Interesting. I actually spoke with McClellan's cousin when he found my highlight video of Gerald online. He gave me a call and we spoke for a good amount of time, and among other things he discussed those 2 back to back decision losses Gerald suffered early in his career...He said that was around the time Steward tried to convert him to a pure boxer which wasn't his style. After losing both matches trying to be a boxer, he said eff this and went back to his boxer/puncher style and dominated once again. I upped the sparring match between Hearns and G-Man a while back: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEQVMb8zkC8[/ame]
I'm highly doubting even the great Hearns stops McClellan. We're talking a man who took battering blows for 10 rounds with a blood clot in his head and still didn't go down until he chose to do so voluntarily. That kind of heart and pain threshold is beyond comprehension.
Hearns was so much better technically that unless he simply had a big lapse in awareness I'd favor him to win a decision. Barkley threw wide, looping shots from long or short range, the easier kinds to get tagged with on an off moment. McClellan wasn't the same kind of puncher. He loaded up on big right hands and left hooks, punches I don't think would've been tagging Hearns flush all too often, if at all.
With Benitez and Hill he did. If he knew what fight he had to fight, and he would have to box McClelland, he would have been able to win the rounds and not throw his big bombs. As we know Tommy always caused his own problems. When he could land he went for it, but against Hill he held back and didn't throw punches when he knew Hill could throw the counter left. He did better in his bigger fights when he knew who he was going to fight and how good they were. Only Hagler really were his bad decisions in big fights. With Ray? He was in there with a great fighter. Nothing much he could do.