Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns II, billed as The War, was a professional boxing match contested on June 12, 1989, for the WBC super middleweight title.

[2] The two fighters had met previously nearly 8 years before, with Leonard rallying in the 14th round to defeat Hearns by technical knockout after trailing on all three of the judge's scorecards.

[3] Both Leonard and Hearns had become five-division champions in their previous fights with Leonard capturing both the WBC light heavyweight and super middleweight after defeating Donny Lalonde on November 7, 1988, while Hearns had won the lightly regarded WBO super middleweight strap only three days before, after earning a close majority decision against James Kinchen.

[5] On the day of the fight, Hearns' younger brother Henry was arrested for the shooting death of his girlfriend at a house Thomas owned in Detroit.

[6] Promoter Bob Arum went to the hotel Hearns was staying at to check on him and told the press "Tommy was angry at me for coming by and he said to me: This is not going to affect me.