Compare Ali and Hearns from a standpoint of defense

Their defence is all about range and controll of it, I'll be back later to expand though.

 

i say alis better defensively he actually moved his head pretty well whilst on his toes while hearns did not

 

They probably both benefited from having longer reach than their opponents and accurate fast stinging punches to keep their men at safe distance.
Obviously it is a skill to do so.
Ali also benefited from having the kind of foot speed that men in his division generally don't have.

I think when Hearns moved up against men closer to his height and reach, holes in his defence became apparent to increasingly lesser fighters - if he didn't get them out early. Also the stronger bigger guys could bull through his offense with a little more chance of success.

With Ali, a slight drop in his foot speed would make him far more vulnerable, especially against guys who went 6'3 with decent arm length and straight punches.
Ali could fall back on a resilience that Hearns lacked though.

 

Well both of their defences is rooted in detterants. Ali has his speed, which is very intimidating for a fighter, and Hearns has that right hand. Unforgiven is right in saying they benefitted from their long reaches and height because they did, but they utilised superbly.

Ali is all about controlling the range and creating angles at range, and Bokaj is right in saying his footwork has more subtelties to it. If you watch Ali's feet he does a lot of foot feints, so his opponent is never quite sure where and when Ali's coming at him, also Ali has that threat of insanely fast hands that he can counter whatever you throw at him with.

So with these feints Ali is not giving his opponent anything concrete to start attacks on, and with his counters it makes his opponent scared to commit fully. So that is the deterrant part of his defence.

Aside from that he has great evasive movement, changing angles and turning directions in the blink of an eye. He circles one way and quickly pulls back the other. Its near impossible to pin him down.

Here's an old post I did on Hearns that would fit here,

Thomas Hearns - 'The Outside Puncher'

Firstly, I better explain the style. It is pretty much a boxer-puncher, but I thought I would give it a fancy name, but where he is a very accomplished boxer, and separately a very accomplished boxer but both of these things complement the other perfectly. I will go in to more detail as I go along.

The Stance

He generally keeps quite wide legged to maximise his leverage, but not too wide that he cannot escape with his swift feet. He is set as a puncher, so to speak. His hand positioning is also pretty good, he keeps his right hand generally quite high with his left dangling out at his hip.

The Jab

With that left hand dangling at his hip, Hearns is able to snap out a very fast and reasonably hard 'up-jab', as Gil Clancy would call it. This is pretty effective as it is very hard to slip as it travels in an upwards direction and it is easy to end up ducking onto the path of the jab. Because of the way the left is held, Hearns can easily snap that jab to the body without altering his position. Thus, posing a double threat with that left jab from the get go without wasting any extra energy.

The jab is generally used to measure his man and keep him at range. The fact he does not have a heavy jab adds to this as a heavy jab tends to push a man back, whereas Hearns light jab allows him to measure exactly where his right hand will land. It is also a pretty potent weapon because of his size and is his main point scorer as he is able to poke away with it from range in relative safety.

The fact it is held so low also allows him to feint with it easily and regularly providing another area of threat. He also uses the jab to disguise the right hand, often throwing it just a split second before the right.

The Right Hand

This is where the 'Outside Puncher' element comes in. Hearns right hand is his most proficient weapon, but it is used for both offensive and defensive purposes equally as well. Firstly, as the offence it is the main threat as he tends to use it behind the jab. Against more boxer types he tends to use the right in a more counter-punching role behind that jab, probing for openings and letting it go when they appear. Against more aggressive targets it is used to back up his man and set them on their back feet, negating their effectiveness and increasing Hearns'. The Cuevas fight and the Duran fights are superb examples of this.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS_AQK2idU8[/ame]

In the Duran fight watch how Hearns combines the using the jab to probe for openings with the use of the right hand to push back Duran. As he feints with that left to the body then brings the right in over the top, ultimately disguising the oncoming missile.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNFi3..._MpwbjdMsLy4Gw[/ame]


The defensive purposes of the right hand are that is a threat to step into Hearns' range as the right hand is waiting to hit you. Hearns is a superb counter-puncher with that right hand and when somebody steps into range he just lets it go. This allows him to keep it an outside fight, as most fighters are discouraged from coming inside, and even if they do the right hand generally backs them up again. A superb weapon and also a very nice, little, ring generalship feature that basically allows him control of the range of the bout.

He shows this well in the Benitez fight in the early rounds.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etcQzDZO-Ik[/ame]

The Defence

Hearns' technical skills as a defensive technician are lacking. He can parry and slip shots but he is not outstanding at any of them and only uses them as a last resort. His main pillar of defence is that right hand 'burglar alarm' that he launches when an opponent comes into range. It allows Hearns the ability to controll the range and with his height and footspeed he stays out of range, as his main form of defence. And cleverly too.

The Punch Mechanics

Charley Burley once said that when punching you should consider your arms as elastic bands with weights on the end of them.

Hearns does this brilliantly as he uses his whole body to power them long limbs through the air. If you watch his punching technique it all comes from the legs and the hips and he has very little movement in the arms. Every punch seems to lead on to the next one and there is very little wasted motion as a straight right leads on perfectly to a left hook etc....

He also whips the body shots in really well and uses the more upward momentum in them to power in head shots.

 

Both were technically flawed but one had an all time chin and the other did not.

 

That's it right there!:deal

 

Hearns was not really hard to hit, IMO... His height and reach at 147 only made it appear so..

 

Hearns didn't fight tall and control the range as well as Carlos Monzon IMO>

 

I think the thing was Hearns had more power and that made him take more chances since he had confidence in his power. Different fighters completely. Hearns had a better jab. About Hearns and Ali, it is hard to compare since Hearns was more offensive. Ali is obviously closer to Leonard as far as defense. Better defense? Ali

 

surprisingly Hearns stood taller when he was younger at welt. When he got older he would fight more at the height of his opponents. Watch the Leonard one and two fights and compare. In the second fight Hearns bends down more to Leonard which makes it easier for him to duck under Leonard's punches, which he did not in 1981.

 

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