Tommy Hearns Vs. Joe Calzaghe...

He fought what you Americans (and Asians like me) would call nobodies.

Well, excluding Virgil Hill and Iran Barkley. Who I think Calzaghe could have won against.

 

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Sorry dude.

Stopped reading after that bit.


:rofl:rofl:






:-(

 

Calzaghe is ridiculously underrated by the detractors here. He would tear Hearns to ribbons with his work rate and stop him late. Even Hopkins said that he's impossible to keep up with and Hopkins is one of the smartest fighters ever, and Hearns wasn't. Hearns would get worn down, just like he always did against great fighters.

I just watched the last 3 rounds of Hearns vs. Leonard #2 and Hearns landed bombs on Leonards jaw, yet in round 12 it was Hearns, not the past his prime 33 year old Leonard, who was stumbling around the ring like a newborn giraffe taking his first steps because he took a few nice blows and ran out of gas. Don't forget this fight was @ 160.

Calz. chin is proven against Eubanks, Lacy (he can't punch ****), Kessler, Hopkins, and Jones. Granted Jones was old but he hit Calz. with a massive bone to bone forearm shiver in round 1, many good shots early in the fight, and that huge uppercut in round 6. Calz. has a very good jaw and amazing recuperative powers. Hearns jaw is not as solid and he his recuperation is crap, crap, crap.

Calz. power of accumulation is underrated at his advanced age: He hurt Kessler, Lacy, completely gassed Hopkins, and had Jones in trouble more than once. Hearns does not have the stamina of any of these guys. The early Calz. had better than good power. Eubanks was hurt and stumbling several times in their fight and Calz. KO'd some good fighters after that. Give the freakin guy some credit, his hands are a mess and he's had to adapt his style to accomodate to this weakness yet he still gets the job done every time.

Watch the speed and pace of Hearns vs. Leonard II and fights after. Then watch Calzaghe's speed. This is a freakin' mismatch. Calzaghe would just overwhelm Hearns @ 168 or above.

If that's not enough to convince you. A prime Hearns could not KO Doug Freakn' Dewitt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but some scrub KTFO DeWitt in his next fight!!!!

 

Did you see the right hand Hopkins hit Calzaghe with and he went down? What do you think a Hearns right would do to Calzaghe. I know you guys want to build up Calzaghe, but he really beat older guys in Hopkins and Jones, and Hopkins and Jones do not compare to guys like Hagler and Hearns of the 1980s.

 

Hearns will harpoon Joe Calzaghe.

 

Be careful. Sanity is not appreciated here.

 

Hearns is very fast, with long straight punches.

Joe starts clowning around and he is going to find himself
on his butt.

 

Hopkins did not hurt Calz., and it was a perfect shot. What about the Jones shots Calz. took? What about the bombs a past it Leonard took from Hearns? What about the shots Benitez took from Hearns? What about the shots DOUG Freakin' DEWITT took from Hearns??? Haglar was great but Vito Antefermo lasted 15 rounds with Haglar and was more competitive in the second 1/2 of the fight and in the second fight he was stopped on cuts. Give Calzaghe some freakin' credit, the bomb that he took from Jones in round 1 would have ruined Hearns.

 

:rofl spot on.

 

Calzaghe is ridiculously underrated by the detractors here. He would tear Hearns to ribbons with his work rate and stop him late.


Calz. chin is proven against Eubanks, Lacy (he can't punch ****), Kessler, Hopkins, and Jones.


Alternative version of what may have been proven

Eubanks

Joe has a decent beard. Not amazing. Not extraordinary. At 25, younger and fresher, he won the WBO title against Eubanks. I think it should have went the other way. A draw would even have been palatable. Eubanks landed the clean and effective punches and by far the majority of the power shots. Joe was active and got off to a great beginning and overall showed he deserved to be in the ring. Joe took a lot of hard punches and showed a good beard. On the negative side, Joe showed us that an elite level fighter could likely hit him all day long with lead right hands (see Hopkins, Bernard, 43 years 3 months & Jones, Roy, 39 years 10 months, video footage round 1 for further indications this malady persists even to this day). Joe took a lot of clean power shots to his pie hole just not enough in combination. The younger man pushed the pace. Yet, he was the last man momentarily stunned / hurt and holding in the last seconds of the 12th. Eubanks was exhausted half way through so speculation of a fifteen round fight might not provide any clarity either. But, Calzaghe had never even gone 12 until this fight so who's to say that Eubanks wouldn't have caught Joe in the 13th in their back and forth coming off the 12th as (younger) Joe had to be wearying as well.

After a credible performance, though he did not deserve the title nor the points win over the non-peak Eubanks, he fought on over eight years against a near dozen and a half fighters who, depending upon your inclination, are either the most credible opponents to be found at SMW during those years or perhaps more accurately a minutely better than pedestrian list of B-level fighters of near zero boxing importance. Even so, Joe managed to get dropped by the superbly talented Mitchell and Salem as well.

What was proven against Eubanks is that Calzaghe is easy to hit by elite fighters (even past-peak ones). Eubanks, while an elite fighter, will never be confused with having James Toney skills. Any line that includes Chris Eubanks has James Toney (& Roy Jones & Bernard Hopkins) standing many paces forward at the front of the line. At every weight.

Joe proved he could easily walk into shots but was only hurt/stunned in the 12th. He made it through Eubanks and the pre-engraved title had been delivered to his house a mere week before the fight.

Going through the collection of stiffs (top competition to the genuflecting) he faced after that has been done infinitum. He never met an elite fighter over the next eleven years (and never a single elite fighter at their peak in his career) unless he showed up at someone else's fight.

So, Joe never got to have his chin checked (for any Eubank microfractures) and rechecked to allow for it to be proven anything.

Eight and a half years later ..

Then came Lacy

Did the Lacy/Calzaghe fight tell us much about Joe's chin? Or, did it tell us a lot about Jeff's boxing skill? [It did tell us that Joe (like Hopkins vis-a-vis Taylor) couldn't bask in the glow of a winning streak as champ without finally succumbing to the necessity of fighting the most logical opponent (Jeff Lacy) no matter how close each was to the end of their respective careers.] Jeff is/was a powerful guy who knocked out a bunch of guys (seventeen), a group not dissimilar from Joe's post-Eubanks list of B-level fighters of near zero boxing importance. Jeff sure didn't KO Joe, so Joe must have a great chin. Of course, Sheika went the distance too. So would other famous guys like Tsypko, Manfredo, and Epifanio Mendoza. JT most recently. Just how many clean punches (or otherwise) did Jeff Lacy land to demonstrate Joe Calzaghe has an extraordinary chin? Wasn't that performance more apply described as "hit before you can be hit"? Joe's "greatest" win was the ultimate boxing career etching in stone of his "I will slap this man a thousand times until his nose bleeds and he has a headache" offensive prowess.

Kessler?

Sure, Joe's chin was reaffirmed as decent. Joe has a decent chin. Joe took several good shots from Kessler and kept on ticking. Kessler has a bunch of KOs (thirty-one) so Joe must have a great chin. Except MK's KO list is an even worse collection of fighters overall than Joe's post-Eubanks list of fighters of near zero boxing importance. Didn't come close to KOing Mundine as well.


Hopkins

The forty-three year old is one of the greatest old boxers in a long time. Anyone think that because Joe got a points win over Bernard in 2008 that this demonstrates an extraordinary chin? Hop hasn't been finding KOs all that easy to obtain in the 21st century. But he did provide substantiation that while the 43 year old couldn't land right hands at will (and not as easily as the 31 year old Eubanks did in '97 to Calzaghe) he would have schooled Joe prime-for-prime like the only the only foreign kid playing pick up hockey at a Canadian ice rink. Hopkins is no Eubanks. A prime Hopkins does everything better than Eubanks. Winning an ugly split-decision points win over the 43 year old didn't prove anything about Joe's chin versus an elite fighter in their prime.

Jones

Someone still can't see the right hand. Someone is real lucky they never got to fight an elite fighter in their prime. Guess who?


Hearns

6'1" 78 inch reach. Fought the best of his generation in their prime. Fought fifteen rounders in his career. An elite. A tremendous puncher. Nah, what could he have for Joe?

If you're an elite in your prime you don't need to worry about getting worn down late in the fight by Joe Calzaghe. You stop him because he isn't enough of an elite athlete to get out of the way of right hands.

 

Spot on.

 

Till now I've never read or heard anyone mention that Eubanks won that fight. Did he dispute the decision?

#1) I said his chin is very good, recuperative powers amazing
#2) He's never been seriously hurt, Jones was closest. Contrary to waht Calz. detractors claim, Jones in the early going was far from shot.
#3) He's taken a lot of leather over the years and proven himself, always
#4) He's always adapted to take the opponents strongest option away
$5) Leonard took a bunch of Hearns bombs in fight #2, and Leonard was past his best
#6) Best for last. Hearns failed to KO Doug Freankin' DeWitt!

FYI: Calz. is an elite athlete, just unorthodox.

 

So a natural Light-Middle's success at Lightheavyweight is to be ignored when contemplating a hypothetical matchup at 168 lbs?