Hearns vs Barkley. How in the world did Iran pull of a KO? cut, and a beaten man?

Disagree.

Tommy posed after punching. Always did. Threw big combos and stopped and posed admiring his work. Barkley had already been through about 10 tough fights and that was 1 thing Iran did was to fire back after getting hit a good shot in a nanosecond. Lots of guys don't do that, but Barkley always did.

The other big factor was Iran was a tall guy himself in there. So his punches could reach a Hearns. This wasn't one of those welter matchups where Tommy would fire away from the outside and the opponents couldn't reach him. Barkley had the size and punch to do it.

Hearns was only a 3-1 favorite in the fight. A guy with no chance is 8-1 and Hearns by far was the more popular fighter. Lots of folks liked Iran's chances for the upset though. Those were closer odds than many of the Hearns opponents above welter and a tall gunslinger was going to be an interesting matchup.

 

Barkley threw the best right hand that ever did.

Hearns had been neutralizing his left hook with movement but that one time he moved right into Barkley's right hand while avoiding the left. It was a blindside punch that very few people would've been able to recover from. I suppose nobody told Hearns that this guy could hit with the right also.

 

Barkley was a true, natural middleweight, very strong, had a heck of a chin, was very tough, could take a beating and keep on throwing hard punches. He landed a perfect counter punch right on the jaw and Hearns did not see it coming at all. Then as Tommy was going down in an already semi-unconscious state, Barkley nailed him another shot.

Hey, when you fight a durable guy who can punch, you can get caught and taken out. Plus I think Tommy was beating him so bad that I think Tom failed to adequately consider defense and show sufficient fear/respect for what could potentially come back.

Still, in the rematch, Barkley once again showed he was just too strong and physical and tough for a diminished Hearns.

 

IF you want a good laugh at the blatant corruption in boxing watch this stoppage and Chavez Taylor back to back.

 

It pointed out the defensive/punch taking liabilities of Hearns as much as it did any assets of Barkley.

 

The definition of "5 run home run" punch that Larry Merchant used to talk about.

Barkley was a tough sonofabitch, that is for sure.

 

Barkley was a monster and very dangerous. I do think Hearns was the better fighter who was carelessly caught in the first fight.A good question to ask is How come Barkley could'nt knock out an over the Hill Hearns in the rematch? An intresting thing would have been if they rematched a year or so afterthe first one.(Remember how motivated the hitman was in the Leonard rematch? Tommy keep that guard up)