How would Georgie Benton have faired against...

Beat them all but Hagler., I think.

 

I like Benton, but he was never elite. He couldn't even beat Briscoe or Carter. His only notable win is over an over-the-hill Giardello.

They all beat Benton by decision.

 

The only one who did better than him at mw is Hagler. What did Hearns do at mw that was so special? Losing to Barkley and Hagler? Duran? Beating Barkley and losing to Hagler? Leonard? Well, at least he beat Hagler but then Marv wasn´t in his prime. As a mw Benton was better than those three.

 

Beats Duran, loses to Hearns & Hagler. With Leonard it's more difficult to say. A prime Leonard could pull it off, but a middleweight Leonard wasn't exactly in his prime. Perhaps he could duplicate the close decision win over Hagler against Benton as well.

Benton lacked the aggression to beat a Thomas Hearns. He would have to put it all on the line in a gamble and I doubt he would, since he was very wary of Hurricane Carter's power. Duran is smaller, and Benton is a good enough infighter not to be picked apart on the inside like Moore and Barkley were.

 

he wouldn't beat hagler, for a kick off.

 

I think Benton is one of the few fighters that could outbox Hearns. Mw Hearns at least. He wasn´t that special there. The Leonard fight would be close but like you said Leonard wasn´t prime and not at his best. Benton was and he was good enough to pull out a close decision IMO.

 

I don't see how though. He was short and threw a low volume of punches. Stylistically he resembles me of a middleweight Floyd Mayweather a bit, atleast defensively. His best chance would probably be to take it to Hearns on the inside, but I'm not so sure he would be willing to do that consistently enough.

 

Duran was all wrong for everyone, i feel

 

I think he could take Hearns´jab away, I know it´s bold but if there is someone at mw able to do this it´s Benton - or Hopkins.

 

I don't think anyone can truly take Hearns's jab away, it's not as if he was only reliant on that punch, there was plenty of more to worry about. The left hooks to the body, and the right hand obviously, which followed when you tried to avoid the jab. Benton was a good defensive fighter but his offensive capabilities let him down, even if he was a good technician. I think that's what would work against him here.

I'm quite sure that Hearns could have had a decent reign at middleweight if he had faced a string of defensive fighters, but instead he went through a rough stretch of physically strong brawlers, Hagler included with the way he fought Hearns.

 

It worked decently in round 2, atleast giving Hearns some more breathing room, but Hagler's pressure was too much.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FOSXQFF-V0[/ame]

 

I always wondered how the fight would have went down if Hearns wouldn´t have broken his hand so early.

 

Hearns breaking his power hand against Hagler's iron skull just tells you all you need to know about the way the fight was always going to go though. That is, as long as Hagler was able to switch his style from a boxer to an all-out brawler, which was not so simple as I'm sure Hagler didn't enjoy getting hit based on his previous performances. Hagler made the gamble to rely on his physical abilities rather than boxing to defeat Thomas Hearns, and it paid off majorly. That's what I believe is pretty much necessary in order to beat Hearns.