Duran V Hearns 1980

You don't say! lol

Duran beat a legitmate world champion who had beaten Hearns who had of course lamblasted Duran. This was years after Hearns mopped the floor with Duran.

I will severely disagree the exact Ali of the Holmes fight could have been competitive with some good fighters. Lets be honest, Ali totally sucked that night and was actually better vs Berbick minus the meds.

Ali lived on more than a bit of smoke and mirror late career but yeah, could still sneak by some decent fighters. You do however make a grave error in remotely comparing the Ali who fought Spinks to the Ali who fought Holmes IMO.

Barkley was a good fighter, it was a fine win. Duran beat him because he was suited styilistically. VS Hearns he was not, and we in the Hearns camp say he was never stylistically suited to Hearns. As you said, speed and elusiveness beats an older and heavier Duran and truth be told SRL never used his speed to his advantage in fight 1 and wasn't elusive at all. He willingly slugged it out. In the rematch, and i don't care what the excuses, he pranced around Duran and frustrated the living hell out of him. A boxing Leonard in the first fight hell bent on imposing his own strategy would have been a vastly different proposition. As would the scyth like Hearns.

Duran could do nothing with Leonards speed and elusiveness in the rematch. Leonard willingly went toe to toe in the original. One fight doesn't make the man. Duran had the same dilemna's at 147, but it wasn't exposed to the same degree. Leonard didn't use his speed and got beaten. Leonard used his speed and won. Palomino was slow. Duran didn't spend the time at 147 or fight the fighters that would have shown this more clearly. I do not go for the Duran made him slug theory one bit.

Totally agree, your Hagler comments are spot on.

What Hearn's like fighter did Duran ever face? Only one, and we know what transpired. Hearns is in a league of his own on Duran's resume, there's no-one comparable.

As great an achievement as Duran's win over Leonard is, i have to say it has turned into part myth IMO. Leonard willingly fought Duran's fight in the trenches and didn't use his own assets at all. It would have been far more difficult if he did. In the second he did and we are left with excuses. Because of Leonard's willingness to trade in 1 big Duran fans see Duran as able to beat great fighters of immense speed like Hearns at 147. I don't. I think Benitez would have still given him kittens there personally. Am i understating the Leonard win? No. It was one of the greatest wins ever, a lightweight beating one of the greatest welters ever. Leonard thought he could overwhelm the smaller man, and was very mistaken. Even given his questionable tactics this is still a great win as Leonard could still mix it up quite well toe to toe and had significant size advantages.

Give me the examples pre Hearns of why Hearns would leave Duran a quivering wreck in a mere two rounds? It was named the most shocking boxing scene of the decade for a reason, and hindsight can't change that. Duran had gone a solid 15 with the best P4P in the business (and bigger again at 160 than Hearns) as well as never been stopped.

A clear head would tell us it is possibly more concievable the public would picture Tommy ko'ing the not long prior 135 Duran than the guy he actually did KO.

 

Duran clobbers him! Just look at what Hagler did to the spindly legged "Hitman"

 

Absolutely, but guys like JT done see it.
Hearns imo was alot better fighter at 154 lbs and 160 lbs than he was a welter.

Leonard is a decent puncher, but by not means was he a fighter to have a strong fighter on ***** street with a single shot.....
.....and thats exactly what Leonard did to Hearns, in various instances while Hearns was outboxing him, a single shot by Leonard would leave Hearns jello legged in a number of those rounds.

An almost shot Hearns showed years later vs Leonard that he could take his shots much better at 160 lbs!

 

Great observations regarding Hearns!

Is that Jim Plunkett (?sp) in your avatar?

 

:rofl

Well we know one thing, Hearns sure had the power to leave Duran absolutely PRONE! Pity it doesn't go the other way

:good

 

Jim Plunkett!:good

 

Duran fans are without a doubt the most blindly loyal (to the point of idiocy) of all boxing fans.

You can point out any facts to them about Duran and they can still twist it so their man still comes out looking good ie

You say Hearns destroyed him @154 - (They say he was unfit,unmotivated and didn't rate Hearns so didn't train but there's no evidence that Hearns could do the same @147)

You say Duran quit - (They say he did the honourable thing as he only had a few months to prepare for the rematch which is how Leonard manipulated it as he knew Duran would blow up between fights.Plus he was sick,and Leonard was barely beating him anyway,so he quit thinking he'd get a rubber match quickly only Leonard was such a coward he retired rather than fight Roberto....etc etc)

You say Davey Moore was a novice - (They say he was the best 154 pounder out there who'd fought an exceptional level of opposition in his 12 preceding fights.Also Moore was heavily favoured and Duran was considered washed up but he put on a master class against a much bigger foe who was the best 154 pounder out there)

You say Hagler fought poorly against him - (They say he didn't fight poorly it's just that Duran boxed beautifully and was winning after 12 rounds but got tired late,though the decision was still very close which further proves his greatness)

You say Hearns destroyed him after this great performance the very next fight - (The say he was unfit,unmotivated and didn't rate Hearns so didn't train but there's no evidence.....you get the picture)

Duran's an all time great fighter that's beyond dispute but he wasn't the boxing deity his fans would have you believe.He had his faults and weaknesses like every single boxer before and since and to suggest otherwise doesn't do him or his opposition justice.

 

I'm hearin' ya!

 

Very true. Duran power at welter was nothing special. He'd have his work cut out here, I agree with the posters who say the fight will be a bit different. Tommy will work behind the raking jab which Duran will find extremely difficult to get under, but being the skilled fighter he was he will get inside more and attack the ribs but I see Hearns landing the bomb nonetheless, not for a brutal KO like in 1984 but enough to put Duran down, then let fly until the ref's intervention. Hearns power was seldom more evident than it was at 147, despite what people want to believe. The 154 version has the edge as an all-round fighter, but anyone that thinks the 160 chinny, weak-legged version was an improvement is just deluded. These men at middle took his shots much better than those at welterweight. Tommy's record at 147 is excellent, except for his last couple of rounds in 1981.

Hearns TKO 7. Cards at time of stoppage. 58-56.

 

Roberto Duran being knocked out by anyone in 1980 is ludicrous. He slipped punches like very few could. He had an iron jaw and would wear Hearns down in the late rounds.

 

I don't think Duran's power was special at lightweight either. He did stop many challengers throughout his lightweight reign, but mostly all his stoppages came after 10 rounds. I'm not saying his power wasn't good, but it certainly doesn't live up to the hype that some people give it. Jackson, Hearns, and Tyson, were much harder hitters in their prime than Duran at lightweight.

Duran would wait until fatigue took its toll on his opponents, then his knockouts were ruthless and savage.

 

Duran never shared a ring with anyone like Hearns' power up until they fought. And I include Leonard at welterweight, and Hagler at middleweight. I will give Duran some benefit of the doubt, he was slightly weakened when he fought Hearns as he took large chunks of weight off three weeks before the fight. Rumour has it he came down from 180lbs.

But Hearns at welterweight was a serious ombre with his right hand. Duran's sharpness and elusiveness would simply make him last longer. But he'd only be delaying the inevitable for a few rounds.

Hearns just kills Duran from the outside.


Hearns KO8.

 

Those were not rumors that Duran overweight with just 2 or 3 weeks.
I was reading newspapers back in the day, and the reports were that Duran looked slow in sparring and in horrific shape for a man that was supposed to face Tommy Hearns in a matter of a couple of weeks.

Call them excuses if you will, but media reports prior to the fight happening were that Duran in the weeks leading to the fight would have a battle trying to get down to 154 lbs.

I believe Duran would have gotten stopped by Hearns even if he was in tip top shape, but the fact that Duran had to take off so much weight did'nt help his chances what so ever and got him KTFO in the fashion that he did.

 

Nice post, what else need be said. Good to see you have eased into stoppage mode, you were leaning toward a decision about 12 months back. The 154 Hearns was a better fighter but he still had that power at 147.

 

The premise of this whole thread is rather ludicrous. Put this in MSG, sign up Johnny LoBianco as the referee, and I'll take Duran by lethal bodyblow, around the end of round 13.:|