What are your thoughts on Napoles/Hearns? Opinions please.

I've been thinking about this fight, having just re-watched Napoles/Monzon, Napoles/Cokes I, Napoles/Lopez I, etc. I also watched a bit of Hearns the past few days in Hearns/Duran, Hearns/Cuevas, and Hearns/Hagler.

I've seen other footage of them as well, but when thinking about this matchup believe it or not it I thought it was Napoles's fight with Monzon that lead me to believe he could hang with Hearns at WW. Obviously he took a beating in the 5th and 6th rounds, but what he also did was proved he could take boatloads of punishment and keep coming. He showed he could pressure effectively, only problem was Monzon's huge size and strength advantage. Just too much reach and spacing. Monzon was pretty much impossible for a smaller fighter to get in on or do work on. Still, he showed me in early rounds of the fight that he had the ability to get in on someone with the size of Hearns, but better strength, durability, and ability to fight off the backfoot. Napoles landed plenty of flush shots on Monzon, and managed to close the distance very quickly at times and land consecutive shots early on in the fight before Monzon had really figured out the distance and pace, as he would later.

My questions are:

Do you think he could land similar shots early on on Hearns?

Do you think Hearns could take them as well as the much more durable Monzon?

If Hearns were to catch Napoles with a flush shot or a flush right, would it be able to hurt him more than Monzon's did later in their fight?

Would Hearns go on one of his punching sprees if he did tag Napoles, and would Napoles be able to exchange well with Hearns as he did so many others?

Could Hearns take Napoles's return fire?

Do you think Hearns would go on the move like he did Leonard if Napoles tagged him good, and force Napoles to play aggressor?

And of course, do you think with a well placed shot or a shoot-out, Hearns could or would cut Napoles?

Couple of things to consider:

1) Napoles was neither in his prime years nor his prime weight when he faced Monzon, he was much more comfortable and suited in size at WW(though he was really more of a LW).

2) Hearns has the better quickness than Monzon, but he certainly didn't have the durability, and Napoles proved his toughness against Monzon, and proved his ability to exchange in most of his fights. Also, Napoles was quicker at WW, though he did move good against Hearns.

I'd really like to hear opinions on this one, from people who have seen sufficient footage of both fighters.

edit: Also consider that Hearns was normally better at brawling and firing back while off the backfoot at higher weights, whereas at 147 when against someone like Leonard he always lost and was hurt in the punching exchanges.

 

I think that's absurd. Monzon hit him with countless flush right hands at MW, which in a literal sense were probably as hard as the WW Hearns's punches, and he never went down. Early on he was able to find his way in often as well.

 

Monzon 6'0......Napoles 5'7-1/2

Monzon 76'' reach.......Napoles 72'' reach

Neither of the opponents he faced(at the time he faced them) were capable of applying effective speed, pressure or gameplan. Cuevas never proved his chin like Napoles anyway.

Read my original post, answer the questions in it.

 

Next.

 

I think the second option is more likely, given the fact that Napoles was simply not at all content to fight a fight like Benitez did while remaining on the losing end of the boxing exchanges. He was just too determined. Also, I thought Hearns beat Benitez pretty damn wide(the MD was absurd IMO), though the fight was competitive.

This would be a very interesting fight though.

 

I think Hearns would hit Jose with a decent amount of clean shots if it came to an exchange, and even if he didn't a glancing blow could cause a cut, that's all I'm worried about. I just think Napoles would probably take the shots better than vice-versa, even though Hearns did hit harder.

I still consider this fight virtually 50/50, as much as I'm favoring Napoles.

 

:good Napoles is also one of my very favorites.