Boxing Hearns wins fourth title

Press, 9 March 1987, Page 24

Boxing Hearns wins fourth title

NZPA-Reuter Detroit Thomas Hearns, of the United States, on Saturday moved closer to his dream of a record four world titles in different divisions when he stopped the champion, Dennis Andries, of Britain, in the tenth round in Detroit to capture the World Boxing Council (W.8.C.) light-heavy-weight crown. Andries, a Guyana-born Londoner, was knocked down four times in the sixth round of the scheduled 12-round match and once in the ninth. In the tenth he simply crumpled to the canvas, trying to grab the challenger around the legs. The referee, Isaac Herrera, of Panama, looked into Andries’s eyes and stopped the fight one minute and 26 seconds into the round. “On the final knockdown I was in a buzz and looking for a neutral corner,” Andries said.

Although Andries appeared to go down almost on his own, Hearns thought he could identify the finishing punch. “There was a short uppercut under the chin,” he said. "It was a right and he never saw that shot”

Andries said: "fve fought people who punch harder ... Tommy won the fight on technical skill.” Hearns, who entered the ring to chants from his hometown crowd of “Tommy, Tommy, Tommy,” took control in the first three rounds, mostly with quick left jabs. Then in the sixth, Hearns sent Andries to the canvas with a staggering overhand right Andries got up on wobbly legs, only to be knocked down twice more, slip once and be sent down with another Hearns flurry which set the crowd chanting again. However, Andries would not be put away and seemed revived in the seventh, at one stage knocking Hearns to the ropes. Hearns took over again in the eighth round and in the ninth knocked the chunky champion down with a wideopen right. In the next round, after what looked like a few routine Hearns jabs, the weak-kneed Andries went down for the last time.