If Tito hadn't ran into 2 defensive masters, could he have been a great middleweight?

Ya, he could have been more assertive against the smaller man, but was content to wait it out passively for later rounds. I'm sure he had in mind that Oscar tends to fade late. This was really in Hopkins' transition period to being a very defensive fighter.

 

Hearns was just as good a fighter as hagler, maybe you haven't studied each fighters career and just looked at boxrec and presumed that having been knocked out in the third round that hearns and hagler are legues apart.

If tito is good enough to give hearns a competative fight, then he must be good enough to give hagler a hard nights work, its stuped on your part to say against hearns it could go either way but against hagler its a joke. atsch

styles do make fights, but at middleweight tito was just as devestating a puncher as hearns, and with hagler being an inside fighter that could work well for tito as he likes his fighters to stand in front, both fighters would take punishment, and the one that takes it would win. and the last thing this fight would be is a joke.

 

I never said Hearns-Trinidad could go either way. I simply said that he'd have a much better chance starching Hearns than he would Hagler, who is more than battle-tested.

And Hagler was not an inside-fighter. He was an all-around fighter that could fight any way if necessary. But even if he did decide to go to war, he'd beat on Trinidad due to his cast iron jaw, superior skills and much greater strength.

 

One significant difference between Hagler and Hearns is their jaws. Trinidad has some mean punching ability, and that would make Hearns much more vulnerable than Hagler in head-to-head matches.

 

Hearns would still be far too sharp to be caught sooner than he caught Tito. I just can't see Tito getting off and landing first, unless we're talking an Iran Barkley situation where Hearns just gets careless. Even so, I don't think Tito would've been able to stand up to the punishment the bullish Barkley did.

 

Though, you would see Trinidad having a (much) worse chance getting a win against Hagler, yes?

 

Great... No.

But certainly the best of his time. He flat-out dominated Joppy and Cherifi, two top 10 rated Middleweights. If Hopkins and Wright weren't around, Trinidad would probably have been champion until Taylor, and that is also a fight he could certainly have won.

 

I would give him almost literally no chance against Hagler aside from maybe a 1-2% chance of an early cuts stoppage. Maybe a 10% chance against Hearns.

Allow me to add that Tito stands a better chance of beating Hearns at MW (higher than that original 10% estimate) than at WW or JMW.

 

Good yes, great, absolutely not.

 

Not going to quote everyone as it would take too much time.

Tito wouldn't have a chance against Hagler or Hearns at middle, just bad matchup ain't happening, they would eat him up. Not getting to the weeds on this, as no need, and it's been done before.

How would he fair against recent or current middles. I don't think well, Maybe he catches Pavlik, or gets flattened early. JT is a big middle, so I don't think so either. I think he could be a champ in a week era of too many champs, but not a dominant one.

He just isn't big enough, and I would say his punch didn't move up enough in the bigger division.

Tito was a very good welter, maybe top 10 but not all time great.

So no at MW

 

That's what I figured.

 

I concurr obviously

 

Ya, Hagler would be hell for Trinidad.