i am now convinced Thomas Hearns was the greatest ever!

As they say, styles make fights. Some say Kinchen beat Hearns. Hearns won by outboxing Hill, broken nose/hand or whatever. Hill did not have it in himself to initiate a brawl. As Hearns’s career has proven, he was very hard to outbox. He easily outboxed prime SRL for 5+ rounds, until SRL nearly folded him in half with a body shot in Rd 6.

Despite being a HOFer, rightly so, I think Virgil is very Underrated. People remember him most for the following 3 things:

1. Winning Silver in 84, when all the other US medalist, except Evander, won a Gold.
2. His loss to Hearns.
3. His loss to prime RJJ. Even in the loss, I give him credit for beating the count after that all-time great body blow. I also think he was troubling Roy, before the knockdown, by jabbing to his chest. I remember there was some bad blood before the fight, mostly from RJJ, due to Hill talking about Roy’s money. I don’t recall it being anything crazy, other than Hill just saying he hoped Jones was managing his money properly. As we all know, prime RJJ tended to believe he knew all the answers. Here we are, more than 20 years later, and Roy has just recently decided to call it a career. Today he’s not as financially well off as he could be and many boxing fans, especially those from the TMT/TBE era, don’t think more highly of him.

 

I agree. Hearns would not fall for that left hook counter which Kinchen did vs. Hill. That was sloppy. I like Virgil and think he is very underrated. He was not elite like Hearns or Jones, but he was close..

 

I'm convinced that Hearns is fantastically overrated and that some folks don't know their boxing history.

 

that's too many excuses

 

Lets not paint the picture Hearns was some fragile accident just waiting to happen. Hearns lost to just three men (two top level ATG's) in his entire career and has one hell of a resume. He lost to one non ATG. Yes his durability was the weakest part of his game but his strengths allowed him to beat almost every guy he ever faced. If he had Hagler level durability we'd be looking at a top 10 ATg probably.

Hearns took numerous fully fledged blows from Hagler before succumbing and he took them in a short amount of time. I would be shocked if Mugabi could survive anything like Hearns did and how he did given Mugabi is certainly chinny. Yes he lasted more rounds but he took nothing like the volume Hearns did in such a short amount of time.

Hearns took numerous bombs from Hagler before falling and had been struggling on weakened legs for some time. It's anything but a one punch ko. Calling it a one punch ko is a huge stretch.

Leonard got inside Hearns reach many rounds earlier and Hearns recover to outbox him for plenty of rounds thereafter.

 

it is brutal in someways, but hagler was not looking good here. His punches don't have the usual snap in them.

 

James "Quick" Tillis getting a lapdance from Oprah.

 

Nice call on the resemblance...

 

I don`t think Hill is underated. He was a belt holder who had success for a time in his hometown. He had a nice jab but he never had that defining win. Virgil Hill was a guy who never showed he was more than that. Even in the Olympics...he won Silver the year that the Cubans and Russians boycotted. Not that impressive.

 

To say Hill was a belt holder is a bit dismissive considering 24 or so title defenses is a pretty good belt holder. I think it is a case of personality. Duran had the charisma and got overrated a bit on that since his lightweight reign was not that great really but he was ferocious when he had guys he was better than. When he could not dominate I don't think people realized maybe had a ceiling so they bought the excuses. Appearance means a lot in boxing. . And Hill had this rather boring personality and no power so he was not a Duran or Hearns excitement fighter, so he was underrated. But Virgil Hill had more title fights than Duran or Hearns had. He was consistent. He had a ceiling which was obviously Hearns and Jones level elites, but he was right below that and consistent as hell. Hearns and Jones could perform at a higher level than Hill. but Hill as consistent and if not great a Hall of fame. He borders it. I think he is underrated a bit because of his personality.

 

the 6 hall of fame fighters who fought him probably don't agree with the fantastically overrated part. Overrated is one thing, but fantastically is another.

 

Ironically, Hill, with his 84 Silver medal that you’re not impressed by, beat Henry Maske, winner of the 88 Gold medal, won during an un-boycotted Olympics, to unify and become the lineal LH champion.

He also accomplished the feat in Germany. We all know that the visiting fighter occasionally has to “score a knockout to win by split decision.” Maske was/is a national hero, so we can assume that Hill was on his A game that night.

Out of 48 medalists from the 84 Olympics, only 3 (Sweet Pea, Evander, and Hill) had HOF careers. Not too shabby for a Silver medalist.

 

Hill gets underrated a bit. A boring style can hurt a fighter as much as an exciting style helps a fighter.

 

I remember watching there was talk of a big tournament between Hill, Dennis Andres, Prince Charles Williams, & Michael Moorer. That's the sort of thing that Hill needed to help his reputation. He just didn't have the best opponents but he was always in shape & handled business. I liked him.

 

In your thread title, you misspelled "Sugar Ray Robinson".