Hopkins best weight but not Hearns. It will favor Hopkins obviously. Matters how Hearns fights. If he fights cautious and uses his jab he would win a decision. Tommy beat other greats.
Hearns has a good style here because he can implement attacks with speed. Strictly speaking there's no style which is kryptonite for Hopkins imo, but there is an attribute which is his 'kryptonite' imo, and that is speed. I think Tommy could beat him.
2 of my all time favourite fighters. Hearns is one of the few guys who could out box Hopkins so despite not being at his best weight could win should he stick to the right game plan and not get drawn in. But Hopkins is great at riling opponents and getting in their heads he could very well provoke Hearns to abandon his boxing and get into a fight where Hopkins can counter a reckless Hearns. Hard to pick a winner, so many variables. I favour Hopkins by the slimmest margin to stop Hearns late, his natural weight advantage, durability and better inside game gives him a slight edge. Hopkins would have to walk through fire to get the win but I think he could do it, but only just.
Definitely Hopkins. He could get physical and Hearns wasn't really comfortable in those situations, and Hopkins was the naturally bigger man to make it worse. He wouldn't be physical right off the bat the way Barkley was because he thinks defense first, but he would do it in spots and up the pressure from mid rounds on. I could see him leaning, mauling, and roughing him up like the way he was doing Trinidad and Tarver, wearing him out. I think Hopkins loses most of the early rounds, but comes on strong in the later rounds and stops a faded Hearns.
I think you guys are assuming that Tommy would let Hopkins make it physical. I see him as being very able to keep Hopkins at the end of his own 1 and 2, and doing damage to boot.
I personally never seen Hearns show the ability to keep someone (especially someone physically stronger) from getting inside for an entire fight. It wasn't just people like Barkley and Ray that caught up to him, I've seen fighters like Kinchen and Roldan make their way in there as well. I can't see why a rough, crafty vet such as Hopkins couldn't. As i said though, i don't see him coming straight in. I think he would get out worked and out boxed early, avoiding most of the big bombs and slowly start upping the tempo. I actually kinda see it going similar to the Leonard fight (with Hopkins taking less damage due to his superior defense). Hearns stamina was terrible to be honest, and a biger guy like Hopkins leaning on him would just make it worse. I see him becoming more and more vulnerable as the rounds wore on. This is just to show how effective he can be at leaning on his opponent and wearing them out. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvoSOV4hnaE&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvoSOV4hnaE&feature=related[/ame]
Virgil Hill was stronger than Hearns, but his style was not physical and Hearns controlled him with the jab. And Duran was strong, just that Roberto was not fast enough for Tommy in 1984. It is a matter of speed and it is up to Hearns in this fight to keep Hopkins on the end of the jab and not to get into a physical fight. I think Hearns could do that if he fights smart. Hopkins is good, but the best thing about Hopkins is his ability to find a guys weakness and exploit it. A guy like Roy Jones Jr. was so good it didn't matter if he found a weakness, he was so fast no one could touch him. Hopkins has to find that weakness, that is why he handpicks and does well when he is focused, but remember Hopkins had fights where he did not look good when the other guy was faster. He handpicks well nowadays and the fighters today are not as complete technically as they were 30 years ago.