Five-division world champion Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns will join former world heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, and former top heavyweight contenders Earnie Shavers, Chuck Wepner and George Chuvalo, at a special autograph fan festival, This Saturday, February 18, in the lobby of the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nev., from Noon to 2 p.m. PT.
The fighters, who are in town to attend the gala honoring Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday, benefiting the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and the Muhammad Ali Center, will be signing autographs for a fee.
Hearns was one of boxing’s “Big Four” of the ‘80s. With victories over Roberto Duran, Wilfredo Benitez and Virgil Hill, he became the first man to win world titles in four different weight divisions. He will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this summer.
Spinks, an Olympic gold medalist in 1976, dethroned Ali in 1978 in only his eighth fight, still a record for fewest fights to winning a world title. He is the only man to take a world title belt from Ali in the ring.
Dubbed “The Acorn” by Ali, Shavers is considered one of the Top-10 greatest punchers of all-time. The two-time world title challenger went the 15-round distance with Ali in their 1977 world championship rumble.
In a professional career that spanned 93 fights, Chuvalo was never knocked down. A two-time world title challenger, he went the distance with Muhammad Ali both times they fought.
Wepner, boxing’s real-life “Rocky,” challenged Ali for the world title in 1975, knocking the champ down in the ninth-round en route to a 15th round TKO loss.
