Hearns' wins vs Virgill Hill and Nate Miller

I agree 100%

 

It's always surprised me that the Miller win doesn't get talked about more. yes, Miller was on the decline, but Hearns was absolutely ancient w/ a capital A + fighting 40 lb north of his 1st title weight.

IMO, Hill was as good as a fighter can possibly be w/o crossing the threshold to true greatness. The maske win was basically his limit.

 

You know after recently rewatching the Miller fight, it actually surprised me how close Tommy got to winning an actual world championship at Cruiserweight. He starched Dan Ward and Lenny Lapaglia (who was a pretty rugged fighter) for the NABF and WBU belts, beat Miller for the IBO belt, and almost got a shot at fighting Bobby Czyz for the actual world title. Shame really, he could've been the sport's very first six division champ.

 

I have always personally thought that those were underrated wins for Hearns. Especially his victory over Virgil Hill. I know a lot of fans don’t think much of Hill. But he was an undefeated champion in his prime and future hall of fame inductee. Tommy put on a master class against him.

 

I probably overrate his win over Hill, but he gets loads of credit from me. Don't really rate Nate Miller

 

And I think what also makes the win credible was that Virgil Hill prior to their fight just stopped James Kinchen within one round.

 

Nobody ever outboxed Thomas Hearns.

Not Ray Leonard. Not Wilfred Benitez. Not Virgil Hill.

Only way to beat the Hitman was to get into a dogfight and be willing to weather the storm and hope you survived long enough to land the big one (or outslug him if Hearns was in boxer mode).

 

His win against Hill is underrated by fans I would argue. Masterful performance.

 

I’ve actually only seen Nate Miller mentioned on this board in order to pump Hearns’ resume, often accompanied by the erroneous claim that Hearns won a cruiserweight title. Miller was 0-2 in the two years leading up to Hearns.

 

I remember watching Hill v Hearns. Going in, I thought that Hill would beat him but that went out the window right away. Once he felt the first jab from Hearns, Hill gave up on winning that fight.
Virgil Hill was the epitome of a 'boxer' because he didn't have much fighter in him. Once he realized that Hearns could jab with him, he had no other plan. He was a one handed fighter, the poster child for an amateur that never became a professional fighter. Hearns showed me that. So I think that was a quality win for Tommy because he went in with an undefeated world champion and reduced him to an amateur with the first jab he threw.

 

I wish the Miller fight was for the WBA title. It was for the IBO title i think. The Hill fight was amazing. Hill turned out to be a HOFamer.

 

Yep, Hearns boxed and fought well. Hearns was slightly the smaller man and couldn't really hurt Miller. Miller looked half asleep at times, but I think that is just his style. He's a heavy handed iron chinned counter puncher. It was kind of a weird fight.

 

Why do you think he fought passively? I think it was possibly just his style and personality.

 

I almost thought Miller threw the fight, Hearns was fighting hard and Miller looked kind of disinterested. That being said, if that's just the way Miller fights and he was trying to win, then that fight is a huge win for Hearns. Miller was a legit former WBA Cruiserweight champ and a regular on showtime. He KO'd Orlin Norris and Bert Cooper. He Lost to Tiozzo by decision for his title, then lost a rematch decision to Norris at 200 lbs. It's a great win for Hearns at that stage of his career. He was a dangerous fight for the older Hearns,

 

"Hill was definitely not an an ATG."

Come on man. Hill has 20 lineal title defenses in one of the better LHW eras. If hes a "Solid professional" what were his opponents?

Hill was like Holmes where theres a lot of missing names he could have fought and didn't. A big part of that is those guys were climbing the ladder from lower weight classes like Hearns did. They weren't there waiting to fight Hill the whole time. Like Holmes the biggest threats to Hills reign tended to pop up near the end of that reign.