Mayweather vs Hearns

I don't hate Mayweather. I rate him very highly, #18 P4P all time, to be specific, which is higher than I rank Hearns. I'd give Floyd very little chance, prime for prime, at 147lbs though.

Firstly, Mayweather was at his best at 130-135lbs, whilst Hearns was at his best at 147-154lbs. I think Hearns was better P4P than Andre Ward, but I'd pick Ward over Hearns at 168-175lbs. Ward's natrual weight advantage over Tommy was roughly akin to Tommy's over Mayweather. As my Mrs. keeps complaining to me, size does matter.

Secondly, Hearns is an horrendous style match up for Mayweather at WW. If you couldn't outbox Mayweather at range, you were in trouble. Not only was his control of range excellent, his defense once you got into range was brilliant and he was a highly skilled counter puncher. A combination of being a brilliant boxer and careful matchmaking meant Mayweather never fought anyone who could outbox him (aside from arguably Zab Judah for a couple/few rounds). However, I don't think Mayweather would have been effective against a bigger fighter he couldn't outbox, he did not have the attributes to be an accomplished, come-forward pressure fighter.

Against Hearns, Floyd would be facing a boxer just as light on his feet (arguably lighter on his feet than the more static WW version of Mayweather), roughly equal handspeed, but who was 5" taller & had a 5" reach advantage. When you factor in that Hearns would maximise his reach as his arm parallel to his shoulder would see his fist square in Mayweather's face, whereas Mayweather would lose some of his reach as he'd need throw up to reach the taller Hearns's face, that reach advantage becomes more like 8" in reality. As I keep explaining to my Mrs., 8" is huge, it's difficult to overestimate it's significance in this fight.

There is no way Mayweather is potshotting Hearns from a safe, long distance, range. So, how does he win? By walking the huge punching Hearns down? When it took the bigger, high output and much more powerful SRL 14-rounds to successfully do so? If "no chance" isn't to your liking, then lets go with extremely unlikely.

 

Great post.

As always.

Tommy actually had a 6” reach advantage over Floyd. And Floyd himself had a huge reach for a man of his stature.