Bennie Briscoe vs Thomas Hearns

I’ll be that guy.

Bennie was a solid guy but he was a gatekeeper. His two best wins are probably over Eddie Mustafa Muhammad (Gregory at that time) at middleweight, where Eddie never made any noise and far before he really grew into his prime at 175, and Mundine, who was a hugely overrated guy built on careful matchmaking and record-padding.

But when Briscoe stepped up, he was usually outclassed: not just Monzon and Valdes but also Luis Rodriguez and Vito Antuofermo and Marvin Hagler (who was just making his bones and hadn’t yet particularly distinguished himself in fights against the rest of the Philly crew), etc., and he wasn’t, on the scorecards, particularly competitive in most of those step-up fights.

Bennie also lost to or drew with a lot of good-but-far-from-great fighters like Kitten Hayward, Vincente Rondon, David Love, Willie Warren, etc. That guys were more his speed, but he wasn’t even in his prime a clear cut above everyone at that level.

Hearns could box, and a lot of boxer types gave Bennie fits. He might have a spot of success here or there, but he didn’t overcome many slick guys.

Thomas is the better fighter with the better pedigree and proved himself by beating a lot of fighters far superior to Bennie’s best scalps. I mean, I can’t imagine Hearns losing to David Love or someone at that level. He walked through guys like that and outboxed guys better than Bennie beat.

 

Hagler was a boxer puncher when he fought Briscoe. His style was footwork, jab, and box, not get in the trenches and bang away unnecessarily.

 

The question is would Hearns be able to last 15 rounds, with the constant pressure of Bennie Briscoe ? 12 rounds i'd maybe lean towards Hearns, but over 15 rounds at Middleweight against a guy who's gonna keep coming all night long pressuring him ? i'd have doubts Hearns could survive 15.

 

There’s also the question of whether he might cut up Briscoe.

History doesn’t tell us that anyone who came forward against Hearns made him collapse. Only exceptional fighters beat him (during the portion of his career that mattered) and I don’t think Briscoe meets that standard. And look at how Bennie fared with guys who could box … none of whom had the jab or the power of Hearns.

If David Love can (more than) stand up to him, I figure Thomas could too.

 

Who Put The Bomp? Good song from 1961. Ha Ha.

 

Briscoe has the right style to break Hearns down but it would be a fun fight to watch. Benny took a good punch but he would need to stay on top of Tommy (Joe Frazier style). I'll go with Bad Bennie by late TKO.

 

Briscoe is the more proven middleweight but is too limited

Hearns lost to Leonard who was by far more versatile than Benny.

Benny has a hard chin but this isnt enough to win fights especially since he was just a slow methodical plodder

So Hearns has all the advantages; faster hands, greater reach, has the better footwork while Benny just throws an occasional jab as we saw in the Monzon fight

so Tommy figures to use all his advantages to outpoint Benny much in the style of Monzon and David Love. Hopefully, his right hand doesnt break

 

Why wouldnt they? it seems the more versatile, stylish fighters were able to beat him

 

A tough one to call this.
On the surface Hearns has all the advantages with his height, reach and speed.
His jab would probably be in Bennie’s face all night and you could certainly see Tommy taking the early lead.
Briscoe was teak tough though and he would keep on applying pressure and Hearns could succumb to that at middleweight.
Interestingly though Briscoe’s only KO loss was from a right hand by Rodrigo Valdez he was badly hurt earlier in the fight from the same punch.
I’m going for Hearns here to gain a hazardous UD

 

Briscoe was a bobber and weaver and a pressure fighter but he wasn’t a run-you-out-of-the-ring pressure fighter who never let his opponent’s breathe like say Joe Frazier or an attack-happy Jack Dempsey.

Watch Briscoe-Antuofermo and you’ll see it’s not what what you expect, two irresistible forces who can’t be separated. Vito controls a surprising amount of the action with his jab and keeps Bennie at bay for good stretches like this — if Briscoe isn’t walking through short-armed Vito’s jab he isn’t walking through Tommy’s.

 

Briscoe bullies, decks and stops Hearns.

 

Highly doubt Hearns would KO Briscoe. Hearns' jab and distance is enough to win. He'll break his hand on Bad Bennie's dome. Bennie's coming for the body.

 

I think if you put Tommy in the same era as Briscoe and had him fight the same fighters Bennie did Hearns would catch some Ls too.

 

Good point if we’re talking Monzon and Valdes.

But I don’t think those losses would come to the likes of Luis Vinales, Joe Shaw, Tito Marshall, etc. There’s a lot of journeyman L’s on his record.

And if you look at the scores from many of his steps up to face the likes of Monzon and Valdes and Emile Griffith, Luis Rodriguez, etc., he usually wins zero to three rounds on most of the cards. He might have a moment or two, but it’s not like he takes them to the limit.

Looking at Bad Bennie’s record, it’s fair to think he would have lost to some fighters in the Olajide/Shuler/Roldan level — maybe he wins one out of two or gets a draw if they melt multiple times. That’s easy to project from his actual record.

 

I mean, it kinda matters man.