HEARNS vs MONZON at Middleweight ? (15 rds)

Answering your questions in order...

1) Benvenuti and Mundine.

2) Valdez possibly. At the very least they were comparable.

3) At middleweight, yes. Hearns was slowed down and stiffened by the extra weight when moving from 154 to 160 and found himself a much more hittable target (as his fights with Hagler, Roldan, and Barkley exposed).

 

I'm not sure the alleged stiffness at middleweight would have been so much of an issue against Monzon, as opposed to Hagler's destruct and destroy. I lean towards Monzon, but an ATG Jr. Middle like Tommy always has a chance against even an ATG middle like Monzon.

Tommy certainly would have held up better against Monzon than Napoles, who was a relatively small Welterweight, albeit a great boxer in his own right.

 

Its unanimous then.... Monzon wins... likely by TKO.

 

Fighters who were tall never took Hearns punch very well, and my feeling is that if Hearns fought a controlled fight behind his jab he could bust up Monzon and knock him out. Guys who gave Hearns trouble were guys similar to Lamotta. The guys who fought tall and were lean Hearns tended to reach first. Look what happened with Virgil Hill.

 

Hearns sure didn't look all that formidable in that Singletary bout though. The version of Tommy that fought Olijade didn't look all that devastating either. And those are beatable fighters and should be pretty much gimmes and highlight reel ko victims. The only guy Hearns took out easily at middle was Shuler and there were quite a few questions about that guy going into that Hearns fight.

 

Most of Monzon's challengers were in the 5 9 -9 1/2" range and 5 of them out weighed him.At 5 11 1'2" Monzon was tall ,but he was lean.

 

I like Monzon to eventually wear Hearns down ,around the 11th round ,Monzon's body shots are under appreciated, he would break Tommy up imo.

 

i can see an absouloute brawl with monzon coming out on top around the 4th or 5th or i can see a boxing match where hearns wins the first few rounds but as Monzon cranks up the heat and starts throwing more hearns starts to tire for a late KO

 

What questions were there about Shuler, other than the ones about him stepping up in class to meet Hearns?

I think the key for Hearns is to to jab/hook to the body or even feint there. When Tommy does that he usually gets the KO.

Jab/hook to the body vs Shuler = KO
Jab/hook to the body vs Duran = KO
Jab/hook to the body vs Roldan = KO

The last fight is quite telling. Hearns hits Roldan with a cracking right in round 4 and Roldan takes the shot. However, later in the round he feints a jab to the body and brings over the right cross and Roldan is out for the full count. What's the difference? Well, it's that Roldan was distracted and still thinking about the jab to the body. Then the right hand comes over that he's NOT expecting and BLAM!, he's face first down on the canvas.

I'm not saying this will happen vs Monzon but hell if Tommy can knock out Duran you can't dismiss him against anyone.

 

If he can survive an early opening salvo by Hearns and gets into the late rounds w/o taking punishment it's his fight. If Tommy is sharp like he was in the Duran and Shuler fight, Monzon's in some real trouble and could get stopped early

 

The questions about Shuler at that time were his actual pedigree and how in the world did he deserve the #1 ranking he had. Would you have put the guy in with Hagler and picked him to win?

Shuler had fought and beat literally nobody. He had that amatuer pedigree but had yet to develop as a pro to the top of the class. The biggest thing he had going for him was Futch in the corner but Futch fighters have a way of being on the other end of some brutal early ko's. Shuler was another guy that pulled a Duane Bobick when it was his time to shine. There were numerous tough guys still around at middle at that time and I could never understand why that Shuler management wasn't putting their guy in with them. He made a quantum leap in class to take on a Hearns. The Hagler camp could've fought Shuler instead of the moving up 154 lb Mugabi as well due to that ranking of his.
I know I sure didn't buy into Shuler as a can't miss prospect and thought he had a lot of work before he was going to get the wins against top 10 opposition.

 

That's a rather harsh assessment regarding Futch

You'll get hung, drawn and quartered :yep

 

tommy one of the greatest everat 147..monzon one of the best ever at 160..monzon wins it....

 

Monzon..will be in the Zone.. while breaking all of tommys bones.. in the background you could hear tommy Moan..replied Monzon..i did not like tommys Tone..so i knocked his ASS! Back to the Twilight zone....actually i love tommy also..,

 

Yep, I know. But it's been one of my personal gambling bugaboo's & Eddie has been on the wrong end just a few too many times in the big blowouts . But I don't give anybody a get out of jail free card for anything and that includes the elite trainers. Lots of people & in fact most people, do give get out of jail free cards and are willing to overlook things and dismiss certain factors.