Hearns-baddest of the fab 4

Hearns certainly helped to provide the most exciting fights of the Fab 4, even if his record is 1-2-1 (should be 2-2). H2H monster for any living creature weighing 147-154.

Had he stayed at 160 instead of moving up to LHW in 86, I don't think he would have encountered his chin troubles. Hearns had to move back down 15 pounds to win the WBC Middleweight title. Even at the weigh in for the Barkley fight he had to lose another pound, which I believe played a major part in him getting starched.

At the very least, his chin gets a very bad rep. Hearns went 14 rounds outboxing fellow H2H nightmare, titanium-jawed SRL. And it took a hellish pace set by arguably the greatest MW ever to take break Hearns.

 

Hearns never had a good chin, u can tell by his very skinny legs. He wasn't glass jawed about an average chin or tiny bit higher.


Legs are what keeps you up, the bigger your legs are, the better chance you have of taking big punches.

 

Who said that? I was always told..the bigger/stronger neck that u have..the more likely you are to take a good punch.

 

neck is important too.


But legs are more important. Everything that is bigger and wider is more sturdier and a lot harder to knock down than skinnier objects. Same goes for human legs. It's common sense IMO. Just think about it.


Now it may not apply to every single boxer, but I know it does to a lot of them.

 

and your legs, Suzie. the legs are initially what keep you up... if you have twigs for legs then your legs aren't powerful enough to keep ou up. if you have thick legs like David tua, then you can take a monster shot from anybody... (not talking about tua-barrett)
I think legs and neck equally contribute to taking a better punch.

 

It's clearly a combination of both.

And then some people naturally have awesome chins when they don't have the sort of build to seem sturdy. Margarito comes to mind. Skinny, somewhat of a long neck but could take almost anything. Saddler too.

 

Irrelavent Roy Jones flunky,the OP is right Hearns is the baddest of the Fab 4,Roy Jones is the 1 with the glass jaw,and terrible technical skills,that combination equals not a very good fighter past his prime.vonnecunt

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7GgwOFpz7s[/ame]

Chuvalo talks a bit about it here.

I remember reading that Freddie Roach worked on Khan's legs to sort his balance/chin problems out when he first took him on

 

ive read its never been scientifically proven, theres only theories which affect what a person's chin is like.

 

I consider Benitez and Cuevas in the argument for greats Hearns fought also. Which would make Hearns record 3-2-1. His records against greats Cuevas and Benitez and Leonard and Hagler and Hill could have been in my mind the most impressive, but his losses seem to overshadow all the great wins in title winning fights. I always thought Hearns wins were better than Duran's wins.

 

yeah but Hearns would not be Hearns with thick legs. He was who he was and could box and punch because of his skinny legs, and he got leverage because of how he was built, even though there were weaknesses, but a fighter with thick legs has weaknesses also like being less mobile.

 

The skinny legs theory is nonsense. SRR had pretty skinny legs and I think he was pretty hard to knock out. Heck, SRL had skinny legs too. I also disagree with Hearns being able to punch hard because of his long arms (I'm not contesting that he hit hard). Marciano had short stubby arms and hit like hell. The idea that you can look at a fighter and tell much about them without seeing them fight is simply wrong. For whatever body type you imagine would be ideal for this or that attribute, you can find several examples that shatter the theory.

 

Maybe Hearns' chin would have been sturdier if he were 5'11 and thicker in the legs and neck, but like MAG said, Hearns' build was also very helpful to his explosive style.

I think the underrated aspects of the Benitez, Cuevas, and Hill matches was that they were all legitimate title holders with multiple title defenses. Benitez was a tricky customer for anybody and certainly seemed rejuvenated at 154 with a win over Duran to boot. Cuevas and Hill each had 10 title defenses, and Hill was undefeated. For Hearns to outbox a prime Hill, 3-4 divisions past his best weight at age 35, is definitely quite a feat, especially without Steward in his corner.

 

Marciano's power came from dipping low, coming up, and hitting with hooks. Hearns power came from getting leverage on his punches from the outside, his straight right, left hook to the body were always thrown from a maximum distance. You're right that a puncher has no specific body type, but that body type I believe can dictate what sort of style you have to employ to get the maximum benefit of a fighter's power.