Who do you favour to beat a Prime Hearns @ Welterweight

Let's look at this: where would you rate Duran at all-time LW, Leonard at all-time WW, Hearns at all-time JMW, and Hagler at all-time MW?

 

Ross has no chance. I don't see how that's debatable personally. He'd be brutally KO'd Duran/Cuevas style.

Armstrong is more or less the same, given his severe lack of size in comparison to Hearns, who'd be teeing off on the much smaller, wide open fighter.

Oscar is outclassed in every sense.

 

I don´t make any lists anymore :tong

But I think they would be up with the best at each weight but I never doubted that. I said they are great nevertheless just like Ali, Frazier and Foreman are great but at the same time they can be a tad overrated.

I mean picking a young, not-fully developed, slightly weightdrained (my feeling), in-experienced Hearns to only be beaten by SRR and SRL but not by the many great fighters that fought in one of the deepest divisions in the history of the sport is overrating this guy.

 

Giving Ross - who is many top 10s p4p, was never stopped in over 80 fights, and was unquestionably a great boxer, "no chance" is a bit much.

 

I agree with you about the WW Hearns... but those 4 guys, taken at their best, aren't overrated. All 4 are at the very top of their respective divisions and they all fought each other. You can't ask for more!

 

He's in my top 10 as well last time I checked. I just don't see how he'd deal with Hearns at WW, considering he was much more natural at 135-140 and just far too small and lacking in any area to deal with Hearns.

I don't see how anyone can give him a chance when they actually analyze the footage. Again, I rate Ross well higher P4P given his accomplishments, but I don't rate him very highly head to head, at least at 147.

Ross:

[YT]DlWPTK1eYVo[/YT]

Hearns:

[YT]efsvnlXaolY[/YT]

 

And someone please tell me how the Hearns of 147 was "un-developed" watching the above footage.

 

Hmmm. I picked Gavilan as one of the very few welterweights I'd give a shot against Hearns. Good Post. You articulated what my eyes see when watching film of Gavilan. I'd favor the two Ray's. Gavilan - Hearns to me is a pick'em fight, however you're swaying me with your argument. I do think there's a flip side and Tommy causes any welterweight all kinds of problems, namely that jab which is a brutal range finder for the big, fast righthand.

 

Who says un-developed? I wrote not-fully-developed. He was better at jmw.

Also you have there Hearns fighting a very good HoF fighter and Ross fighting an atg Top15 if not Top10 WW of all-time. Easy to look better against inferior competition.

 

I agree. The dude was freaky scary. I don't care is he was 22, 21 whatever.

 

Well, we have to agree to disagree then.

 

If he was better at JMW it was only due to his stronger frame, not his skills.

Ross is also smaller and a much lighter hitter than Cuevas. Stylistically, given Cuevas's ATG punch, I'd have given him a better chance at an upset than Ross to be honest. With Ross I see not a single thing that could be done effectively against Hearns. I don't think he'd last very long at all.

 

You pick a devestating KO of a one-dimensional puncher who was made to order for Hearns, and compare it to Ross vs. McLarnin which was a tactical fight between near equals? That's a good visual, but it doesn't prove anything.

WW Hearns was less destructive as the bouts wore on... and I'd count on great WWs who were strong, durable, and with decent power to give him serious problems. Of course, he's hell early, we know that... but over 15 rounds against at least 9 former greats is going to be a different story.

Cuevas ain't Gavilan.

 

He was better at JMW because of his stronger, more developed frame and because of the experience factor... which translates into more honed skills.

 

Tommy is dangerous. Among the most dangerous fighters ever in my opinion. He's become a standard of dangerousness, p4p.

But Gavilan was extremely formidable and wouldn't have an ounce of fear or a crack in his chin. After their first fight, Robinson said that he cracked Gavilan so hard with a right that he thought Gavilan would be dead... but instead Gavilan just kept on coming like nothing.