Julian Jackson,, Would He Possibly Have Stopped "Hands Of Stone ''?

Great post!

 

Thanks mate. Hearns is the sort of guy who is so dangerous and multi faceted offensively that no-one really evades him. Not even the defensive masters like Duran and Benitez. He opened up Duran's defense like a tin of sardines and completely outboxed Benitez with various left hands and feints after breaking his right mitt. Even Leonard was consummately outboxed before Tommy's durability failed him. If he had Leonards chin he wins.

 

Yeah, you don't outbox Hearns. You had to take what he had to give and either overpower him or out last him.

 

Any fighter who is 5"-6" taller with much longer arms would love to fight a small guy who stands straight up and thinks he is going to "box" the taller fighter from distance. Duran had no chance fighting like that, it's hard to guess what he was thinking? Maybe Duran knew that he was not in shape to fight with his knees bent and applying pressure?

 

Duran was hot and cold above Welterweight as you know, and lost to worse fighters than Jackson. Who really you could say never actually lost in his prime. He was green vs McCallum although I would favour McCallum against any version of Jackson TBH, and vs McClellan he had retina problems and was probably bit faded by that point.

Now don't get me wrong when Duran was on it, he could put in a great performance above Welterweight. But regarding his performance against say Hagler for example, who decided to box cautiously which was a little puzzling TBH. But despite that being a valiant effort from Duran, and obviously Hagler is better than Jackson P4P. Styles make fights and Jackson would be the bigger man chasing down Duran, with the threat looming over him that he could turn Duran's lights out with 1 punch.

Overall I do think Duran can outbox Jackson, but what happens when Jackson tags Duran how will he react ? I think that's the biggest question. Honestly I do see Duran getting tagged at some point, and I don't think overall he would stand up to Jackson's best. But then again Jackson's durability could be a little suspect, so maybe Duran could do enough damage in the first 6 rounds by outboxing Jackson, and landing them counter right hands. But boy would we have to be on his game not to be caught in them early rounds. Because Jackson himself wasn't no slouch, he had underrated boxing skills see Thomas Tate fight, and had very good timing and underrated hand speed.

 

Where do you guys rate Davey Moore compared to Jackson? I know JJ achieved more but Davey was thrown in above his head against Duran. However it showed Duran could take on a young, tough and hard hitting fighter and win through sheer guile. Possibly the green JJ who fought McCallum could also have been taken by Duran at LMW?

 

As you allude to, Jackson has more depth to his win resume and ranks higher than Moore.

I do feel, though, that some people only remember Moore from the Duran fight and assume he was just some novice who was no good, but he was 4-0 in world title fights including an equally dominant win over the 40-1 Kalule, as SRL was in Ayub's only defeat up to that point. Moore also went on to defeat a Wilfred Benetiz who had beaten Duran 2 years earlier.

Duran's respective performances vs Moore and Laing are good examples of Dynamicpuncher's point about the inconsistent physical shape and mental focus Duran showed in fights around this point in his career. That's why I qualified my earlier posts, by saying a fully focused Duran could trouble Jackson.

Styles make fights and what would have made Jackson so dangerous to any version of Duran, is that Duran would have had to come forwards into Jackson's range. Jackson was naturally 3 weight divisions bigger and arguably the hardest p4p puncher in history. If Jackson didn't land the big shot, the fight could have resembled Duran vs Moore, but Duran would be in punching range, though certainly not a static target, for most of the fight, and if Jackson landed his best shot, Duran would have stayed hit.

 

Said Iran Barkley, never.

Truth is Duran couldn't get inside and impose his fight on Hearns. He was copping an almighty pounding most of the fight. Hearns jab, feints and laser beam right hands kept him right where he wanted him. He was also jabbing at the heart which made it even harder to get close for obvious reasons.

 

The version that fought Barkley- would most likely be stopped I think. Julian might just overwhelm him with his size, power and boxing ability. He hustled Iran because he was dumb, he savaged what’s his face that JMW who beat Benitez because he was a club level guy. Mm. I think more often then not Duran big brains Julian to a competitive win.

 

Iran had a tiny boxing brain- like a movie Trex he was big and dumb- easy to exploit.

 

We always take best for best in these threads and tho i get annoyed at continual Duran excuses he wasn't always at his best. Jackson was indeed green against McCallum but he also had the element of surprise on his side. I mean who knew McCallum was going in against a guy with absolute ATG power? He had to adapt on the fly after having his foundation shook to it's very roots. One would surely take McCallum all day best for besthe just had too much skill.

I've been more critical of Hagler's tentativeness for longer than anyone on the forum and debated it for pages against SH89 near a decade and a half ago. He did have some good counter points in that Duran still did well to forward these doubts and take a bit of advantage from them.

Duran loved guys that came at him. The X factor is Jackson having fast hands along with the power which creates a bit of a gray area in this particular matchup. Having said that it was more the slickster boxer type that gave him most problems. Also i'm not so sure Jackson can ed the fight with one punch. Even with his fast hands he's not catching him blind like Hearns did IMO for reasons I've stated at length. He couldn't do it with McCallum and for mine Duran has ATG durability and resilience. One only has to look at his full career - there was only one Hearns in there and that wouldn't be easily changed. I think Duran would crowd him (Jackson ain't keeping him from getting in like Hearns) and try to take his power away while outfinessing him in close.

I think he'd have to do him mostly on the inside. It's a good question ifJackson tags him and obviously an open ended one. you are right to note Duran's right hand as personally i don't think McCallum was a BIG puncher even at 154. The Curry KO adds a bit too much lustre as a puncher for mine.

 

I'm not totally convinced the best of Jackson beats Duran at his 154 best TBH. Davey is a better fighter than he looked against Dooran. In the end it was just a nightmare matchup, all that experience, toughness, durability and skill.

 

Or the left.

 

JJ had very fast hands as he caught the fleet footed Norris with one punch and caught the slick Graham with one shot.
Duran being Duran always has a chance but he would be a big underdog.
Jackson only needs one shot and thats alot to ask Duran to avoid the entire fight.

 

Man you wanna talk about rushing a boxer- Moore had been a very decorated amateur and they rushed him toward the title.
He got hit way to easily for a fighter with his skills.
Kalue couldnt miss him and the only thing that really saved Moore was Kalue couldnt punch.
After Duran Moores lack of defense became even worsre- Jackson couldnt miss him and easily outboxed him and Drayton beat him up pretty good.