Hearns-Roldan is a great fight. What does it say about Hearns?

Ok, a summary for the forum. I thought when you addressed my paragraph there was a point (about my post) and i'd missed it. Phew.

 

I think its unfair to use this fight as negative evidence against tommy.
As many posters have said,the weight jumping was detrimental to hearns. (note,he was never stopped,or even looked like getting stopped above 168.)
Roldan,also,was a very akward,unusual bomber and strong as a bull. I think juan fought an uncharacteristic fight,in that after he felt hearns power,he thought, '**** it,im not going to win this fight by patience,im gonna have have to try to bomb tommy out'. So roldan basically just gave it everything and the kitchen sink for four rounds.
The bottom line is that hearns at times looked like a fistic genius against roldan,and at times showed his humanness as well.
The final punch is in my opinion,on of the hardest single shots in midlleweight history. Up there with robinson fullmer,et al.
Like maggie says,hearns only ever lost to three guys,two were legends,one a very good fighter,and had to go through HELL to get there...

 

It showed Hearns was a more explosive puncher at middleweight than Hagler, not necessarly harder but explosive ... t also showed his shaky chin and questionable stamina ... that was a terrific action bout, a wild slugfest and I remember sitting on the edge of my seat watching it ...

 

Shows that Hearns at that stage was a bit past his prime and didnt have the legs he used to. I think Roldan was a very difficult guy to keep on the end of the jab myself, he took so many risks when charging forward that Tommy may have felt he had to just nail him.

Hearns was one of those guys with a killer instinct and when he had Roldan down he allowed himself to get sucked into a brawl. It also proves that Hearns had a big heart, he took some big shots from Roldan.

 

Yes, I think his skill as a boxer is generally overrated. When his advantage in reach and power wasn't as huge as it was at WW and 154 he was given tough times even by limited fighters such as Roldan, Barkley and Kinchen. Compare the performance of a genuinely skillful boxer like Kalambay against Barkley with that of Hearns. Tommy possibly wouldn't have made it out of the first round with Kalambay's modest reach, height and power.

 

I watched this just the other evening ironically.
A tremendously exciting fight but Hearns was made to work very hard for the win. I think he finally got control when he went to Roldan's body.
Before that as said, Tommy was fighting Roldan's fight.
With a sturdier chin Hearns would have settled down and composed himself as Hagler did against Roldan, but he almost panicked every time Roldan got close.
At least he had learned how to tie his man up by now, something that he didn't know how to do when he fought Marvin.
But Roldan was inevitably going to get inside here and there anyway. He was such a tough, awkward guy to fight.

One more thing...I think Tommy was a fine technical boxer but he loved to punch and sometimes neglected his skills.
He was finding Roldan an easy target and had him down several times.
Sure it could have cost him but I don't blame him trying to bomb out Roldan, which he eventually did.

 

Hearns was very technically accomplished in some ways, but lacking in others. He threw beautiful punches and combinations, to the head and body. But his defense in close and at midrange was pretty poor. Barkley caught him after he'd made a basic error in ducking inside and too low under a jab. All in all he was too njerky in his movements, had his hands too low and his chin too high once his perimeter was breached. He also wasn't too adept at spinning off the ropes. Nor was he great at rolling with punches.

 

Certainly not Ronnie.

 

I think if he could keep his range Hearns was terrific, the problem with Roldan was not only was he a rusher and very quick to get in range, but though he was not skilled, he had very quick hands. he was" in" against Tommy before he could get his jab into play.
Hagler had some uncomfortable moments with Roldan too, but he utilised a weapon Hearns seldom did ,the uppercut.