Wolverhampton await boxing legends

It's been 26 years since their eagerly-anticipated World title fight ended in two rounds - but Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran are set to meet again in Wolverhampton.

Rewind to 15 June 1984 and you would have found these two at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, ready to wage war for Hearns' WBC light middleweight crown.

With one minute and 58 seconds left of the second round it was all over, after Duran took a flush shot to the chin that put him face down on the canvas and out of the contest.

Panama's favourite son couldn't even argue that it was a lucky punch, as he had also been knocked down twice in the first round.

Many wonder to this day quite how the durable Duran, regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all-time, crumbled quite so quickly against a fighter who was admittedly an equal, as two of the 'Four Kings' of the sport at the time with Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Come the evening of September 1 at the Park Hall Hotel, Lichfield's boxing pundit Steve Bunce has vowed to find out, when he asks the questions the fight fans in attendance want answers to in 'an evening with' the two greats of the ring.

He said: "Hearns was a cold, chilling knockout artist but Duran was a throw-back, the sort of guy who could have gone back 100 years and fought bare-knuckle.

"Hence, it was some upset to see the fight end like that."

An enigma Duran may have been, especially after quitting in the eighth round of his re-match with Leonard four years earlier with his WBC welter belt on the line.

But 'Hands of Stone' won World titles in four different divisions going up from lightweight and boxed on for 17 years after his crushing defeat to Hearns.

And talk about a long career - Duran, now 59, remains only the second man to have fought in five different decades, making his debut in 1968 at age 16 and retiring in 2002 after a bad car crash months earlier.

'Hitman' Hearns, eight years his former nemesis' junior at 51, didn't retire himself until 2006 and - when he did call it a day - had won eight World titles at six weights, going up from welter to cruiser.

Both have many stories to tell, with student of the sport Bunce keen to get underneath the skin of two boxing legends.

He said: "When these guys have done stuff in the past, no disrespect to anyone, but they have been interviewed by someone in a dicky bow who the following week has been calling the bingo somewhere.

"So the reason I am involved, not that I want to blow my own trumpet, is that I should be able to ask them questions that no-one else has before.

"They are some famous incidents involving these two that I have read about and heard about in the past, having spent time with the men that worked with them, that I am hoping I will be able to get to the bottom of.

"Some of Duran's life stories, you couldn't invent them. To get the two of them under one roof again is unbelievable."

Tickets start at £65, which includes a meal and cabaret. Gold tickets, which cost £90, also include a personal photograph with Hearns and Duran.

For more information and to buy, call 07816 200 056 or go to www.dragonpromotionswales.co.uk.