Were does Virgil Hill rank amongst the Light Heavy Weights

Virgil was a very good fighter, but man getting beaten by old Hearns kind of makes you think his run was somewhat Calzahge like.

 

Hearns was not a light heavyweight legend and he dominated Hill ... Hill's biggest win was his first title winning victory over Steward ... after that, one terribly boring victory after another against stiff after stiff .. horrible fights ..

 

Hearns was still a legend and it showed. He was a boxing legend, and he was so good the weight did not matter. Hearns could still box at that age which was only 32. Hearns was still a decent fighter then. Since when is 32 an old man. Hill was 27. Hearns was just a two handed great fighter with a lot of experience, and Hill had a great jab and left hand which was not enough to beat Hearns. Hearns is a great fighter so there is no insult in that. People thought Hearns was finished earlier than he was. That shows the greatness of Hearns that he beat Hill easily, not that Hill was no good. Beating Stewart, Czyz and Lasisi and Emebe and others was not that easy previous to Hearns, then 7 years after the Hearns fight is when Hill lost to Jones. But Hill did beat Tate 2 times, Steward,Czyz, Delvalle, Maske,Tiozzo and the list goes on and on. talk about underrated. if you are going to diminish someone for one or two losses with a legend, then you can diminish many great fighters.

 

Fighting in North Dakota and this. What could be better?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw[/ame]




What an annoying song he came out to every fight of his entire career.

 

Hearns had to fight for his life against Juan Roldan and was flattened by Iran Barkley and Marvin Hagler at 160. Your logic is flawed. He was far from a great fighter at 175.

 

The difference is that hopkins fought all the best fighters in his division. During is rein he was the universally recognised champion.

Hill-joe is a good comparison tho. Both were paper champs for a very long time but eventually took on their main rival.

 

And for the love of god can we stop saying hill had 21 defences!

 

Its funny.All Pastrano was known for was footwork and a great lefthand-he was labeled as a brillant boxer-Hill has a similar style(not as flashy though) and hes labeled "boring".

Pastrano won his title by SPLIT decison over what a great deal of people thought was a robbery.Makes 2 defences and thats it.Hes a legend .

Hill makes 21 defences and his accomplishment isn't even respected.The opponents were "too weak".Hill shouldn't go into the HOF because he lost to two HOF-Pastrano got stopped by 2 HOF opponents and hes in the HOF.

 

Hill will go to the HOF

 

Hearns still beat Juan Roldan, and was hit by a lucky punch by Barkley. so what. Hearns beat Cuevas,Benitez,Duran,Hill first man to win 5 titles in 5 divisions. first welt to win 175 pound title. Who said he was a great fighter at 175? but fact is he was a great fighter who beat Virgil Hill. How Iran Barkley or Hagler have to do with Virgil being great I am not sure. Diminish Hearns to make Virgil look bad? Does anyone doubt Hearns is a great fighter? Virgil's greatness goes beyond the Hearns fight, which was one fight. Virgil beat good fighters and is underrated. Then you have Duran who is overrated. And JMM now who is totally overrated.

 

that is like saying can we stop saying Mike Tyson was a dominant heavyweight. It is fact.

 

:good...that's the truth.

 

that is true. He didn't come out to that song against Thomas Hearns in 1991.

 

Yeah but it's a diluted fact. He had 21 defences of his paper title agreed. But his world championship he never defended cos he lost to dm.

Plenty of top contenders have won 21 fights so I don't see why people go on about this paper championship.

What you said before about hearns, by my reckoning he was only ever a lmw champion.

 

Ring Magazine placed him at number 19 in their Top 20 LH's back in 2002. All things considered, that's probably just about right.

You can't discount the 20 defenses that he made of his various titles (not championship...just titles), and there were a few fighters of quality thrown into the mix. At the same time, you can't ignore the losses to Hearns, Jones, and DM- which certainly preclude him from the upper echelon of all time LH's.

But even though he never really enthralled me as a fighter, you can't deny his worth. He had a beautiful jab, exhibited great movement, and once he got into his rhythm he was a tough, tough to beat. He'll make into the HOF some day, and I won't really be able to argue against his induction.