do this, this guy's going to do that, be prepared for it.

There's always a counter-move to a certain move. So you make your fighter aware of it. Ray was a very good student. He listened and jelled with them. He was great.

ABC Sports
What did you know about Hearns by the time you, you got to the fight?

Dundee
I knew Tommy Hearns from the amateur days. I saw him fight Aaron Pryor, in the Orange Bowl. I saw Tommy Hearns get licked by Pryor, and one of the guys said, "Ang, how would you like to have that little guy? He was a buzzsaw." I said, "I want that tall, skinny kid." That tall, skinny kid had bad balance from day one. You know, and I watched the long-legged kid, and the reflexes were always, to me, suspect. Not that he was a shot fighter or anything, just bad balance. Some guys have innately bad balance.

I knew Ray could take advantage of that with his skill and his motion and his movement and balance, I knew he could offset Hearns' strength. You don't fight strength. You don't want meet it head on, so a lot of homework went into the Tommy Hearns fight, believe me.

And Ray was aware of every one of these moves. And I made him aware of these moves.

ABC Sports
Were you concerned when Ray couldn't take him out in the sixth and seventh rounds, and then Hearns got on his toes, he started sticking and jabbing?

Dundee
The tempo of the fight changed. We had to change gears. Great fighters can do that, and that's what Ray did. I told Ray he was slowing down, "Stop slowing down! Pick up your own pace, your own balance, your own movement." Then he went back, and then you saw the end result of the fight, because you don't fight the other guy's fight. And how could anybody like Tommy Hearns out-box a Ray Leonard? That's ridiculous. It should never happen. So I told the kid in the corner, "Let's go! Pick it up!" And he responded. That's the mark of a champion.

ABC Sports
After round 12, you sensed Ray was behind on the cards. He's swelling, he's tiring. What did you say to him, and how did he respond?

Dundee
I told him that he was blowing it, that he was losing the doggoned thing, and I made him aware of it, and he reacted. That's the important thing. Great fighters have great reserves to bring stuff out of themselves. Ray had that. Ray was a great fighter.