It's early 1986 and instead of Hearns-Shuler and Hagler-Mugabi we have Tommy Hearns on the comeback trail following his fight with Hagler taking on the then peaking and undefeated John "the Beast" Mugabi. How do you see this one panning out? Does Tommy use his physical advantages to try to avoid a brawl and keep Mugabi at bay, or does he trust his healed right hand to do the job that it narrowly failed to do on Marvin? Can Mugabi get to Tommy's chin, hurt and stop him? I see this as a genuine 50-50 fight at this juncture. Move ahead to 1987 or later and Tommy wins but Mugabi at the time was pretty frightening and whilst the Hagler fight probably finished him as a top-tier fighter, arguably it took an awful lot of what Hagler had left in the tank. For Tommy, this would have probably presented a much higher risk than Shuler and would have been seen as a gutsy move. I can see either guy winning this, I'd like to side with Tommy due to his much greater overall legacy and talent, but a confident, peaking Mugabi might just be too much for him as a first fight back after The War.
Both men hit like a truck and both had chins which could be cracked. Hearns had the much higher skill level which could be the tie breaker but if he gets foolishly lured into a trading match it could be his undoing.
I'll go with Hearns by early KO but Mugabi has a punchers chance for sure. Hearns had a few shaky performances at Middleweight.
I remember reading KO magazine back then and one article stated that insiders said Emanual Steward wanted to steer Hearns away from Mugabi. The risk reward was too great. In my opinion Tommy would be very successful early boxing as Steward wouldn't want him exposing himself by getting into exchanges but the Beast, was a Beast back then and I think his team would have him go right at Tommy as everyone knew that even a glancing hook from Mugabi would stagger Hearns. If they'd have fought I'm certain Tommy would have been the favorite and I'd have bet on Mugabi. Not confidently mind you but at that time at 154 pounds the Beast was calling out Hearns not the other way around.
