“EIGHT Minutes of Fury” is the title of American sportswriter Pat Putnam’s peerless account of one of boxing’s all-time classic encounters, involving Tommy “The Hitman” Hearns and Marvelous Marvin Hagler in what remains the greatest three rounds of boxing there’s ever been — and likely ever will be.

The setting was a specially built outdoor arena and ring erected on the tennis courts of Caesars Palace hotel and casino in Las Vegas, the date was April 15 1985, and watching the fight back today still renders you stunned at the ferocity unleashed by two of the sport’s all-time greats, crashing into one another like men who were bent on taking possession of the other’s heart.

Hearns at 26 was the young pretender looking to seize from Hagler’s head the undisputed middleweight crown, which Hagler himself had torn from the head of Britain’s Alan Minter five years previously at London’s Wembley Arena.