Tommy "Hit Man" Hearns facing off at middle against Jake "The Raging Bull" Lamotta? Hearns of the Roldan war LaMotta of the Cerdan battle. 15 rounds and mills lane ref.
I rate Hearns high but at middle he did show a few weaknesses, and a durable guy like Jake would, I expect, take advantage. LaMotta gets the hell jabbed out of him to start with and looks like he's in for a long night. But he keeps the pressure on Tommy, breathing down his neck. Hearns maybe a little to confident as he racks points up, starts to leave him self open. LaMotta starts seeing chances and starts catching Tommy s chin more often. Hearns, out In front by a mile, gets tagged hard by the Bull and we see a Barkley type ko. Hearns loses by 8 rounds KO. Sorry Tommy!
The problem for Tommy in this fight is Jake simply won't go away, Hearns can't go 15 with LaMotta , he'll be stopped way ahead on points sometime after 12
LaMotta went to the body hard. Then the left hook to the head. Rd 1 vs Hagler the entire fight. All of a sudden Hearns is counted out in 5 and Stewart finds a scapegoat to blame. Uhh, when I was out of the room Tommy played ping pong and I knew then he would lose.
Hearns on points. Jake will have major difficulties to close that gap. What most people seem to ignore is that Jake was just not a big puncher.
I'd say he compensated rather well for that, considering the sheer amount of punches he threw alongside his non-stop pressure style.
Jake's defense and jab being underestimated here. Hearns would struggle to land all his shots on him, and gets immensely pressured. He would also have to deal with Jakes own aggressive jab. I mean, he was out jabbing SRR for a large majority of the 6th bout. Not saying LaMotta would out jab Hearns, but it would be a very troublesome weapon, and sets up LaMotta's pressure and body offense. Who did Hearns beat at 160, comparable to LaMotta's style and class, to favour him? Hearns has his best moments early. Jake would consequently adapt to Tommy's offense and pound Hearns body later on.
Well, if you're limiting it to the Hearns of the Roldan fight it isn't going the distance, because Tommy was looking to stop Roldan. If Hearns can't KO/TKO LaMotta I agree he will be ground down and stopped himself. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that Hearns could stop LaMotta, but it's more likely to be the other way around. And I'm saying that as a massive Tommy fan. If it's the boxer 'Motor City Cobra' Tommy then I see it as UD to Hearns.