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Greater fighter: Thomas Hearns or Wladimir Klitschko

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by Flo_Raiden, Apr 27, 2026.

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MarkusFlorez99 Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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Lets keep hyping up a prime Wlad until people start declaring him the HW goat and then it's all going to come crashing down. Love to see it

MarkusFlorez99, May 2, 2026

#106

Loudon Loyal Member Full Member

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BCS8 said: ↑

I'll vote for Wlad, but that is for longevity and dominance. Hearns never dominated his era like that but he has some big ****ing names on his ledger like Duran, Benitez, Cuevas and arguably Leonard as well.
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Wlad dominated, but never ran into the competition that Hearns did.

Loudon, May 3, 2026

#107

Loudon Loyal Member Full Member

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Gazelle Punch said: ↑

Hearns is more entertaining but he never dominated the way Wlad did. I will say his divisions were a lot more competitive but Wlad dominated for a long time. Wlad is an atg and maybe a bit under appreciated because of his lack of competition. Time usually adds more to the legends than detracts. I’ll say Wlad but it’s honestly a toss up into what you value more. Nice post.
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Tommy ran into guys like Leonard and Marvin.

It’s highly unlikely that Wlad would have dominated for as long as he did, had he have ran into comparable opposition.

Loudon, May 3, 2026

#108
Loudon Loyal Member Full Member

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brb said: ↑

Wlad's got double the amount of title fights won. He was also champion for a many more years than Hearns. Wlad was also able to avenge one of his losses.

Additionally, there are 6 people that have won 5 division titles. There is only 1 HW that is longest reigning of all-time. I'd choose the 2nd all day long.
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Once again, context alludes you.

Loudon, May 3, 2026

#109

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Loudon Loyal Member Full Member

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brb said: ↑

That's pretty silly. I'd rather be HW champ of the world than some "P4P" great. Boxing / Wrestling / MMA are the only sports in the world where you get to be saved by divisions.

Maybe the NBA should have an under 6' tall division. Or the NFL should have a less than 200 pound division.

Regardless, let's look at Hearns' record:

Goes 1-2-1 against the Horsemen. Can't beat Barkley in 2 fights. Has a reach advantage in all of his big fights and usually a height advantage as well.

0-2 against Barkley
0-1 against Hagler
0-1-1 against SRL
0-1 against Grant
1-0 against Duran
1-0 against Benitez
1-0 against Hill
1-0 against Kinchen
1-0 against Roldan
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Another shockingly ironic post, with zero context.

Loudon, May 3, 2026

#110

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Loudon Loyal Member Full Member

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brb said: ↑

I mean you can say whatever you want, but I don't see how as a boxing fan you can't see how tremendous of a fighter Wlad was. Especially in his earlier days when he was arguably one of the best offensive fighters ever. It's like the people that say Jokic isn't impressive. Even when he became a more cautious fighter it was still incredibly impressive how easy he dominated opponents. There are several threads that other forum members think that Wlad's opponents can hang with many other contenders in other boxing eras.

Let's stick to facts. His record against the Fab 4 was 1-2-1 like I pointed out. I can say that Wlad would have walloped Purrity in the rematch, but I don't.

You can't blame Wlad for not fighting any ATG if there were none around.

You think Cuevas, Miller, Shuler and Andries are special? They are the equivalent of Leapai, Mormeck, Austin and Pianeta. Maybe even less so.

Ah, Grant (who was 41 at the time he fought Hearns). Wlad was fighting AJ at 41. Who do you think is the more difficult opponent? Wlad also made a better account of himself while out of the ring for a year and a half.
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Cuevas was the equivalent of Leapai and Pianeta?

Why don’t you do us all a huge favour, and just stop posting.

Loudon, May 3, 2026

#111

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Loudon Loyal Member Full Member

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Dynamicpuncher said: ↑

I do see positives in Wladimir.

I rate him as a very good H2H fighter actually better than his brother.

I rate Wladimir as a top 10 Heavyweight of all time.

The amount of southpaws and undefeated fighters he beat is also impressive.

But pretty much most Heavyweights in general don't have the resume to compete with the smaller ATG fighters.

Unless your name is Ali who was in a ridciously strong era who fought everybody i mean Ali beat 30+ ranked fighters.

But pretty much most other Heavyweights do not have that type of resume.

There was a thread here recently asking who rates higher Holmes or ODLH.

Now Holmes is one of my favourite fighters of all time and i don't care much for ODLH even though i respect him as a fighter.

But i still rated ODLH above Holmes clearly simply because Holmes doesn't have the type of resume to compete with the smaller great fighters and the same applies to Wladimir.

Yeah but that's you being intellectually dishonest and you know it.

You know full well the draw against Leonard was a robbery which pretty much everyone agrees with and even Leonard admitted himself Hearns won the fight.

So trying to paint a picture that Hearns was 1-2-1 in a way to discredit him whilst ignoring the fact the draw was a robbery is not being totally honest about that statistic.

Wladimir beating Purrity in a rematch is just a fantasy scenario so i don't understand the comparison.

But Hearns getting robbed against Leonard in their dubious draw is a fact.

You also can't blame Hearns for competing against ATG's in which he acquitted himself very well yet you're using it to discredit him which is strange.

Benitez could also be considered a part of that group considering he fought 3 out of the 4 of the Fab 4 and Hearns holds a win over him who would also be considered a great.

You must be trolling or you are not very clued up on the likes of Cuevas.

Cuevas was a Welterweight world champion who won 12 world title fights.

Leapai, Austin, Pianeta, were fringe contenders who were never rated in the top 10.

So comparing those names to the likes of Cuevas is utterly baffling.

I can't believe this is even a discussion.

Hearns at 41 years old fighting 4 weightclasses above his best weight. Twisted his ankle and was forced to retire in the fight what part of that do you not understand ?
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The guy’s an absolute clown.

Loudon, May 3, 2026

#112

OddR Well-Known Member Full Member

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MarkusFlorez99 said: ↑

Lets keep hyping up a prime Wlad until people start declaring him the HW goat and then it's all going to come crashing down. Love to see it
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The poll is around 85% of votes for Hearns and most the discussion too so I don't think the overall result is Wlad hyping.

OddR, May 3, 2026

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brb said: ↑

And so can Wlad. Hence why he was champion for so long. 2 years he was #1 ranked contender, but LL didn't try to make that fight. Fury didn't want the rematch. Wlad can definitely hang with the best of them.
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Wlad blew any potential LL fight.

Loudon, May 3, 2026

#114
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McCallumsJab said: ↑

People won't like this but it's Wlad. Wlad learnt to be dominant against all comers. Hearns was amazing against certain styles that suited him but fell apart against others multiple times.

Yet they had the same trainer who worked out holding was a strategy he probably should have ladgot Hearns doing on the inside to survive in fighting, which he was never going to get the best of.
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Wlad had more dominance against much lesser opposition.

Wlad also fell apart against pressure.

He was knocked out 3 times, by 3 non elite fighters. And all in his 20’s.

He was also dropped around 15 times in his career.

Considering that he lost to 3 non elite fighters, and he never faced any true ATG’s, there is no evidence to believe that he could have beaten any.

Loudon, May 3, 2026

#115
MarkusFlorez99 Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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OddR said: ↑

The poll is around 85% of votes for Hearns and most the discussion too so I don't think the overall result is Wlad hyping.
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He will become even greater as time goes on, the gap between him and Lewis on the atg lists is small and getting smaller, but if the next generation of heavyweights ends up being very exciting Wlad might be in trouble

MarkusFlorez99, May 3, 2026

#116

dinovelvet Antifanboi Full Member

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MarkusFlorez99 said: ↑

He will become even greater as time goes on, the gap between him and Lewis on the atg lists is small and getting smaller
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dinovelvet, May 3, 2026

#117

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Gazelle Punch Boxing Addict Full Member

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Loudon said: ↑

Tommy ran into guys like Leonard and Marvin.

It’s highly unlikely that Wlad would have dominated for as long as he did, had he have ran into comparable opposition.
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I agree. More I think about it more I lean Hearns

Gazelle Punch, May 3, 2026

#118

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Loudon said: ↑

Wlad had more dominance against much lesser opposition.

Wlad also fell apart against pressure.

He was knocked out 3 times, by 3 non elite fighters. And all in his 20’s.

He was also dropped around 15 times in his career.

Considering that he lost to 3 non elite fighters, and he never faced any true ATG’s, there is no evidence to believe that he could have beaten any.
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Context alludes you.

Good ol' Ross Puritty. Wlad could have rematched him and fought at a much slower pace and it would have been the easiest fight to predict ever. He lost to Puritty because he had fought 12 times in the past 12 months all while doing the Promotions for his company (K2) and setting up his 1st fight in Ukraine.

Lamon Brewster was soundly defeated in the rematch.

Corrie Sanders fought Vitali for the WBC title and Vitali beat him. Corrie was relegated to fighting 4 times after that and they were all tomato cans.

brb, May 3, 2026

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Loudon said: ↑

Wlad dominated, but never ran into the competition that Hearns did.
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well done, you managed to summarize my post

BCS8, May 3, 2026

#120

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