What's up ESB, I just want some clarification as to why some believe that Tommy had a glass jaw? Do you believe this statement was true or false?
not iron, not glass. he was durable enough. anyone doubting must have neglected to see leonard 1 in a while. that fight he took bomb after bomb for almost 3 straight rounds. the hagler and barkley fights give him a bad rep and legitimately he showed a weaker than world class chin at times. his punch was HUGE but his ability to take it was not nearly at the same level. he could take a hit well enough at times but at the elite level, he could get caught and put away, especially early
He hasn't got a great chin, but boxing history labels your chin as glass if you get ko'd in even your biggest fights, it's a bit silly, just a bit.
I would not say that he had a glass jaw, but I have to hold him up as an example of a fighter whose ambitions were only limited by his chin. Give him a chin like Marvin Hagler and you have something aproaching a modern Sam Langford.
Average chin. Would have been an incredibly devastating fighter with an iron one. Still an ATG with an average jaw. Too much of a knock is given because of the Barkley fight, where Hearns was dissecting until Barkley suddenly came back and turned the tables. That kickstarted the whole line of thought that you can beat Hearns if you just can land that one shot. I personally don't buy it, Hearns went into deep waters any number of times, and any number of good heavy hitting fighters failed to accomplish anything against him.
On a scale of 10, I'd give his chin a 6 or thereabouts. You don't move through the weight classes like he did with a china chin.
Vulnerable but tough. Dentable, but Hearns could salvage things. He is not the kinda' fighter I'd automatically assume gets stopped in a hypothetical, put it that way. Look who he was stopped by in his two perceived primes, or the start and end of his real prime. Ray Leonard Marvin Hagler I also don't think his chin would come into question much as to get to him you've gotta' walk through Hell. Tommy Hearns hell, which is a truly scary attribute to try to assess. In fact, in hypotheticals I'm usually more likely to say Hearns will spark the other guy. But he had an average chin. A lot of heart though.
i wouldnt agree. i can understand why somone would believe it but outside of his losses he showed true grit and his ability to take punishment. not saying it is iron, but it's an average chin. it was how people beat him though. leonard, hagler and barkley where able to bussle,hustle and bully him on the inside. he didnt clinch alot and his low left hand invited a guy who had enough reach and snap to throw leads. his inside work let him down i think. only his left hook to the body and uppercut where available to him, couldnt get much done. he is more of an example of why tall fighters/long reaches shouldnt be used on the inside.
Hope you're not on anything too hard, don't want to lose a solid poster on these boards. Short enough as is.
No, I think his ability to take a punch was adequate, surprisingly so, given the qualities which could make it challenging to reach his chin at the lower weights. It wasn't Tommy who hit the deck in the rematch with SRL, and Ray landed enough to salvage a draw despite getting floored twice. He fell at the end of a torrid war with Hagler, but stood up to considerably more from Marv than Kronk stablemate Lee had been able to. (Remember, all Hagler needed was one right jab to knock second tier contenders silly.) The Barkley rematch also saw him through a measure of punishment. He got up to win against Delgado, and winning a decision was not the easy way out with Freddie. This wasn't Patterson getting dropped 25 times, or Lewis losing the HW title twice in his prime by a single punch from two different mediocre contenders. His chin was better than Kronk stablemate McCrory's, and considerably better than that of McCrory conqueror Don Curry.