By David Greene
Like the roller-coaster life he has lived until now, former middleweight boxing champion Iran “The Blade” Barkley, who recently regained one lost title belt, has now learned he will be getting a second belt-19 years after defeating Thomas “The Hit-Man” Hearns.
Barkley, 50, lost his first belt, the WBC Middleweight Championship belt he’d won from Hearns with Ring Magazine’s “Upset of The Year” performance in 1988, back in October when a relative changed the locks to the family home at the Patterson Houses on Third Avenue.
The fighter would get a box of his possessions, minus the coveted belt. Barkley recalled, “I had it where I kept it.” He reported the theft of the missing belt on October 28, and the NYPD released a photo of the belt to media outlets on December 8.