This year's fight of the century will take place on April 15 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, where 160-pound middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler (his legal name) will defend his title against super welterweight king Thomas "Hitman" Hearns. Hagler, a classic boxer, is 5'9½" tall and has a record of 60 wins, two losses and two draws. Hearns, a classic slugger, is 6'1" tall, also 160 pounds, and has knocked out 34 opponents en route to 40 victories and just one defeat (to Sugar Ray Leonard four years ago). Interviewer Lawrence Linderman reports: "Marvin Hagler is boxing's answer to Rodney Dangerfield--he gets no respect, or at least that's what he thinks. Hearns, who's almost majestically serene, regards his right hand the way King Arthur regarded Excalibur--and, based on past results, that assessment may not be too far off the mark."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: Most boxing experts rate you as the world's top two boxers and believe this will be the toughest bout either of you has ever fought. Are they right?

Thomas Hearns: Definitely. If I beat this man, it will put me on the very top of the world.

Marvin Hagler: I don't think that highly of Thomas. I respect him, but I know I hit harder than Sugar Ray Leonard, and people feel this fight is really secondary to a Leonard-Hagler fight. But I don't care; I want the money. I just hope Thomas doesn't hurt his other baby finger.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: Marvin, you're referring to the fact that three years ago, when this fight was originally scheduled, Hearns broke his right pinkie during training and the bout was postponed and then canceled. Do you believe that Hearns just didn't want any part of you?

Marvin Hagler: Yes, I still think he was ducking me; but he finally got his heart up now, because I put him on the spot. People really wanted to see this fight come off.

Thomas Hearns: When Marvin started talking like this, I said he should shut his mouth--and he should. The fight was postponed because of my broken finger, but it was canceled because the promoter couldn't come up with the money he was supposed to pay us. And I'm glad that happened, because we were each going to get $2,500,000 three years ago, and now we're each going to make more than $5,000,000.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: You're both multimillionaries. Has making big money--and spending and managing it--been as much fun as you imagined?

Marvin Hagler: Not really. When you're a champion, people come at you with all kinds of propositions. It gets a little heavy sometimes; but I've worked very hard for my money, so I try to protect it. Money is like a woman: If you don't take care of it, it'll leave you.

Thomas Hearns: Having the money to do whatever you want to do is a great feeling, but taking care of your money is almost as hard as fighting. I'm conservative with my money, and I've never had any run-ins with the IRS--and I don't plan to.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: In 1983, Marvin, you won a lackluster 15-round decision over Roberto Duran, and last June, Thomas, you knocked Duran out cold in the second round. Would it be wrong to draw any conclusions from those results?

Thomas Hearns: Yes, because I fought Duran differently than Marvin did, and Duran fought me differently than he did Marvin. You can't say that because he won a decision and didn't knock his man out, something's wrong there.

Marvin Hagler: Against me, Duran stayed back and tried to counterpunch, and there's no way in the world I'd want to run in on a right hand or a left hook--any fool can do that. Fighters like Rocky Graziano and Jake La Motta used to lead with their faces against counterpunchers, but that isn't how a modern fighter thinks. Boxing people know I took the last bit of starch out of Duran. I did Thomas a big favor. If it weren't put into his head that he's a world-beater, I think he would've just kept ducking me.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: Reveal your strengths and your weaknesses.

Marvin Hagler: My biggest strength is my experience. I've been in with every kind of fighter and I've knocked out guys taller and heavier than Thomas. I'm a technician, a scientific boxer. I'm much too cagey for him. My weaknesses? I don't have any.

Thomas Hearns: Of course Marvin's going to say he has no weaknesses. He has weaknesses--it's just a matter of finding them. I have weaknesses, but I'm not going to talk about them. As for my strengths, I learn from my mistakes. In 1981, I made a bad decision when I fought Leonard. The world knew me as a puncher but not as a boxer. I wanted to show everyone that he wasn't the best boxer in the world--I was. And so I fought his fight and lost; and I hated myself for doing that. The Duran fight was the most important one of my career--that's when I decided to leave the boxer behind and let the Hitman take control.