Could Duran ever have Beaten Hearns?

Of course. Duran packed a hell of a punch, Hearns packed fine China.

 

Right which is why Hearns knocked Duran stupid. Duran had no chance of ever beating Hearns.

 

Could he have, sure. Roberto Duran is, well, Roberto Duran. However at six foot one compared to Durans five foot seven, Tommy had an incredible reach and size advantage over Duran. Duran at his best was a lightweight.

Hearns reach was 78 inches. Duran was 66 inches. Tommy also had one of the most versatile jabs ever. Multipurpose jab he could flick out or fire hard, use to steer his opponents into his punches, or to frame them and keep them at bay. For Duran to overcome Hearns, Hearns would need to have a serious off night just due to all his physical advantages.

 

Of course he did. As great a fighter Hearns was, his chin was his own kryptonite.

 

Bad matchup for Duran, very bad. I could see them fighting 4 times and the series ending up like Pep-Sadler. 1 win for Duran, 3 for Hearns.

 

Of course he could. He is an ATG. I believe he wasn't as prepared as he should have been but also fought Hearns at the latters absolute prime, at the top of his game. Duran went on to beat a similarly sized fighter in Barkley, who KTFO Hearns and beat him by decision.

 

Hearns was Durans limit. Too much length and too much power. Plus Hearn could box.

 

Hearns beats Duran 9 times out of 10.

 

I don't want to split hairs, but I think Duran could do a little better than this, but in any event, it seems likely that if they had a long series of fights Duran could win at least a few (but would lose most of them).

 

At 147? absolutely. The Duran at 33 years of age who had soared to over 190 lbs after the Hagler fight ,then dropped back down to 154 pounds bore no resemblance to the Duran who battered Sugar Ray Leonard in Montreal . In that fight Duran's quickness surprised Ray Leonard . He'd KO Tommy sometime around the 10th as he was a better infighter than Ray was who took until the 14th to stop Hearns. Tommy was simply not the finished product at 147 that he became at 154 at the age of 25 which I consider Hearns prime .

 

No sir, unless he found a way to slip some real stones into his gloves, theres no way he could have ever beat Hearns imo.

 

In theory...sure. Anything can happen in boxing.

In honesty, though...Probably not.

Hearns's length and speed probably allows him to stay at long range against Montreal Duran, and work the jab and cross with relative impunity. If Duran stays outside, he's not getting any business done. If he tries to get inside, he's at risk of getting clocked with something big on the way in. Might make him hesitant to attack with the same intensity that he did against SRL the first time around. Maybe he finds the sweet spot and capitalizes, but there are too many ways that this can go sideways for me to confidently pick even a peak Duran against the welterweight iteration of Hearns.

 

Duran was legend at 135 and mediocre at all other divisions. Hearns would beat him 8-9 times out of 10 fights.

 

This version of Tommy Hearns beats any version of Duran like a rented mule. He was too fast, too long and too powerful. Duran was good at excuses but he had nothing to stop a young Hearns. And Roberto was too small to ever beat a guy like Hearns. Luckily for him there is only one Hearns. Tommy wouod have done the same to Manny and Floyd if they fought in his era. He could box, move and if he smelled blood, he was like a shark in the water.

I still can’t figure out Duran’s strategy for that fight. Stand up stationary and try to punch Tommy on his hip? Tommy was hitting him with feints, jabs, left hooks and that lights out right. He put a savage beating on Duran that night. It’s funny to see Roberto grin at him to say he wasn’t hurt as his legs wobbled like wet noodles. Tommy knocks him out 10/10 times. Not even close at this weight.

Seeing him knock out Duran in this fight brought back memories of when I saw this fight live (on TV). I had way more hair in those days. Motor City Cobra was deadlier than the snake. Amazing talent. I miss those days.