Thomas Hearns vs Roberto Duran- Same result everytime?

its a good question as I both love and hate watching that fight.
What happened to duran? he stood back with his head up as hearns threw those bombs.
and hearns was punching so well that night, perfect, whistling cannon balls, banging through one after another, brutal to watch.
If the match was at welter it would obviously be closer to durans natural weight but hearns was still absolutely huge at welter.
I don't think duran would get past the right and even at welter on durans best night id be surprised if he could win this one. I think hearns by ko inside 4

 

What I find confusing when I think about how a rematch would go, is how competitive Duran was against Barkley, who actually beat Hearns, so because of that, I'm on the fence as to whether or not Duran could ever beat Hearns. My best guess is that if they fought 5 times Hearns would win either 3 or 4 of those encounters.

 

yeah good point, duran was outstanding against barkley but barkley came in low head down swinging whereas duran stood straighter up and seemed to have real trouble with hearns timing but I love duran so ill take 2 of 5

 

Duran took some brutal body shots in that fight. Bernstein keep saying it would pay dividends in the later rounds but it never really did, I still don't fully understand that.

 

I recall Duran after saying that he was concentrating on trying to take away the left jab, figuring out how to make it miss and judge the best way to bridge the distance and counter.

He thought he had finally gotten the timing of the left and then BOOM that Hitman right comes screaming in and the rest was window dressing.

I think Duran and his camp figured that by rushing in and being overaggressive that he'd ran into big punches so was looking ot use his skills and lure Hearns into more of a boxing match, a la Hagler.

Hearns beats him 10 out of 10, KO every time.

 

Bad night for Duran and he underestimated the Hearns right hand, Duran did not get started with his offense so it was a quick KO but Roberto was already fighting erratic at that time despite the fact that he still had some sporadic wins left in him.

different result next time or with better prep

 

id love to think duran couod turn things around in a rematch, how could he do it?
a few options-
1 Stay on the outside and make hearns fall short, then counter. very risky because hearns shots were FAST and soooo long and even a glancing bomb could finish it, and hearns right was very difficult to see let alone counter.

2/ Take it straight to hearns like hagler did. tuck up tight and low and try to bully hearns to the ropes where you could work on him inside the long arms, but getting close to hearns without risking a finishing right or left hook to the body was difficult to say the least, unless you had a great chin/power combination like hagler but durans shots weren't as heavy as haglers.

3/ keep hearns off balance by circling and cleverly shift and step inside fire 2 or 3 get out and repeat. take away hearns confidence in trhe right, make exchanges rare and well timed. duran had the footwork, head movement and guile to carry this off
I think this is durans best option
Might have to give away the early rounds as he worked out the fine details, buit its definitely feasible that duran could frustrate and actually outbox hearns in this way.
even if he couldn't land the way he wanted to, I think this strategy would keep him conscious for longer and the longer hes there the more chance hed have to solve the mystery of hearns.

 

Its possible that Hearns had Duran's number. But I doubt he'd beat him in that exact same fashion every time. Duran had some iffy performances here and there, ie. Simms, Laing, etc, so its possible that Hearns caught him on one of those nights.

 

Bad night for Duran, he zigged when he should of zagged, that's the fight game. I don't think it's a given that it would go like that every time.

 

yeah bad night, but what was shocking was that hearns couldn't miss with the right.
fast, straight bombs over and over with duran going for every single feint and taking most of them flush
duran was so out of sorts with hearns speed and movement and hearns was so in tune with duran's that its hard to see him having too much future success unless he seriously changed tact.

 

I think at times you can get stunned early in the fight and just not get over it. When you're in with a finisher like Hearns that makes it even harder.

 

He would really have no choice but to get inside and stay there for as long as possible, otherwise he'd be just target practice for Hearns. But inside he could do a lot and really test the body of Hearns.

 

Do we feel the weight class matters, or is this just down to styles wherever? :think

 

I think the weight class would simply accent (or hinder) the styles each had. For example I would presume a JMW Hearns would hit harder than a WW hearns without giving up a lot of speed.

For Duran going up in weight to JMW probably reduces his effectiveness given his size and where he started.

So let's say this is at Welter just for the hell of it.