Who do you favour to beat a Prime Hearns @ Welterweight

Sure... here you go:

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

 

A very persuasive argument you mount but it hinges basically on Duran doing everything right and leaves him no margin for error.

And as adept defensively as Duran was,against Hearn's huge reach advantage not to mention his speed Duran is going to have to weather some serious punishment.The question is will he be able to survive long enough to work his way inside or will he become another victim like Cuevas or even a Bruce Curry.

I just can't see it happening personally a little guy like Duran is too much up against it against a physical freak like Hearns (who reminds me of a boxing Usain Bolt) for mine,but who knows as you've certainly thrown up some intangibles to ponder.

 

I see that you know your stuff, Griffo.

I don't think that Duran would have to necessarily "do everything right". I think that conventional wisdom says that Duran could not handle a Hearns's shot. I think two things mitigate that -first, the chin factor is directly related to conditioning and reflexes. Second, at this time, Duran was elusive and he also knew how to turn with shots as good as anyone I've ever seen. In '84 he was all wrong -bad conditioning, age had slowed his reflexes and tempered his agility, and he fought Hearns all wrong.

His diminished size could be costly, just like Tiger's was against Foster, but I think that Brown would have him actually fight smaller, slip inside, and play those ribs like a xylophone.

I think that Hearns at WW is freakish indeed... but he was also fragile looking and struck me as overtrained and dehydrated. I don't like those exposed ribs. Then you have the fact that he would have been just a 21 year old kid (a malnourished kid in my opinion) against a 29 year old late prime demon in Duran.

Whether or not Duran wins or not, I think we could agree that it would be a different fight altogether...

 

Not many Griffith and Gavilan have a shout,I see Hearns stopping Napoles on cuts,ODH would be interesting.

 

I would favour Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard probably Burley and believe Napoles would he a 50/50. I would consider Walcott but need to see footage of him to see if I would favour him over Hearns.

 

I agree 100%!!!! :good :good I also think mickey walker would end up like roberto duran if he fought hearns. You cannot beat A physical freak Randy Moss/Tommy Hearns just with a bullrush/warrior heart style.

 

To Answer the question of this thread, I rate hearns # 3 welterweight of all time. I think only two men SRL(who did it) and SRR are the only two men that could beat a 147lb hearns. Hearns was just too much of a skilled talentyed freak of nature at 147lb(like randy moss 6'5 4.2 speed with unbelievable leaping ability/hands)......I think napoles does have a chance, but I think hearns will cut him up pretty badly. everyone else gets slaughtered by tommy including emile griffith.

 

Janitor,


you really give 5'0 Joe Walcott a chance considering hes giving up over a foot in height to a very talented powerful fighter whos an expert at long range?

 

I'm more interested in hearing Stonehands defense of favoring guys like Eddie Booker, Cocoa Kid, Duran, etc while giving Griffith little chance.

 

i keep looking for fats relativly tall outside boxers who have a sneaky power who can catch hearns and still stay away in relative distance.
but im thinking of awkward powerpunchers even swarmers now.

but i think ive turned to a different kind of fighter. pressure is the hearns weakpoint. if you close down the gap he is vulnerable. not becuase of his chin but becuase he likes his man at a distsance. it was clear he cant really fight on the inside against barkley in the rematch. it was out of his prime at 174 but it was a good showing of unscared,unphased puncher looking to land the single right or left hand that coudl clearly stop the fight.

my wildcards would be

ricardo mayorga
im not saying ricardo could get out of the way of the hearns jab and he is a comepltly differnet legue of peeps. but he could take a shot and still bring pressure. he is awkward and pretty hard to socre against. he was past his prime when he fiught tito and oscar and they took him apart with crisp inside counterpunching. hearns as good as he is isnt really a counterpuncher. i think he could walk in on a wild overhand right and get swarmed.
any opinions?

henry armstrong
started at feather but a storng hard punching beat. a machine in his day. he will could clearly out work hearns. i just dont like the idea when they break out of the clinch that hearns will have the distance for a second to which he can throw a jab-cross and left hook and repeat onto armstrong. i just dont know if armstrong has fought a tall puncher with great technique like hearns before. armstrong could outmuscle hearns and stop him. tommy's stamina at welter has always been suspect.

ike quartey
great defence, solid jab and sneaky counterpunching ability. a counter jab might do the trick? when tommy comes in behind a jab just cover up and then bang out of it. ike i think would be outpointed. but i give him a chance of stopping tommy and just outhustling him at times.


aaron pryor
swarmer inside fighter but knows his basics so he wont get caught with some wild **** but stay orthodox enough not to get hit when he doesnt need to and has handspeed to back it up. he beat tommy in the amatuers,doesnt really mean that much as tommy wasnt the puncher he was back then. but it's a showing of how he can outwork him and get tou of the way of tommy's shots.

 

I don't give these guys any chance. How do to figure they'd bother Hearns at 147?

 

sorry i pressed enter and submitted this half baked post.

all edited now

 

See above for a lengthy defense of Duran's chances in 1979-1980.

I think that firepower is critical in dealing with Hearns. He doesn't lose against guys who can't punch well, like Leonard, or heavily like Barkley or Hagler. I also think that height is important, though neither power nor height are the end-all, be-all. Griffith was only 5'7 and had about a 20% KO percentage. Carter took him apart. I'd favor Hearns to do the same.

Eddie Booker was 5'9, never stopped, fought from WW right up to LHW and had serious wins over Moore, Lloyd Marshall and Kid Matthews. He had power, particularly his left hook, was defensively very good, and physically strong. These are all qualities I like to deal with the WW version of Hearns.

Cocoa Kid was 5'10, had a world of experience fighting a virtual who's who of name fighters in the 30s and 40s. He had good power -putting Robinson down in sparring after he retired. He also had 244 fights.

Booker and Cocoa Kid were part of the legendary Murderer's Row. This troop was extremely skilled and experienced. A 21 year old Hearns simply wouldn't have enough to cope with many of them in my opinion. He had thunder and lightening... but storms pass and experience kicks in.

 

The 2 sugar`s would beat Hearns more often than not from 147-160 but especially 147.

Leonard might have been behind when he stopped Tommy but the fight showed me something very important, Leonard had more toughness & championship grit + I dont even see SRL falling that far behind on the cards again in a rematch. I see a closer fight with SRL again showing more in the later rds to take a decision or late TKO.

Robinson v Hearns would be a fantastic spectacle.... while it lasted, I dont see Tommy taking SRRs punches for 15 rds, Robinson by TKO, rd 13.

 

Robinson, Leonard, and Burley for sure IMO. All have very fast hands, solid power (more than solid for Robinson and Burley), highly skilled boxers, and great chins.

Napoles is somewhat of a 50/50, Hearns isn't stopping Gavilan so I could see Gavilan outworking Tommy and at times outboxing him, but that's also about 50/50. Griffith is the same way, although Hearns could stop Emile umlike Gavilan.

A guy like Carmen Basilio, insane tough, good puncher, aggressive style, could get to Tommy late and stop him.

Considering Walcott's reputation for toughness and unreal power he deserves to be mention, but I'm not going to comment on the match due to the lack of footage.

Trinidad has a puncher's chance, but Hearns would get to him first.

So, I pick 3 guys over Hearns at welter, give solid chances to 4 more, all about 50/50 fights.