Hearns Vs Hutchins. The best and most Brutal ive seen Hearns.

I was actually at the fight itself at the Saginaw Civic Center in Sept of 84 I think. $14 bucks,and saw Leonard there too. Hearns was on a high after the Duran Knockout,and he totally outgunned and outclassed Fred the pumper Hutchins. I remember him being good but not great (Hutchins).Also remember taken pics with my cheezy 110 camera. These fights all set up the Hagler war the following year..Still bugs me (Hagler)
:bbb that they never rematched.

 

Hutchings was good. He had a good conditioner for the fight Noah Cruz, who was from Southern California and I think Hutchings was from Stockton. Hutchings was tall and they thought he could give Hearns trouble, but Tommy was just too experience and in his prime and the Duran fight gave him confidence in his power.

 

Oh yes. Hearns was at his peak around this time. 154 lbs was his optimum weight.

 

I'll see if I can find and learn how to do that,they were'nt exactly Sports Illustrated.

 

Although I never thought he would beat Hearns, I did think he would put up a bit of a fight. And that's because I saw his fight with Kirkland Laing where he looked fantastic. I think they called him 'the pumper' or something like that because he really had an excellent jab. I'll have to check out his record to be sure but I seem to remember him going downhill fast after that. Is this fight on youtube?

 

Just watched it. Tommy let him do all the leading and just sat back and countered with that whipping left hook. It was probably one of the few times Hutchings did not enjoy a height and reach advantage. Hearns was outstanding.

 

The Pumper....one of the truly great nicknames

Hutchings had beat Drayton and Geraldo as well, both in sparring partner mode though.Laing came back from a year out doing god knows what after beating Duran, and looked like keeping sharp had been the last thing on his mind.Pathetic, really.

I think he was thrown in with Hearns too early.Never likely to develop into the talent or style needed to beat someone like Tommy, but he might have come back better from the KO with a bit more seasoning.As it was he went right back in against another great puncher...baek...and was finished off.

 

This, along with the Duran wipeout, was bigger news than it appears now in hindsight because back then everyone was concerned that Hearns had turned into more of a boxer. His trials at middleweight against the Singletarys and to some extent the McCrackens and then the Minchillos of the world led people to believe his power had left him. He even changed his nickname from "The Hit Man" to "The Motor City Cobra" in effect acquiesing to the change in style and effectivenss.

I think part of it was indeed the higher weight that played a part, but also I think Hearns had to get himself back together mentally following the loss to Leonard, and that took some time.

To see him come off those relatively pedestrian outings just before that to go into the Duran fight and see what he did there was pretty exciting, and the Hutchings fight just solidified the opinion that The Hit Man was indeed back with a vengeance.

 

Hearns had a lot of niggling hand problems when he moved up from Welter too, that seemed to be bothering his power and were sometimes used as an excuse for going the distance.

 

True also.


Oh.........the "Pumper" thing. I read an article on him years ago that said that nickname was sort of a double meaning; the jab thing certainly, but it was really chosen because he worked as a gas station attendant in Stockton, California in between fights to make ends meet.