Hearns was obviously light years ahead skill wise, but he was also from Barkley, Lopez was a career 175lbs, although never a world champion, Hearns was, but Lopez was in a stronger era at 175lbs, I see Hearns lighting him up for a bit, but he either gets overconfident and caught or he gets worn down. Who wins this matchup?
Have to go w/ Hearns getting the tko due to cuts. Those precision shots will land against that defense. Not a knockdown and hurting the opponent type of stoppage--just a bad swelling/cuts type result. Fighting a Tommy Hearns when you have lots of scar tissue and cut and swell easy is not the road to victory. And Manny would have a perfect strategy in this and have Tommy boxing and moving. Another tough fight for Yaqui & he sure had a ton of them.
This one smells like it could be an upset. Hearns was light years better skill wise than Yaqui Lopez and should win easily. But the same could be said about Iran Barkley. Yet He managed to beat Hearns twice. Again styles make fights, Lopez possessed the same attributes as Barkley, Tough as nails, aggressive, capable of pushing Hearns off his mark, and make him fight in a closet. Hearns wouldn't be able to last through the bombs Lopez landed on Saad Muhammed , or V . Galindez. And his legs were usually gone by the 5th rd of hard fighting. (A issue he always had , even during his welter days, got worse as he went up in weight) Hearns would need to use his jab overtime against Lopez. Keep him at bay, drop the right hand, and move. Stay off the ropes, out of the corners. A saving grace for Hearns and probably how he would beat Lopez was on cuts. Lopez cut easily. It would be one of his few fights Hearns would have to look up to his opponent, Not as easy of a fight for Hearns as some might imagine.
