How did Hearns pummel Duran so mercilessly

100% spot on!! Duran had aged and the "Hit Man" was in prime form. No way Duran has a chance!!

However, it would have been fascinating to see the 1980 Montreal version of Roberto Duran facing a peak Hearns at WW. I still think it's a bad matchup for Duran--Hearns would be sticking that jab in his face from the opening bell and if Roberto tried to make it a roughhouse brawl he would be vulnerable to a TNT right hand exactly like the 1984 fight.

 

There's no physical or stylistic advantages that Duran held over Hearns for that fight,game over..

If it was at welterweight though, I'll stay Duran has a strength and heart advantage at least.

 

In “Four Kings,” Emanuel Steward mentions how Duran always (prior to their fighting) always reacted strangely around Thomas Hearns — kind of jump and overly nice, as opposed to the salty, scowling, animalistic Duran he usually was around prospective (and past) opponents.

Stewart said he never understood it. He stops short of saying Roberto was intimidated, but gave an example or two about how Roberto reacted around the Hit Man — like at some function, Thomas came up behind him and kind of nudged him on the shoulder or something like that and Duran spun around like he was ready to pounce (kind of like you’d expect) and completely changed his demeanor to laughing and friendly when he saw it was Hearns.

So I think there’s something in the psychology there. It could be as simple as Duran being a 5-7 former lightweight and seeing this towering, hard-hitting creature and admitting to his inner self ‘I don’t know how the **** I could ever beat this guy.’ Who knows.

 

Tommy does this to every version of Duran my guy

 

Nah, he might beat him or even ko him but he doesn’t obliterate him in the second round, do you not think a slightly weaker Hearns and a much stronger much faster Duran tips the scales a bit ?

 

A great book that isn’t it

 

Hearns was at the peak of his powers at 154 where he was more comfortable with the weight. He just had too much height, reach, speed, and firepower for Duran who mainly had his superior boxing IQ to help him but physically speaking he was just no match. Probably the worst possibly style match up for Duran to deal with.

 

Heard the same thing, after the Hagler fight Duran returned to his partying ways in Las Vegas and was over 190 when he began training for Hearns and had to get down to 154 instead of 160 in a short time .That was the same strategy that Leonard used , he had Duran watched and pushed the rematch with Duran quickly because they knew he was in party mode. Like so many times since the 2nd Leonard fight he made the weight but wasn't in shape. But instead of a Kirkland Laing, or even a Wilfred Benitez in front of him he had a prime motor city Cobra ready to go. I'm a huge Duran fan but I picked Hearns by UD going in due to his reach and height advantage and because Roberto had cashed the Hagler fight check and was living large. Footnote: who'd have predicted Duran would win the middleweight title over 4 years later, beating the man who brutally ko'ed Tommy Hearns after losing this fight .

 

I told every Puerto Rico citizen that Duran was going to blast Hearns. In hindsight, I should have been right. Overall, career-wise, Duran ws superior to Hearns. Not by that much but by enough margin.

But this is in HINDSIGHT. Hey, I was 11 and a half then and thought getting a peek of someone's underwear in school to be the sexiest thing probably available. LOL ..and I believed that EVERYONE went to church on Sundays like robots, and that church was oh so boring! (it kind of is, unless the pastor is a good talker) I also believed in Santa Claus until I hit 11, believe it or not.

I also believed that everyone in music bands was best friends, like my friends in 5th-6th grade and I. Specially in teen boy and girl bands. I imagined the Menudo members to be like brothers@

I had no idea how life works, and it showed on June 15th, 1984.

Stupidly enough, or perhaps because I continued being a kid, next year I did the same, compared Hearns 'showing against Duran to Hagler, and picked Hearns to knock the head off Hagler without thinking of all the nuances involved in a boxing fight.

 

Factors in descending order of the extent to which they contributed to the outcome:

1. Size - Hearns was at his best at 154lbs, 3 x weight divisions above the smaller Duran's best.

2. Quality - Hearns was an ATG and arguably the h2h best ever to have fought in the LMW division.

3. Style match up - At 154lbs, Hearns would have been a nightmare style for Duran, regardless of Duran's condition. Stylistically, Duran was better suited to Hearns than he was to SRL or Hagler.

4. Condition- I don't think any version of Duran̈ beats Tommy at 154lbs, but his discipline and dedication to training was somewhat erratic at that point and I suspect he wasn't in peak condition come the fight.

 

Hearn was at his absolute peak against a Duran who was training badly, on the slide, and nearing his mid-30s. The Duran that beat Leonard would've given Hearns fits. We saw how Hearns crumbled against Leonard in the latter stages of the fight, and a properly fit and motivated Duran would not have been as defensively reckless, especially in the earlier rounds.

 

There's never been a Duran that would survive that 154lb version of Hearns. Duran couldn't take his power, not even remotely, which is saying something.

I'd take Hearns over Duran at 147 too. It'd be tougher but he holds virtually all the aces.

 

Tommy’s greatest win. Roberto would slip and roll with punches to reduce their impact but Hearns was too fast for this to be effective. Coupled with the size difference and the power Tommy had things went south quickly for Duran. Roberto is one of my favourite fighters, but I don’t see him beating Hearns at any weight. Just the way they match up. Doesn’t matter how much I wanted him to win, reality had to have its say too…

 

It's peak Hearns. Duran caught him on his best ever night. The snap in his punches was unreal. Duran has the skills and guile to live with Tommy but he was just a step slower, perhaps due to his preparation. When someone is fighting at elite levels of human capabilities, you need to be at those levels yourself, in your own way. On his best night Duran can do well against Hearns and maybe even beat him but if you are not super sharp and didn't prepare properly, then Hearns will land. It reminded me of Liston vs Ali because Liston is a very crafty guy but he was past prime and just a step slow and couldn't keep up. Ali was operating at the highest level of speed, reflexes and coordination. His chin was rock solid but that wasn't known. But in order to compete with Ali, you need to also be in your prime. You don't necessarily need to match his speed or reflexes because the prime craftsmen can use timing and IQ to win. Tyson is another speedster/snapey/reflex guy. Whenever these high level speedy/snappy/reflex fighters are at their absolute peak, you have to be able to keep up with them. A craftsman like a Hagler, Hopkins, Mayweather, Duran, SRL, Liston type can use his high level boxing IQ to counteract the speedy, snapier guy but they need to be one their very best night because they are dealing with peak human ability. But if those crafty fighters are really at their best, they can use the speedy, snappy guys advantages against him. Because a lot of these snappy speedy guys actually make mistakes but as Gil Clancy said, they make their opponents pay for them. But against the highest level of craftsman, they will start to get figured out. But it still might be the case that the crafty fighter sees what he can do to win and sees the flaws in them, but still doesn't have the speed to take advantage.

But if you take one of those crafty guys and he is not at his highest level or past prime, then he can look like an absolute bum against the speedy guy, which is what happened to Duran. And Liston.

And similarly, when those reflex, speedy guys lose some of that as they age, they can look like absolute bums against technicians. e.g RJJ.

So while styles make fights, the timing of the fight taking place is also making fights.

 

Sometimes it's as simple as the way they matched up.
Hearns extreme height and reach advantages were
simply to much to for Duran to overcome.
Factor in Hearn's speed, power and skill, advantages in
hindsight , it's easy to see the disaster
that fight would become for Duran.