greater Hagler or Hearns?

Very interesting view, I never saw it that way. The Virgil Hill victory is unreal. A guy starting as a welterweight beats one of the best lightheavys of all time.

However, you fail to mention that Hearns lost twice to Barkley. Hagler has only a close very disputed defeat against Leonard (I do not count the 2 earlier defeats of hagler) Hearns also was stopped 3 times, Hagler was never stopped. Also Hagler's destruction of Heans has to be taken into consideration.

I would rank Hagler over Hearns but ceratinly not by much. What about Duran, where would he rank?

 

Hagler is fractionally greater in my opinion, but not because he beat Hearns. I think he is greater because I believe he was a superior fighter at his peak.

 

They don't accept it because it isn't even remotely true. The answer is Hagler, he was the greater fighter regardless of what extra paper title Tommy held in certain higher weight classes.

 

Well I suppose it is just an opinion. Marvin had a consistent reign that is true, but once Hearns lost to Ray at welterweight his whole focus was outdoing Leonard. So he wanted the big fights and to move up and conquer all of boxing, Hagler was content to defend his title and call out the smaller fighters.
As for records.
Hearns is 61-5-1 and Hagler is 62-3-2-same amount of fights for both now-67.
Hearns had 19 title fights. Hagler has 15 title fights.
Hearns has 380 total boxing rounds, Hagler 399 total rounds.
158 championship rounds for Hearns. 112 championship rounds for Hagler.
Paper titles are not the issue. Hearns fought Cueves,Leonard (2 times), Benitez,Duran,Hill, Hagler. So that is 6 HOF for sure and maybe 7 if Iran Barkley gets in. Hagler fought Hearns,Duran,Leonard,Antuofermo. 4 HOF for sure. I think the Virgil Hill fight is a fight which gets Hearns hardly any credit. He beat an undefeated fighter who had 10 title defenses of the WBA title. What hurts Hearns are his losses to Ray and Marvin. But his record of wins and titles and HOF fighters competes with both Hagler and Leonard,
The win over Virgil Hill in my mind makes him the only fighter who competed with the next generation has a win against an elite fighter of the 1990's-Virgil Hill. Hagler and Ray and Duran never did that.

 

This is a very difficult question. I still have no set answer.

 

Most of the people on this site really don't know much about Hagler.In the late 70's,Hagler went to Philadelphia to take on some of the toughest fighters in the world in order to cement his legacy.Hagler's victims include Eugene "Cyclone" Hart,Willy"the Worm"Monroe,Bobby"Boogaloo"Watts,"Sugar"Ray Seales and Bennie Briscoe.Do not ever write that Hagler's claim to fame was beating guys moving up in weight.Oh wait,the "claim to fame"part is correct,because most of the people on this site don't even know that Hagler beat every one of those bad-asses who were fighting in and around Philly at that time.It's a shame because Marvin's opposition at middleweight certainly rivals Tommy's at any weight.

 

It's kind of like asking, "Which is better, chocolate cake, or apple pie?"