Daniel got along in the lion's den. Jonah got along in the whale. And boxing will get along without Tommy Hearns. But it won't be as much fun.

Say good-bye to the "Hit Man." He will fight his farewell bout April 8 against Matthew Charleston at Joe Louis Arena in Hearns' hometown of Detroit. Emanuel Stewart, who has been as loyal to Hearns as an agent with one client, is hoping to convince Hearn's former rivals to attend Tommy's boxing adieu. Custard's Last Stand. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Rose Bud.

Prediction: Sugar Ray Leonard will attend. Maybe, Marvelous Marvin Hagler will show up in sunglasses. Definitely not Roberto Duran. He couldn't stand sitting at ringside blowing bubble gum. He has to be inside the ropes where the action is full-blast.

Emanuel is waving his arms, he wants to say something. Make it short Emanuel....

"I want to say Tommy has loved boxing for so long and has given so much to the sport that he deserves a send-off like this. There was only one Tommy Hearns. He's not the fighter he was in his prime, but he's not going out there and losing. He's still winning fights, and this fight will give him a chance to say thanks to his fans."

Well said, Emanuel. You can sit down now. This is my show.

Emanuel is right. There was only one Tommy Hearns, and saying good-bye is like watching the Titanic go down. King Kong being shot from the top of the Empire State Building. Native Dancer tumbles and breaks his leg in the home stretch. Things will never be the same. The Indians killed John Wayne. You don't expect the Hit Man to go quietly into the sunset. He's won more titles than people have spotted Elvis coming out of a pay phone. Let me list them for you:

Boxing has long been a sport where fighters or their managers avoid taking risks by fighting anybody who might beat them. They look for rivals who have to be helped into the ring. In the old days you fought the top contender or you lost your title. Think about it, Archie Moore fought his first fight in 1936 and didn't get a crack at the title until 1952. Why? Simple. Guys crossed the street when they seen him coming. Run! Frankenstein broke out of the laboratory! The heart is pumping. Adrenaline flowing. I'm running out of places to hide.

Heavyweight Champ Jimmy Braddock thought he'd be as safe as a possum in a chunk hole by skipping over Schmeling to fight Louis. We all know what happened. When Ray Robinson won the welterweight title the only boxer who would fight him was Tommy Bell, who lost in 15 rounds. What I'm saying is, why stick your neck out when you don't have to? When they ask the governor to stop the execution he goes fishing. Tommy Hearns never crossed the street to avoid anyone in his life. He owned the street. Sell your papers somewhere else kid. This is my corner. Cut that barbed-wire fence, partner, and I'll turn your toes up to the daisies. Look, Dr. Jekyll, you're getting under my Hyde.

The bullies couldn't run Dallas Stoudenmire out of El Paso. No one ever ordered Wyatt Earp to be out of town by sundown. Listen, you could knock Tommy Hearns down. You could knock him out. But he kept coming back like a hiccup. What the world needs now is not Love, sweet, Love. The thing there's been too little of is Tommy Hearns.

He was Sandy Koufax striking out 15 Yankees in the 1963 fall classic. Touch Gold winning the Belmont. Ben Hogan - Birdie-birdie-birdie. Lanza hitting the high notes. He was as unstoppable as March wind. A train coming at you 100 miles an hour. Reminders go off like a firehouse bell.

At 50-3-1, he became a world champion for the sixth time when he won a decision over Virgil Hill ( 30-1) and won the WBA light-heavy crown in June, 1991. That's when everyone thought he was washed up. Through. Gave his pallbearers the slip.

Roll back the tape: "I feel I had a lot to prove tonight, and I proved that Tommy Hearns is not through. And I showed Virgil Hill I am a full-fledged light-heavyweight. I'm still the Cobra, and I'm still the Hit Man."

Virgil Hill, like most fighters, including Holyfield and Hagler, spew more excuses for losing than The Riviera has golf balls. Listen to Virgil. He sounded like a defendant in Judge Judy's Court. "I thought I re-broke my nose, which was broke in training. I hurt my right elbow. I just didn't do the things I should have. The hype of the fight got to me. I couldn't get untracked." Anything else Virgil?

"Oh yes, I don't think Hearns did enough to take my title."

Hello Virgil. Anybody home? The crowd of 8,125 and the judges thought Tommy won convincingly. The one thing I didn't like that Hearns, Holyfield, and just about every other black fighter in America says, is, "God was in my corner." Does that mean God doesn't like the fighter in the opposite corner? I find it strange that God, like Don King, is always in the winners corner. I never heard a fighter yet say "God was in my corner, but he stepped out for lunch and I got knocked out."

Get real, gang. God is in everybody's corner.

They called him the Hit Man because he went after his opponent like a contact killer. Contenders ducked him the way Al Capone ducked the law. He won 32 consecutive fights and only two of his opponents were standing after the final bell. And then one night he fought Sugar Ray Leonard at Caesars Palace. Opps! A mis-struck ball bounced off a tree and rolled into a sandtrap. Riddick Bowe choked on a lamb chop bone. A blocked kick lost the Superbowl. I mean, Sugar Ray left Tommy draped over the ropes as helpless as a tacking dummy hanging on chains. To add insult to injury, the Sugarman walked off with a sneer on his face and his hands above his head.

Tommy Hearns was mortified. Yet, he didn't go into hiding like Marvin Hagler or Floyd Patterson. He was never the Hit Man or the Motor City Cobra after that. The old grueling style that had stirred public interest to a fever disappeared faster than Amelia Earhart. He still took on his assignments with gusto. He wasn't yet ready to toss in the sponge. Not Tommy Hearns. A throwback to the gladiators of Caesar's Rome. The George Gipp of boxing.

Sadly, it wasn't the same Tommy Hearns. Where before you got a mental picture of a guy waving a Uzi in a crowded subway, now you had The Wolf Man taking tap dancing lessons. You paid to see Jack Dempsey and you got Gentleman Jim. James Cagney wasn't White Heat anymore, he was Yankee Doodle Dandy. The Old West became a sound stage.

They stopped calling him Hit Man. Now he was Slippery. Smoothy. Tarzan couldn't beat his breast because he couldn't find it. Bombs were now jabs. Stalking became a dance with your grandmother. Two-Gun Billy the Kid went back to branding cattle.

He took something called the junior middleweight title from Wilfred Benitez, whose half-doing was his undoing. Tommy was still cute. Too tidy for the fans. It was time to redeem himself, his corner told him. He rolled the dice and up popped Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

If there was ever a time to be cute, stick, jab and run, this was it. Slugging it out with Hagler was like biting with lions. Lucky for us Hearns threw caution to the wind. It was probably the most ferocious nine minutes of fighting in the history of Sweet Science. I wore six tapes out watching it. Dempsey-Firpo was a tap dance in comparison. It ended up with the referee asking Tommy if he knew what day it was.

Let's ask Tommy why he mixed it up with Marvin. I mean, common Tommy, it was a job for the SWAT team. What were you thinking?

"It was my legs. My legs locked up on me. I had overtrained. I knew it warming up in the dressing room before the fight. I knew my legs wouldn't hold out for 12 rounds. I had to take him out of there." Tommy's legs betrayed him throughout his career. He oiled them. He massaged them. He kept them out of drafts. He took better care of his legs than a sprinter does. But his legs always crumbled like an old ruin under responsibility.

His June 6, 1988 bout with Iran Barkley was a classic. Iran entered the ring with more battle scars than Rosary beads rustle over an Italian funeral. Iran had been in so many wars that his face looked worse than his passport. He didn't have a chance against Tommy, the critics said. He was the new kid in school trying to impress the pretty cheerleader by going up to the class bully and saying, "Take your hands off her or I'll....."

Hide your eyes. This is going to be sickening. Lend me your hat, I might vomit. Tony Galento had a better chance of becoming an Eagle Scout than Iran had against the Hit Man. Iran's corner was skittish. You'll have to pull a rabbit out of your hat for this one, Iran. Three white doves out of a handkerchief. Do a Houdini. Say three Our Fathers. Look at it this way, Iran, if you don't make Who's Who, you'll make Look Who's Through.

Tommy was beating Iran's ears into vegetables when Iran flattened him. He tried to get up but he looked like Stan Laural chasing a chicken. Even Barkley couldn't believe his good fortune. He kept blinking. Hitting himself on the head with both boxing gloves to see if he was dreaming. The press treated it as if the president was shot. Pearl Harbor. Tommy Hearns was through. Hang 'um up Tommy ! Call it quits! It's over! The Missing Persons Bureau won't be able to find you after this.

It was over for Hagler after Sugar Ray beat him, but it was far from over for Hearns. Tommy went to on beat the best of them, Doug De Witt, Roberto Duran, Randy Shields, Bruce Curry, among them. He was as unstoppable as a runsway freight train.

The dreams will have ended for the Hit Man after April 8, 2000. But, ah, what memories! 57-4-1- (45 KOs). He never made excuses after a fight. He never dodged an interview after he had been beaten. He never spoke ill of his opponents. He did everything that was asked of him, and he did it with dignity and honor. If there was ever a credit to boxing it is Tommy Hearns. He lived his life like a Norman Rockwell painting. Good luck, Tommy, you'll be missed.*******

A Bit About Bill Kelly