They were both great but crucially, they were both great and exciting. Between 2003 and 2009 Manny was the most exciting fighter in boxing bar none. He was doing remarkable things and doing them spectacularly. He brought a thrill level to the sport that had been missing for a long time. He was unambiguously doing great things. Had he met Floyd in 2010, I believe the fight would have been a very different one to the one we saw in 2015. The final outcome may have been the same but Floyd would know that he'd been in a real fight. Of course, Floyd wanted no part of the 2009/10 version of Pacquiao so we'll never know how different that fight could have been. The parallel with Tommy is that between 1980 and 1986 Hearns was the most exciting fighter in the game and that was during an era of spectacularly exciting fighters like Matthew Saad Muhammad and Aaron Pryor. And he kept hold of that unofficial title until the full emergence of Mike Tyson at the end of 1986. Win, lose or draw Hearns was rarely in a dull fight. His strengths and weaknesses guaranteed great action. His career unfortunately will be remembered as much (maybe more) for his gallant failures against Leonard and Hagler as for his stunning KO wins over Cuevas, Duran, Shuler and Roldan. I'm tempted to lean towards Pacquiao overall as a guy who picked up world titles from flyweight to welterweight but I think Hearns overall faced the higher level of opposition in Leonard, Benitez, Hagler and Duran. But I think they are both easily top 50 p4p and Hall of Famers. Love 'em both.
Good post.. but not the gallant failures(plural) against Leonard at all for me . He redeemed himself and beat Leonard.
Sorry... I meant gallant failures against Leonard (singular - their first fight) and Hagler. Yes, he definitely got a level of redemption in the rematch.
It’s possible that Tommy gained weight naturally but I doubt you know that for sure. Steroids really began to take hold in the 80’s and 90’s in sports and testing was not highly developed and certainly not in boxing. My point was that by you claiming that in order for Manny to continually go up in weight and compete successfully was evidence of steroids but for Tommy to do the same is not evidence of steroids. I loved both guys and I do believe that Manny juiced. I think that Tommy probably did but I can’t prove either guy and it’s not a hill I want to die on.
very hard. Hearns fought higher level greats but lost to 2 of them. Manny lost to one. Both guys were knocked cold by one punch. Actually Hearns was hit with two by Barkley but I don't think the second was needed.
Thinking back ,how big a shock was Tommy s loss to Barkley in 88 !? I was stunned ,I expected a brutal beating from Hearns going in .
Not today, Brother. I was pretty shocked. My hat is off to Manny. He performed much better than I expected. Manny is truly a great fighter.
Thurman was a good win, but nothing to take him up a notch.. Wasn't Manny the favorite? I was not even an upset was it? What did the odds close at? The Lopez fight showed us something was shaky about Thurman. I want to see Thurman against Spence or Crawford to be able to see where he is at.
