Prime Hearns was at 147 or 154, but Hearns at his best middleweight form (which by your criteria is no broken hands, strong legs) loses to Hagler by TKO.
Hagler changed from his usual style and was way more aggressive, and pretty much forced Hearns to brawl. Hearns was better at lower weight classes, but he was in his physical prime at the age of 26.
As has been pointed out, that probably is 84 154lbs Hearns. The best 160lbs Hearns gives Hagler hell in the first round, not much less in second, but in the third a slightly desperate Hagler (due to a cut) gets the job done
well the whole point was hearns couldnt box and move becuase he had been overtraining. now on the outside do you think hagler can win?...nah hearns is too tall too long and has a great jab and power to back him up. hagler knew the only way to win this fight was to go completly toe to toe and make him lose his hieght and reach on the inside whic he did and won the fight but if hearns had jabbed and moved and landed right hands from a distance that he was doing before then yeah i think he has a chance.
As has already been said, we saw this fight play out. Hearns was in his physical prime and he did the best he could. If anything it was Hagler who was past his prime. He looked as though he had slowed down a bit. Hearns with a different mentality might last a bit longer but Hagler could take everything Hearns had to offer so he would eventually catch up with him if Hearns tried to box.
Good post. the only thing I would add is that 10 times out of 10 you would not see Tommy sticking to a game plan that was to box on the outside and move non-stop. Tommy always seemed psychologically incable of staying out of a war. Think about the post fight interview: "THAT WAS WAR!! WHEN WE GONNA DO IT AGAIN!!" Boo
A slightly desparate guy that always gives Hearns chicken legs. Fabled hand problems or not, Hagler always destroys Hearns. Period!
Thats true, whilst he did stick to his game plan in say, the Benitez fight this one he couldn't resist. I think it was a combination of Hearns being on a huge confidence level after a KO win over Duran (who went 15 with Hagler), his hand being fully healed, and Hagler coming straight at him. I reckon he genuinly thought he could Knockout Hagler. So when Hagler came at him he gleefully obliged.
Spot on, the Duran win did more harm to Hearns chances than good. He thought he could take Hagler out and happily obliged the slugfest. In hindsight lol.
Yeah, although, of all Hagler's opponents Hearns came the closest to 'stopping' him. He was the only one that you could say hurt/stunned Hagler. And that cut was looking pretty bad, maybe if Hearns lasted a bit longer he could of got the TKO.
Thomas has the ability to outbox Marvin, but Hagler, in any scenario, would always get inside and stop him, albeit, in his scenario, later that the real fight.