BoxRec

On a Saturday afternoon of August 2, 1980, in Cincinnati, OH, at the Riverfront Coliseum, Aaron "The Hawk" Pryor, at 25 years of age, the undefeated and rising star from Cincinnati took the WBA World Jr Welterweight crown from long-reining champion Antonio Cervantes Kid Pambele of Colombia by knockout in 4 rounds.

In a jammed packed arena, Pryor didn't disappoint in front of his fans despite suffering a flash knockdown from a straight right hand from the champion, flush in the chin. It was the first time that Pryor went to the canvas.

Embarrassed but not hurt, Pryor went to work and with his relentless whirlwind style, suffocated the 34-year old champion with tremendous pressure. A pressure that Cervantes has never seen before in his 74 professional fights. Some records indicated that Cervantes had more than 100 fights by the time he fought the Cincinnati Hawk.

When Cervantes was counted out, the hometown fans of Cincinnati went into a frenzy. Finally, they got a new boxing world champion since 1951 when the great Ezzard Charles, also from Cincinnati, was the Heavyweight Champion of the World.

But this day belonged to Pryor, the new hero and champion that was ducked by the top lightweight contenders of his day. It was a long struggle for him to get fights, let alone a world championship fight. It was Pryor's 17th consecutive win by knockout since November 1977. The knockout streak stopped at 26 in September 1983 when he stopped the great Alexis Arguello in a their title rematch in Las Vegas.


America got another king that same day in the evening at The Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, MI when rising star Thomas "The Hitman" Hearns, at 21, and undefeated freakish :6'1" phenomenon, crushed long time WBA World Welterweight Champion Pipino Cuevas of Mexico. Hearns didn't disappoint in front of his hometown fans and gave a show of great ring generalship, using his long reach and speed against the champion.

He proved to be too much for Cuevas from the opening bell, even though Cuevas was a hard-hitting young man at 22 years of age. At 5'9", tall for a welterweight, Cuevas couldn't cope with the height and reach of the challenger. He was getting beat up every time he turned.

A crushing right hand by Hearns made Cuevas wobble and then another right put Cuevas going face flat to the canvas. He got up, but his manager said it was enough. And the stoppage was good. With Dazed and wobbly legs, Cuevas reign of 11 title defenses, ten of them by knockout since 1976, were over.

Detroit has a new boxing world champion and a new hero, and his name is Thomas "The Hitman" Hearns!

Hearns-Cuevas had me stumped. I didn't bet cause I had no idea who would win.

goose 5 wrote: ↑02 Aug 2025, 21:25 Hearns-Cuevas had me stumped. I didn't bet cause I had no idea who would win.

I was shocked to hear that Pipino Cuevas got demolished in only two rounds! I didn't see the fight live. A cousin of mine told me that a new champion, Tommy Hearns knocked out Pipino.

I first saw a glimpse of The Hitman in a Sport Magazine in June 1980 in which features according to them, the next world boxing champions. One of them was Curtis Parker and the other that I totally remembered was Thomas Hearns.

Hearns was undefeated in 28 bouts, and about 24 knockouts. What called my attention about him was his height at 6'1". I thought that he was a middleweight or Light-Heavyweight or something, not a welterweight.

And next thing I know, my cousin tells me about his demolition of Cuevas. I didn't see the demolition until the next year 1981 when he was about to fight the great Sugar Ray Leonard in September 1981 welterweight showdown. I saw clips of his fights before fighting Leonard and said, this guy is good! He is for real!

But, something told me that Sugar Ray would beat him. It was a war, but Leonard pulled it off. It was the best fight that I have ever seen in my lifetime.