Hearns in the end was a more powerful fighter than Hagler and Leonard.

Hearns was also 6'1" with the reach of a heavyweight, and the frame above the waist to be a Lt.heavy. ( Below the waist , in his legs is a different story, his legs were skinny in comparison to his upper body)
Hagler was the perfect Middleweight as far as his physic was concerned.
Leonard's frame also suggested Middleweight would also be the maximum weight limit he would be effective at on a World class level . Though he did fight Hearns at Super Middleweight, and Lalonde at a catch weight for the Lt . Heavyweight championship. But as was shown in both those fights, he was getting knocked down much more frequently at the higher weights. A issue he didn't have in his prime weight class, at welterweight.

 

yea, hearns is an odd case. At welter he was as feared as Tyson was for awhile, but then a few guys beat him and he seemed a little fragile. Getting older and moving up in weight as much as he did you would think would spell disaster, but he grew into a very strong and very filled out lt. heavy. And he aquitted himself well. I'm just going by memory, I didn't go look at videos or his record.

 

Hagler would whoop his behind at 175

 

I wouldn’t say he was drained but he looked scrawny at welterweight regardless he hit amazingly hard

 

Given that Hagler never fought above middleweight, I'm not sure it's that easy to predict.

 

Gotta say that Hearns was one of the weakest fighters I ever saw. Bad stamina, not sturdy taking punches to body or head. Way off balance when rattled. Middle and above hurt it seemed every fight. The question was always will he survive till the end to win. In the middle of a firefight rd 1 or 12 you always knew 1 unlucky punch could take him OUT. YOU NEVER thought that of Leonard or Hagler.

 

Hearns on his best day could ice most people, but he wasn't bulletproof himself.

 

Liking for the use of 'ice' - an underused verb.

 

I agree with this to an extent. We all saw Hearns get busted up against Barkley while the much smaller Duran was able to hang in with that same murderous banger.

Hearns always struck me as more of a glass cannon kind of a guy later in his career. Keep in mind, I'm not knocking him at all and still think he was a phenomenal fighter. He just was the type of guy that could be beat down if he couldn't hurt you. Kind of why I have always though McCallum would have beaten him. Nobody ever really hurt McCallum and he would wear guys down with his body attack.

 

Lhw? Who cares about this nonsense? Hagler was small even for a mw and Leonard was a natural welter

 

He was drained 100% in order having advantage of reach and heght in this low weight class. Hearns was a natural lhw but at this weight division he would not have the same advantages

 

Hearns was a skinny kid. Here he is at 131lbs, none drained, aged 17yo

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he got sparked a good couple times still

 

he was 6'1 and pryor was 5'6?

didnt look to be such a height difference here, at 17 hearns was about 5'11 id say. grew another 2 inches.