Hearns vs. Sibson

Great matchup Laxpdx. You always did know how to pick them.

In my opinion, no one but peak Hagler gets by Sibbo and definitely softened him up. Sibbo was a short middleweight but look how well he was doing aginst power hitter/switch hitter Dangerous Don Lee. What incredible power!

Tony barely touched him when Don hit the deck early and got the better of him whenever he was fighting in the orthodox stance but didn't know how to deal with him when he turned southpaw.

Then he crucified the favored John Collins in two. His jab was irresistible, driving it into the 6 foot Collins in twos and threes. His body work incomparable. You could see John holding his ribs on the way down to the canvas. Shades of Pipino Cuevas!

Once I get my DVD direct machine from Sony, I'm throwing this one onto Youtube so that viewers can witness what fighting's about.

Sibbo also defeated the 6-2" Davison, the top contender, in 12.

So Sibbo can deal with the height and power and was probably stronger than prime Tommy.

Tony expertly slips under Tommy's jab and right hand and dominates on the inside forcing Tommy to fight his fight. Sibbo wins after round 5 or 6. It's Tony's fight to win by knockout. No sweat!

 

If you want another Hearns highlight right hand KO

Hearns KO3

 

hearns cuts him with the jab, softens him to the body. sibbo can only do this with a lucky shot.
he may wobble hearns once or twice, but by round six sibson is flat on his face counting sheep.

 

As I said in an earlier thread, it's all about styles and Tommy has always had problems with punchers ie; Roldan, Barkley, Hagler.

Even Doug Dewitt, was tough but not very good, had no problem taking him the distance. Doug was never close to being a top ranked middleweight but connected when ever he liked. The jab of Hearns did not stop him either.

Likewise with James Kinchen. Kinchen wasn't nearly as power laden as Sibbo but a more damaging hitter than Bernard Hopkins, put him on the canvas and came very close to winning on points. More importantly, he softened Tommy up for Ray Leonard.

Roldan had him within a punch or two from a knockout but let him off the hook. And Barkley actually knocked him out. Tommy couldn't stop him and there's no reason to think that Sibson, a much better middleweight, wouldn't do the same.

 

Sibson actually was a very well schooled fighter. He would soak up the blows of Hearns & crowd him on the inside. His boxing technique would carry the action & Sibson would outwork Hearns to a UD in 12. But at Jr. Middle. Hearns would have much more movement & power. & Hearns would most likely win by a Decision. For some reason Middleweight was Hearns' cutoff He was noticably slower & felt the opponents punches more.

 

You overrate ALL Hagler's opponents with posts like this.

 

Hagler's a legend and the greatest middleweight ever so how can I be overrating his opponents? I was there bro while it all went down. Even flew across the country to watch this legend in the making fight at MSG in '84 for the Hamsho rematch.

Sibbo was the real deal. Tommy would not knock him out because Sibbo could take a huge punch if he had to. Tony had to be that good because he whipped top contender Davison who was 6-2 and stronger than Tommy.

he just got under the long arms of Dwight's no problem and punished him non stop head and body all night long. Sibbo would prove too energetic for Tommy.

Was he really as I good as I say? yes, and even more.

Even Hagler couldn't afford to slug with him early because he was too dangeous an opponent. Hagler had plenty of legs left on him so he used every tool, every option available to him.

You want to see options, watch Hagler-Sibson. Want to know how to box a puncher, watch Hagler-Sibson. Want to see adaptability, watch Hagler-Sibson.

 

Tommy by KO here. Sibbo was a tough blue collar fighter with great courage but he's a bit outclassed in this one. Hearn's in 5 or less with the provision of being careful of Sibson's excellent left hook.

 

What do you mean "blue collar"? You don't even know what the hell you're talking about. Is that supposed to be a compliment?

Blue collar is better suited for guys like Hopkins with average power who have no choice but to become more industrious to make up for their deficiencies.

Tony's jab was piston like, break your nose punch. Sibbo was actually a converted southpaw but in addition, had a great sneak right hand that travelled faster than most left jabs. And once on the inside, you can consider the fight to be pretty much over.

And he wouldn't stop at 2 or 3 good shots at one time to rest. Tony was different. He didn't stop plugging away until the opponent was out of action.

So you can't say Tony would be outclassed when he's got most of the advantages. Tommy would be hard pressed to get past five rounds because he didn't have the strength or endurance to last with Tony.

The only catagory that can be considered to be an advantage was his height but that wouldn't bother Tony as he was trained by one of the best and be well prepared as he was for Davison, Collins, and Minter-all tall for middleweights.

Sibbo would hurt his ribs even worse than marvin or Ray. He was expert at getting inside taller opponents and working the ribs. He even made it look easy.

Tommy always had trouble with strong, powerhouse type middleweights but a matchup with Sibbo is worse because he had so many tools.

 

I've often wondered that myself back when Ayala was still in action. How he would do with the top middleweights?

The reason for this is that he was trained by Duva himself and Lou was making a practice of risking his best fighters with some of the better middleweights. Sometimes it worked and other times it didn't.

Take for example James Hard rock Green. He bested Scypion in one of 1982' early upsets. Green was starting to make waves even in the middleweight division and seemed to be a future threat.

Then his future changed the day he met up with Animal Frank Fletcher.

In one of my favorite all time battles, the animal lived up to his nickname when he came up for the 6th round with unbridled ferocity.

It was literally raining punches in the ring and had Green cowering in fear, the victim of at least 50 unanswered blows.

Then you have the case of Alex Ramos who in the words of World Boxing was "hitting with the kind of results that would soon concern Hagler himself".

It was sad to see but his career didn't come out as rosie as it had on paper. Alex met with too many ups and downs. He was talented and had only minor flaws in his style, but his chin could not endure the shock of a sudden jolt. It was a major weakness that did him in.

Duva would move his biggest player and best fighter, Bobby Czyz, in with one of the top contenders. I thought it was a good move actually. A smart move because Bobby had no problems whipping people outside the top ten--Robbie Sims, Bobby Coolidge among others, so there was no reason to think he wouldn't be able to compete with the better contenders.

hamsho came off the Hagler slaughter but performed valiantly in the Parker rematch. I believe Bobby was favored but hamsho roughed him up and intimidated him and made him go in a shell the way Roy Jones made fighters go in a shell.

So as you can see, the contenders of that day were extremely successful against opposition that was supposedly superior. In effect, fans and even the best of trainers have been guilty of underestimating them.

Sibbo was one of the more dangerous contenders. I have studied Sibbo extensively in the early 80's I wish I had more film of him to see but all i have is 5 films of him during his prime. But even that's enough for me to confirm his greatness.

His hand speed was vastly underrated. Even though he was a white boy, I seen white boys who were really fast with their hands like Robin Blake and Czyz, but they're rare. But then, Sibbo was a rare specimen.

Sibbo would not be afraid of TA, that's for sure. marvin just made him look bad but that was usually the case with most fighters so I just threw that out.

At the stage he faced off with Hagler I have to go with Sibbo because his defense was better when compared with Ayala considering the way he caught leather in the Steve Gregory fight.

He was also quicker at getting off shots. But remember I said, "at this stage" knowing full well that Ayala was more a prospect than contender. Remember i was the one who labelled him and Camacho the top prospects of 1982.

 

Sibson was actually something of a rarity for his type of build, Short and Muscular, he looked like he would simply be a Chugg Forward Slugger, but he actually moved very well indeed, He slipped punches well when he came in with his "Rolling Thunder" advance, and when he let his shots go he could fire very fast combinations...and the Left Hook, well suffice it to say and philly middle would have been proud to own it, I still remember how youngster Sibson stood up to an early Rough-house from Frankie "Wild Man" Lucas to catch Lucas coming in with a Peach of Left Hook that effectively finished Lucas for the Evening, Minter and Collins also got a taste of the Sibbo Hook, if you traded with an On Form Sibbo you were playing with Fire, Frank tate was lucky he faced a Sibbo just going through the motions.

 

Well said. The man wasn't the pushover he came across as in the Hagler fight.

 

redrooster does seem to be overrating Hagler's opponnents as their records do not seem to indicate they were better than the contenders of other eras. If Hagler's opponnents were so good why do their records not bear this out and why didn't they do well in crossover matchups? Hagler's opponents were not able to hold out against the younger fighters that came along.