`Hitman` Hearns vs. Roy Jones at 160 ???

Hard to say. I'm leaning towards Jones by late KO, catching Hearns on his suspect chin.

 

Both have suspect chins with power, so this makes it interesting. But I think Jones would be the one to land first and test Hearns' chin. His punch resistance was relatively untested at middleweight as his competition at the weight wasn't great, combined with being in his athletic prime. Hearns was clearly in with better fighters like Hagler, Roldan, Barkley, etc. But his ability to take a clean shot in all of those fights showed a weakness. IMO Jones would catch Hearns inside the first 4-5 rounds and knock him out. I just feel that he'd be able to capatalize on openings when Hearns was coming forward. Lets not forget that Hearns usually liked to test his opponents chin early.

 

Del Valle caught him more on the jawline between the cheek and the neck, if you watch the replays carefully, you will not see Jones' chin jerking from a punch the way you see it when a man is caught flush on the point of the chin. Jones attempts to step away and steady himself after he got hit, but his right shoe slips (can be seen especially well on the replay from the camera above the ring) and jerks backwards. Jones immediately gets up and shows no unsteadiness in the legs whatsoever, even though only about 4 or 5seconds passed between the punch landing and him rising. If he hadn't slipped there'd be no knockdown in that situation.

 

Whatever Heaven is like for boxing fans, it should include this fight.

This is a tough call. It's a real 50/50, I've been sitting here for a few minutes now trying to think of what edge I could give each fighter, and every time I'm ready to do that in one area I think of something the other does well enough that I have to take that edge away.

No doubt that Roy is going to play the boxer in this one and Hearns the puncher. You have to think that Roy will try to stay away from Hearns' power, try to chisel away at him, (trying to wear down both Hearns' shaky chin and stamina) and possibly go in for the kill late. Hearns isn't as fast as Jones, but he should be fast enough to give Roy serious problems.

Ultimately I think the fight will come down to who capitalizes on an opening first, and there I have to give Roy the advantage, both because he had a rare instinct for doing so and because Tommy did leave openings. So most likely, Tommy walks into something. But there's the threat every single second that Hearns could turn it around on Roy.

 

I've been going back n forth a bit but I'm going to pick Jones. Hearns was KO'd too many times throughout his prime to not consider his chin a major weakness. Jones would definately find him with some hard shots and fairly early. Of course Hearns could land his bombs 1st, but I favor Jones to

 

Hearns v. RJJ?????????

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

hey, you guys know Hearns was only really excellent at WW right? And you know Roy was too big to stay at MW right?

Good lord, the things that go on in these sub-forums.

 

So his effort vs Hagler, KO of Schuler, boxing clinic vs Virgil Hill, destruction of Duran, clinic vs Benitez and much much more doesn't even make the "excellent" mark?



Good lord, the things the uneducated from the fanboy forums say.

 

Actually Hearns might well play the master boxer here. Jones never was big on the jab, and Hearns has a GREAT one. Hearns jab and Jones wariness of Thomas' offensive firepower could well lead to Hearns controlling the fight and banking rounds. In this mode Jones might well have to take a few risks, and Hearns could land that one big shot he's waiting for. This fight is anyones.

 

Put down the crack pipe son.

 

All good points. When I said playing boxer though I didn't mean boxing behind his jab, I meant that Jones would concede the middle of the ring to Hearns and be circling, looking for opportunities to strike or counter, while Hearns would be coming forward as the aggressive fighter.

Hearns could box very well, (hell, he never discovered his punch until about the time he was turning pro, so he spent most of his amateur career as a sterotypical boxer) but as a pro he preferred taking the offense, and that was his default setting as it were.

 

Hearns essentially outboxed Leonard who was a better fighter than Jones. Leonard won because he could grit his teeth, bite the metal and walk through fire. At 160 there are some factors that sway in Jones' favour. I agree with that but either man could KO the other.

And Hearns only really showed that one punch wobble after the Hagler fight. Hagler and Leonard hit him flush, many, many times before he went down.

 

Jones was generally a much more aggressive fighter at 160 who was a superb counter puncher,defensively amazing and had legitimate two fisted power.

And he'd need to be on top of his game defensively as in Hearns we have one of the ATG offensive machines.With his laser fast jab,underated left hook and booming right hand he presents Roy with a myriad of problems.

I think Roy would start out very cautiously against such a dangerous fighter as Tommy and would use his footspeed to keep him out of harms way.Tommy would probably take the first couple of rounds by virtue of jab and activity,although I think Roy would avoid any punishment.After this I think it'll settle into a tactical battle with each wary of the others power.Tommy will stalk Roy behind the jab and Roy will use feints to set up point scoring shots.

Just when the fight has settled into a predictable pattern I see Roy leaping in with one of those powerful,lightning fast right hand leads he had (see the Merqui Sosa fight for a prime example) over the top of Hearn's always low left hand.Hearns goes down but gets groggily to his feet but his suspect recuperative abilities will let him down again and a follow up barrage will cause the referee to stop the fight with Hearns helpless for a 7th round TKO.

I could be wrong but IMO Jones had a style that was perfect to exploit Tommy's flaws and I think if a guy like Kinchen could hurt Hearns at 160 then Roy would stop him.

 

Toney, Hopkins and Griffin all hit him flush one time or another. McCallum did too.

 

Go with the "Hit Man" in this one.....by KO...

 

He was stopped twice in his prime against Leonard and Hagler, and only once more in his career. Yes his chin wasn't the best, but in his prime he was stopped once at 147 against one of the best welters of all time and at 160 against a top 3 or 5 middlweight.