Thomas Hearns vs Bernard Hopkins primes 156lbs catchweight

Not Hopkins of the De La Hoya fight, but him at his prime, whenever you think that was (probably around the Glen Johnson fight) makes 156lbs against Hearns whenever you think his prime was (probably the Duran or Benitez fight) who also weighs in at 156lbs.
Who wins this matchup?

 

BHop stops him late. Off topic but I just watched the Hearns Kinchen fight about a week ago. Hearns looked terrible, he got a gift and Kinchen rearranged his face.

 

I`d pick Hopkins because Heans struggled with fighters near his own height, B-hop would probly stop Hearns but with have a serious problem with Tommy`s long jab.

 

I disagree, Hearns literally stopped guys like James Shuler, Fred Hutchings, Pablo Baez, and etc. with ease when they were all the exact same height as Hearns. Granted they aren't as good as Hopkins, but my point still stands as even in his old age Tommy still outboxed the 6ft Virgill Hill. While Hopkins couldn't beat Jermain Taylor twice, a guy with a good jab and right hand, even with a questionable chin and stamina. Who does that sound like?

 

Barkley beat Hearns twice and he was nowhere near B-hop`s level.

 

The tough, skilled and aggressive B-Hop from his early title reign is as bad a match up as you can get for Hearns imo. He wouldn't even bother trying to box with Tommy, he'd make it a dogfight up close and whittle him down.

Late stoppage for B-Hop imo.

 

It's exactly the way it would go, and pretty obviously IMO.

 

Not sure. Forcing Hopkins to slim down to a catch weight where Hearns was at his near best kinda puts him at a disadvantage .

 

Hearns would probably outbox Hopkins, but I feel once BHOP started fighting rough , boxing as well as brawling things wouldn't go well for Tommy. BHOP had a much better chin.

 

Bhop never had the physical strength or concussive power of Barkley. Barkley even fought at heavyweight. Also Barkley fought Tommy when he wasn't in his best weight class.

 

@Dynamicpuncher it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts on this one

 

It took Hopkins three cracks to win a vacant IBF middleweight title. He even got floored twice in a failed attempt against Segundo Mercado, who was pretty terrible.

And I can still remember Hopkins trying to stop guys like Bo James and Andrew Council.

Hopkins early in his middleweight run simply wasn't anything special.

That was before he changed his style and adopted the John Ruiz style of jabbing, grabbing, mauling, holding on the inside. When Ruiz did it, HBO execs hated him. When an aging Hopkins held and grabbed and cried foul, they praised him, because it was effective.

Early in Hopkins' middleweight reign, Hearns takes Hopkins apart.

Hopkins grew into his style over many many years. He wasn't there yet early in his run at 160.

 

Hearns UD

 

Hearns struggled to out-box boxers that were a similar height to him, he did well v Hill but looked shoddy v Leonard in their rematch and looked poor vs Kinchen too.

 

Between February 1990 and December 1992, Hopkins scored 21 wins without a loss. He won 16 of those fights by knockout, 12 coming in the first round.