Tommy Hearns had a glass jaw?

Whats interesting is that when tommy actually 'settled' into a weight that suited his frame (and his metabolism as he got older and bigger.) is that at 154,175 and even 190 he didnt show a bad chin at all.(at 160 v hagler you cant really fault his chin there either.) He took some good shots against barkley at 175,and he was never stopped above 160. (admittedly kinchen at 168 and leonard at 164 both wobbled him dramatically.)
I feel that whenver tommy was 'comfortable' at a weight his chin was good. I think all the going up to lt heavy,then back to middle or staying at a weight too low such as 147 etc,made tommy vulnerable. Many people claim that jones and byrd lost their 'punch resistance' due to moving down divisions,i think with hearns this is the case. Once again to re-iterate this point,he never got stopped above 160...

 

If you had a good punch you could knock him out but I`m sure his chin was better than someone like Frank Bruno`s! Do you know Hearns wanted to fight Tyson in 1989?! I think if Hearns hit Bruno instead he could have hurt him! Against Hagler it wasnt his chin that let him down it was his legs they were weak because some clown massaged then before the fight and you only massage as a wind down he couldn`t even move, but I`d say if didn`t starve himself at welter he would have been better at taking a welter shot than a middle shot. Do you think if Hearns had stayed at light middle he could have taken the shot that knocked Curry out from McCallum and gone on to beat him? I posted this question on the wrong forum and can`t be bothered writing it out again!

 

It wasn't glass, but it was breakable enough to potentially bail you out!

 

He had a pretty good chin most his career...certainly 1977-1987.....i think the Hagler thing took something out of him....his chin held very good against andries and roldan but he took some v powerful shots in those fights and his chin was deterioting fight by fight, thereafter culminating in the half dozen punches by barkley which pretty much left him a quivering accident waiting to happen for the rest of 1988/1989.......recognising this tommy spent a lot of time strengthening his legs with weight training and a special bicycle during late 89/90.

Thus i think for the rest of his serious career 1990-1994 his chin was solid again .Hill couldnt move him and Barkley landed 20 times more shots without stopping Hearns.Partly he tightened his defence but also it was mental confidence came back....the barkley/kinchen/srl fights took a lot of confidence away but he took remedial action and adjusted...overall 7/10 a pretty good chin but far from the great one the other fab four had

 

Angelo Dundee said on several occasions that Hearns's weakness was that he didn't have good balance. Probably true...those long skinny legs were obviously not conducive to great balance and might have been the problem more than a supposed inability to take a punch.

 

We are judging Hearns as an ATG, quite rightly, so we have to rate his chin by these same high standards. You have to say at this rarefied level that Tommy did not have a great chin. The proof is there; he was badly hurt by Roldan, stopped with one punch by Barkley and Hagler, not a devastating puncher at these levels, had him down and out in only the third round.

We can point to his body make-up, lean and long-limbed and physically lean, this does not lend to being able to absorb punishment. Consequently, this same body make-up gave Hearns the size and leverage to give him his freakish power at welterweight and light middleweight. His build though would not be ideal to absorb kinetic energy by way of solid punches either to the head or body. it says a lot about Tommy that Barkley aside, only 2 of the best fighters in history were able to exploit those weaknesses.

One thing that didn't help was that Hearns had a sinus issue, by way of a broken nose that was never fixed. Manny Steward said that Tommy was only operating at 60% of breathing capacity because of this. There was legal medication that would have alleviated this but Tommy was insistent not to take anything that could be termed as cheating. And of course, due to his build, any issues with his legs would probably have a greater impact than someone with a mesomorph build.

In short, Tommy had a decent chin but at ATG level it was poor.

 

He did not have a bad chin or weak chin. If he had he would not have been in the great fights he was in with big punchers. Leonard knocked Green out with one punch. Hearns was hit with man of those punches and hung on. Duran hit him clean, Hagler did, Ray.. and he took it all. He did not have an iron chin, but his chin was not glass.

 

Mike landed that punch on Donald because Donald had an eye swelling and made a big mistake ofbackingup.. Could Mike take the punch Tommy landed on Duran or Shuler?

 

sucked no. He wouldn't have the career he had if it sucked. He took hard punches even before he knocked out Duran. He liked to brawl, I think that was his weakness, but it also showed his greatness.

 

McCallum got shook by Julian Jackson and had enough resolve to come back and win there`s no way Duran or Shuler could a good shot off Jackson, McCallum used to ride a lot of shots taking the power out of them, Jake LaMotta also used to do this at middle it`s a great skill to use against a puncher like Hearns.

 

the bad part is the Iran fight giving him a bad light.. as if Iran couldn't swing on someone.... Iran could fight !
it's sad hearns catches heck for that one

 

His chin was sturdy enough, certainly not glass.

Look at some of the shots he took against Leonard, he went to war with Hagler and he was hit by Duran.

He moved through the weights also, if it was glass he wouldn't have been able to do so.