Tony Zale v Thomas Hearns

:nonoNow Greg, don't go begrudging me my indulgence in trivial minutia (I seem to be getting bogged down in quite a bit of that lately). Good to see you, by the way.

Do we know the two earlier knockdowns in rounds nine and 12 were also attributed to low blows? He seems to have beaten up Pastor pretty conclusively entering round 13.

This observation is culled from some personal experiences, I presume? (When was the last time you took on a taller opponent than yourself, anyway? In footage you're provided of yourself in action that I've viewed, it always seems you tower over your opponents.)

We don't know how tall Billy was when he began his career in June 1934 as a 16 year old lightweight, but it certainly seems plausible he was considerably taller than many of his earlier opponents. Granted though, when he had height and reach, his temperament was to stylize his way to decision wins. issBoxWRECK lists his final height as 6'1-1/2", but at the inaugural 1990 IBHOF induction, standing at the left side in the class photograph, he looks just a shade under Ali in the middle, and Bob Foster on the right.

Still, there are clues that his power evolved into something more than his anemic knockout percentage would suggest. He was the second man to stop Dorazio in his first 61 bouts, two years before Gus got his shot at Louis, the third man to stop Barlund in 54 bouts, (after Nova and Roper), and the fourth man to stop Knox in Buddy's first 114 matches (Haynes, Burman and Bettina preceded him). If Billy had continued competing through the war years, he might have added to his knockout total considerably.

Tommy could give Tony a real boxing lesson through the early going, but does he have the stamina and durability to get to the final bell over the championship distance against a body punching ATG specialist with a pair of championship round knockouts?

 

Good to see you too, how you been?

Its fine, just saying it was slightly irrelevant. Not a dig at you.

Its been a while since I researched it but I vaguely remember some sources suggesting the body attack, was more of a continued assualt to Mr Pator's genitals. And that really slowed down Bob, as it would any man. And obviously that last knockdown was very heavily disputed, as you well know.

I tend to think that Conn put a bad whipping on him though.

It is indeed, although more from just sitting watching other people spar.

I posted up footage of me fighting a taller kid, and I thought I out-boxed him and shut him down really well. Judges seemed to disagree, but if I lose I'll be the first to admit it, but I won that fight. His coach had the cheek to tell me his boy won it 'easy', and honestly I knew after the fight the guy had no confidence.

Anyway the point in hand.

Theres a guy at my gym who is an excellant Light-Light-Welterweight, or was in his day, hes in his mid-20s but aint boxed in 4-5 years. Anyway there is also this big Heavyweight who is a very awkward and fast switch-hitter and out-boxes me every time. But when he steps in with the other guy he takes a severe whupping, but when I step in with that guy I do fairly well with my boxing.

To me certain fighters are really good at hurting bigger boys becaue of their speed, it allows you to really lash your shots in.

I wasn't talking purely about height though, I meant even naturally heavier guys.

I agree with you

 

Tony was 5'8" according to his nephew Ted.
("Clay, he was 5'8" when he was in the ring. I remember him being that height because of eighth grade. I was playing around at my Uncle Walter's with my cousin Paul in their make shift ring and they measured my height against Uncle Tony who was coaching us at that time. Both of us were 5'8" and I thought that was pretty cool!")

 

Better than I was at this time last year (when I was still getting used to having a heavy cast on my right foot from fracturing my ankle in two places). Thanks for asking.

Meh. Bah! Calling me on rectally retentive details keeps me honest.

More details would be useful, as it was such a startling result.

Okay, gotcha.

Foolishly going for that knockout of Louis signaled a dramatic shift from the pattern of his early career. When Joe said decades after his career in a televised interview that, "Billy Conn had it all!" of course power was included among Conn's attributes. Billy wasn't as technically sound as Ramage (who impressed me even in his brief rematch with Louis-Lee didn't get knocked out because of any mistake he made like so many of the Bomber's victims, Joe just executed a flawless offense) but Conn had as much talent as anybody ever enjoyed being gifted with. What WW II cost boxing is too horribly immense to contemplate.

 

Love Tommy...but...Tony Zale by KO...I think it'll be an exciting fight while it lasts...

 

I'll do some research on the Pastor bout tommorow.

 

Well said! I couldn't add anything to this post at all.

 

Powerful and rangy as Hearns is, he would be disadvantaged in this one, given his chin and stamina issues. Not that he couldn't possibly score a win, but I don't like the odds.

 

I think that Tommy Hearns was in the top 7 WELTERWEIGHTS of alltime. No doubt, but we are talking about pre-war Tony Zale,who kod middleweight Al Hostak,beat Fred Apostoli, Georgie Abrams etc,all top middleweights who would have beaten the souped up welterweight ,Tommy Hearns. Tony Zale was a murderous body puncher those pre-war days and would wear down the slender body of Hearns as he did to a man who was bigger than Tommy Hearns,was stronger and probably hit harder than Hearns, and that was Al Hostak...Zale kos Hearns in 7-9 rounds at thei middleweight bests...Cheers V...
P.S. The only reason the Zale/Graziano fights were wars in 1946-8,was because Zale served FOUR years in the service,and at age 33-35 was way past his peak days...I loved Rocky Graziano,my favorite wild-man puncher, but he woud have zilch chance against the pre-war Tony Zale...