Motivation Quote by Thomas Hearns

Boxing sells itself as pure merit: two bodies, one ring, one winner. Hearns punctures that myth with a shrugging realism. “Everybody has their favorites” isn’t just a comment about fandom; it’s a reminder that the sport runs on partiality long before the first bell. Judges, promoters, TV executives, even trainers walk in with preferences shaped by money, narratives, hometowns, and the kind of charisma that looks good in a highlight reel. The ring is honest, but the ecosystem around it rarely is.

Coming from Thomas “Hitman” Hearns, the line carries extra bite. Hearns lived inside boxing’s star-making machinery in the 1980s, when the sport’s biggest nights were built on marketable rivalries and recognizable personas. He was both beneficiary and victim of that attention economy: a devastating puncher who could headline arenas, but also a fighter whose legacy is inseparable from how fans and broadcasters framed him against Leonard, Hagler, and Duran. Favorites become scripts, and scripts affect opportunities - who gets the title shot, who gets the rematch, who gets the forgiving commentary when they fade late.

The genius of the quote is its calmness. Hearns doesn’t complain; he normalizes bias as a feature, not a bug. It’s a subtle warning to fighters, too: you can’t box the crowd, or the storyline, or the business. You can only try to hit hard enough that favoritism stops mattering. In a sport that loves the idea of fairness, Hearns points to the real referee: perception.