At SM, is it a fairly balanced fight? Hearns has age slightly against him, Whilst Benn is the younger fresher man. Tommy is the greater boxer, whilst Benn had that ko power, of course Hearns is no slouch either there. Chin wise, neither had Hagler or Eubank s chins of course. So all in all, neither man is totally with out strength or weakness here. And who wins? Hearns (1989) Benn (1992)
Very even, I think it really is a case of who lands first. I can actually see it ending up like the first Barkley fight, Hearns starting fast, maybe even dropping Benn but then walking in to a monster right hand and getting slept. At that point in time I would slightly favour the younger and more ferocious Benn.
By that time Hearns had already learned his Barkley lesson, and fought Sugar Ray, got a new mouth peace to help him absorb shots to the chin better. Benn had become more patient and smarter, he learned to pace himself and box more. So i would say Hearns wins on points, fighting more like the Hearns that beat Virgil Hill, controling Benn mostly with his Jab, and the threat of the big right hand. It would be an awesome match up.
That would be Benn s main problem, apart from a massive ko shot from Tommy, would be his Jab, actually getting past it. Intresting fact about the Hearns mouth piece, wasn't aware of that.
Intriguing match up but I can’t see Hearns losing this one. I think he would find it hard to get inside Hearns’ jab and if I recall correctly, he wasn’t as big or durable as Barkley. I can see Tommy stopping him mid to late. Hearns KO 8. On that note would love to see Barkley v Benn at SMW.
Yeah, him and Emanual saw a specialist after the Kinchen fight and before the SRL rematch. They discovered Tommy's jaw had shifted and he couldnt take a punch as well anymore. He made a custom mouthpiece that corrected that problem, they also worked on Tommy's skinny legs. If you think about it, he took alot of hard shots from Ray, and Barkley in rematches, fought Hill "who is no big puncher" but could on accation, and Nate Miller, a big cruiserweight puncher, and never got stopped. The only time he got stopped was when he twisted his ankle against Uriah Grant.
I think this is a very good prediction, at 168 Benn takes a better shot than Hearns and I can see Tommy getting hit mid fight just like in the Barkley loss. By no means a given but if I had to bet on it I'd go with Benn
Benn could never get past Malinga's jab in two fights, and Watson also pelted Benn with jabs at will and even stopped him with a jab. I think Hearns's jab would be the key here, and he would control Benn with it. And barring Benn landing a hail mary punch like Barkley did. Who himself had to take an incredible amount of punishment, and was on verge of getting stopped himself until he caught Hearns. I see Hearns winning by TKO in middle rounds, although of course as i said Benn is always in with a shout due to his power. But overall I'm going with the superior fighter in Hearns, who even at 168 would still be the favourite over Benn IMO.
