That Tommy fought as intelligently as he could throughout his career. As Arcel thought he should do, he comes in a few pounds heavier, doesn't gas out, and outboxes Leonard on route to a UD. Against Hagler, lets say he doesn't break his hand on Hagler's cast iron head, and stops him on cuts. The slightest of differences in multiple pivotal fights makes him unbeaten against the Fab Four, including a devestating knockout against Duran. Would he be one of the greatest of all time, P4P?
Too many IFs... the leg massage etc Duran was in the worst condition of his life as well. What if that was the same Duran that fought Hagler???
i agree he would probably beat leonard by ud. but this works both ways! lets say he doesnt break his hand vs hagler..........but then lets say hagler also doesnt get cut. hagler would still stop him late. and even if he beats leonard and hagler, there sure would be rematches. an uncut hagler grinds him down for sure imo. and leonard could be smart enough to adjust in a rematch. a motivated leonard would be more than dangerous, either way. so even if he won those mentioned fights, i dont think he walks away 4-0 against the fabulous four.
Yeah, I enjoy the 'what if' game too. I think you can always trace back to pivotal contingencies and say, imagine if that mistake was corrected and so on... Hearns is actually a neat example of it, because at his best he was so fantastic. Then again, there are guys that didn't make the mistakes Hearns did, and to my way of thinking they rightfully deserve to be ranked ahead of him. Backing of and tapering in preparation or a fight requires self confidence and self awareness which is part of the deal.
so?? still dont change the facts. if both fought eachother without injuries, hagler would stop him. so if hearns gets the cutstoppage, there will be a rematch and hagler beats him. then there is a rubber match and hearns gets KTFO again. so twist and turn it all you want, no way hearns goes 4-0.
I know that he gassed out against Leonard , but you have to credit Leonard for making that happen , i dont like Leonard (as my avatar may suggest!!) , but he was a great, great fighter , and i believe he was gna make sure that he won that fight , the way he turned it around and fought in the 13th , and he was a puncher who could stop Tommy. If he wouldve stopped Hagler then , yeah, he would be held in more esteem than he is , but i dont believe that would have happened either , and if it did it would only be on cuts and Hagler would win a rematch and be remembered as the greater fighter still. I think history happened as it was meant to though
Debatable; the gloves and taped fists, means someone with Tommy's ticker could of gutted it out for the entire distance if needed. Hagler's cut was such it would of been very unlikely he would of made it to the second half of the fight, let alone the distance.
Hearns would comfortably be a top 15 of all-time if he managed to get those wins over Hagler and Leonard. I don't think Hearns was as gassed out during the late rounds of the Leonard fight as people tend to think. Leonard's blistering assualt with both hands during the 13th round was the begining of the the end. That particular attack and sagging into the ropes, then taking a count, made him look tired. Hearns was convincingly outboxing Leonard up until he was hurt during that round. Even after Hearns escaped the 13th and came out for the next round he was on his toes behind the jab and doing well until Leonard caught him along the ropes. When he came out for the start of the 14th round he didn't look like a fighter suffering from stamina problems. As I said, he still had the mobility and bounce about him until Leonard caught him again. I read a full interview with Hearns in The Ring a couple of months after the fight. He gives his thoughts on the stoppage and said he wasn't weight drained or suffering from stamina problems during the fight.
Hearns was probably the most humble fighter in the history of the sport, and refused to even take certain medications to help with the problems he had breathing at times because he considered it unfair or some such. He was smiling and shrugging his shoulders when the draw verdict was announced against Leonard.
That's what I love about Hearns, he never took anything away from his opponents and didn't make excuses. I read in a book that he was gracious after the first Barkley fight and said, "Every dog has his day,I guess I've had mine". I also heard that he didn't bring up the leg massage or broken hand at the Hagler post fight press conference because he didn't want to take anything away from Marvin. Like he said: "The man showed his greatness. And I have to say that it was one...damn good fight." I always wonder what would have happened if Tommy's hand wasn't broken, no leg massage or no cut on Hagler
