Thomas Hearns is a Greater fighter than Marvin Hagler

I accept there are reasonable arguments for ranking Hearns ahead of Hagler, some of which you have made.

As I said, Hagler went 36-0-1 from the Monroe loss aged 21, later avenged, until his final fight over 11 years later. Most of those fights were against world class or borderline world class opposition. He never lost in his prime. Hearns was more beatable during their respective primes, imo.

Much of how you rate Hearns depends on whether you see him as only ever being a natural WW/LMW, who was undersized at MW and above, or whether you see him as having a bigger than average frame even for a LHW, who just filled out that frame as he moved through the weights fighting men no bigger than him.

For what it's worth, I'm somewhere between those 2 extremes. I give him credit for his successes at higher weights, particularly his win over Hill, but not to the extent I would if he had been a 5ft 8ins, 70" reach WW, without the frame to carry a natural, lean, fighting fit 175lbs.

 

Hearns was a freak of nature, no doubt about that. 6'1" 78" reach, longer than some great heavyweight champs, speed of a damn lightweight, power of a light heavy..... plus an A+ skill set.
Other than the two Sugars, I don't believe any other boxer in history would beat him at welterweight/ Jr.middlweight.

 

Definitely Hagler for me. He suffered one bogus knockdown and was never seen to be hurt in a fight. Very arguable that after the first Monroe fight he never lost again.
Hearns was deadly, but memorably collapsed like a rag doll in a few occasions.

 

If Hearns would've got the decision which he rightfully deserved vs Leonard the 2nd time this may of been a bit more debatable. But..... i think Hearns does have a few more stand out wins than Hagler against well known names with wins over Benitez, Cuevas, Duran, Hill. And the fact Hearns won titles in multiple divisions.

But.....Hagler never lost in his prime and Hearns getting KO'ed by Barkley does hurt his legacy somewhat, also Hagler has a very impressive win over Hearns himself. Plus i don't think it's a negative when someone dominates only one division, Hagler was perfectly sized Middleweight and had plenty of good opposition to fight and should be credited for his dominance.

Remember there was no Super Middleweight division when Hagler was fighting, and Light Heavyweight division was very deep at that time with the likes of Qawi, Spinks, etc. I love Hearns as a fighter but there's no way he would've moved up to challenge the likes of Qawi, Spinks, if they were still around in Light Heavyweight division.

All in all i think Hagler rates slightly higher than Hearns, but there is a case for both men but remember Hagler did dismantle Hearns aswell....

 

The short answer is he's not. .It's close as they both fought everyone and handled the sport the right way .. Active and just wanted to fight. Hearns did go up in weight and win titles, but not against Hagler and that's why that fight is so important because Tommy was able to go up and beat beat Hill at 175, yes a great win... but not against Hagler at 160 which sort of negates that 175 win when comparing directly to Marvin imo.. But I will say I think Monzon is slightly greater than them both and Carlos and Hagler are very very close and can equally be argued , as so for Marvin and Tommy I guess.. So it's what is important to you, and dominance, competition, and consistency is important to me

 

Of course he would have. He always planned on trying ti win up to 175 and the big guns were champs at the time. If by chance Spinks and Qawi were still champs when the time was right to challenge then the match would have been made. That's the thing - Hearns isn't like a lot of other boxers. Some may have stuck to their one division because of the immense challenge moving up to fight guys like that but Tommy simply didn't roll that way. Hell, at one point when he got way up in the weights he was calling Tyson out......and he was dead serious.

 

Bingo JT .. Hearns would fight anyone , anytime .... 100 % Detroit old school bad ass
And he proved that constantly going up and back down in weight the majority of his career

 

He would have done no such a thing. Never in life would Emmanuel have moved Tommy to 175 to fight Qawi or Spinks, or Mathew Saad Muhammad. Never in life. They would have killed Tommy.
Virgil hill? Not much of a puncher, doesn't hit the body, is going to get in a jabbing contest with Hearns- because he can't fight any other way- then you move up.
If you are going to talk up the success Tommy had at various weights, you had better give a ton of credit to his manager/trainer and his ability to pick who Tommy should fight.
To look at the career of Tommy Hearns, you have to understand the manipulation that went on there.

 

who moved up and down in weight and all around more than he did?? go ahead... he would have gone up and fought anyone at 175 ,, manny ditched him anyway right ?? because Tommy wanted to keep fighting ? And he was fighting guys at 160 ,, he wasnt even ready for .. Hell he didnt have his legs , nothing at 160 because he was moving up and down in weight so much

 

He would not have moved to 175 if he had to fight Spinks or Qawi. Never in life.
He was the earliest version of a weight bully at 47. Marvin and Iran beat the hell out of him at 160. The Hagler fight was competitve for about 45 seconds. Barkley tore him up to the body before the ko.
He wasn't ready for who at 160? He went from 47 to 54 to 160 which was supposed to be his prime weight. He beat Schuler and everybody thought that he was a god. But how wasn't he ready for Hagler? For Barkley?
With all due respect, because I know you post here a lot, but do you watch these fights? Do you pay attention?
They turned Hearns pro at 47 because he could make the weight and, with his physical advantages, it looked to be an easy way to pick up a title. They bumped him to 54 to maintain that physical advantage of height and reach. They bumped him to 160...In 1947 Tommy hearns would have turned pro at 160 and been a lightheavy within a year or two. The problem with his legs was because of the hard weight cuts and prolonged periods of being too light. They balanced the power of his right hand vs his durability.
Emmanuel tells absurd stories of Tommy losing his legs because of massages, or running too much and it was always the weight cuts. he always reacted badly to body shots.

 

There's nothing in your post I really disagree with but its really not the topic.. AND the hagler fight was signed for 2 years earlier in 83 and postponed 2 years because of Tommy hand problems ... He still fought everyone .. whod he miss? , maybe McCallum for obvious reasons .. BUT he would have fought anyone at 175 ,, and thats what you are missing .. he went up and down his whole career ,, and whether you are or not a fan of his , you cant deny that .. again who else did that ?? You mention him being a weight bully at 147 and moving him up to 154 , ,which he looked great at .. tells me you are not really a fan .. fair enough .. I have posted for years that Tommy wasn't a great, far from it , at 160.. Not saying he would have won the fight at 175, just that he would have taken the fight.. And Tommy is on record saying he did feel the best at 175 as he settled in there nicely,, he wanted more time there . .He loved 175..You are completely leaving out that Manny left him because Tommy WANTED TO KEEP FIGHTING ... and he would have fought anyone. Also why because he was broke , FLAT BROKE .. but I do not want to go into that because his whole career , he would fight anyone which is why he SPLIT FROM MANNY

 

Not a chance mate. Study up on Hearns some. He wasn't even with Stewart when he took on Virgil Hill. As surf said Stewart wanted him to retire. Hearns always wanted that fourth title and he would have fought for it with or without Stewart no matter who was champ.

Hearns was the underdog vs Ceuvas, Benitez, Leonard in the rematch etc. He and Stewart were all but signed up for the Hagler rematch, a fight they would have been big underdogs in.

Yeah Stewart and Tommy always went those safe options.

Christ, he fought Ceuvas, Leonard x 2, Benitez, Duran and Hagler.

 

Yeah, I’ve no doubt Tommy would have fought anyone at 175, including Spinks and Qawi had they been there. It wouldn’t have been a good idea, but he wouldn’t have avoided anyone. He just didn’t think that way.