How did Hearns pummel Duran so mercilessly

Duran claimed he just wasn't in shape for the fight. Duran struggled with discipline after his win over Leonard. He chalked up his losses to Hearns and Benitez as bad training camps and not giving it his all. He also claimed to have injured his right hand in the 5th round of the Hagler fight. I think a well-trained and motivated Duran who fought Barkley gives a much better showing of himself against Hearns. Not sure if he can beat him, but it would be more competitive.

 

Hearns was so on top of it, he didn't come near injuring his right hand on that KO shot. He wasn't punching on a big, giant guy. There could have been two more of them left, in short order.

I tend to think that Hearns KOs Duran at 147 too. Too much Hearns punching down with a twist.

 

I don’t think any version of Duran gives any version of Hearns problems. Just all wrong as far as size/reach/power/style … everything. If Thomas had chosen to just box Roberto’s ears off, he could have done it that way too.

But I do appreciate how after he lost, Duran was kind enough to provide us with his excuses, lol.

 

Durans conditioning or lack thereof didn’t really come into play in the manner he was defeated, just IMO.

It seemed like nearly every solid connection from Hearns either stunned or badly hurt Roberto.

As such, Roberto was always only 1, 2 or 3 punches away from being started on his way during any point of the fight.

That’s why I tend to think that Hearns would’ve more or less replicated the manner in which he won if they had fought again.

Though the cut eye did appear to bother Duran - was that incurred prior to the first KD or upon it? I can’t recall.

Without the cut I still think Hearns does a number on Roberto but I guess it didn’t do Duran any favours.

 

Hearns reportedly had a 12 inch reach advantage. That’s ridiculous.

 

I always thought Duran was intimidated of Hearns and was afraid of trying to get inside on him. I would have thought Duran, with all his experience, would have known how to work his way inside on Tommy.. Surely, he must have been working with tall sparring partners in preparation for the fight.
It was always the same with Hearns, stay on the outside and get killed, or get inside where you have a chance.
This is where Hagler prepared so brilliantly. He knew his only chance was to come rampaging out of the corner, braced himself with his head tucked forward, and went to work. He knew he was going to have to take that big bomb in order to get inside and he did it. He was prepared mentally and was ready for war.
I was a Duran fan as a kid, but I have to say that Leonard and Hearns took a large chunk out of Duran's tough guy mystique.

 

If you look, Thomas outfought Duran in close and Roberto looked clueless. Hearns just turned on the speed when they were at mid-range or closer and Roberto was kind of flailing. At one point he just peek-a-boo’d his hands up around his head and waited in hopes that Hearns would stop.

Duran tried to time like three or four right leads (one to the body iirc) and came up short each time. And Hearns jabbed him to reestablish distance after Roberto missed those — you can almost see Duran’s inner dialogue play out after those misses when he sees he’s way back out of range again, like ‘how the hell am I supposed to do anything with this guy?’

 

But he beat Leonard when they were both in proper condition?

 

But Duran plain quit. That's what he's talking about. It was a terrible look for someone so macho, no matter how one slices it.

 

When they peeled Duran off the canvas after the KO I thought that it appeared that he mouthed “What happened?” but some time back someone pointed out that Duran didn’t speak a lick of English back then. I dunno.

Still looked like that’s what he mouthed but just a coincidence I guess.

The way Duran appeared after they picked him up - he could’ve just as easily have been mistaken for someone showing all the symptoms/effects of an all nighter on drugs and alcohol. Tommy really ****ed him up.

 

Well facing him right after beating Hagler ain't the greatest of ideas either

 

Yep, he did. It was probably the best win of his entire career. Him quitting in the rematch was crazy. At the time, quitting was not as common as it became later on. For Duran, of all fighters to do that, shocked a lot of people.

 

Heh
No.

 

Lucky he didn't beat him then.

 

The sound of that final right hand was as if a shotgun had gone off.