Who do you rank higher ATG? Floyd Mayweather Jr or Thomas Hearns

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Hearns's resume is very good. Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran, Pipino Cuevas, Virgil Hill. Hearns was an old 32 when he beat the undefeated Hill at 175. He also beat some solid contenders and titlists over the years.

I don't really hold it against Mayweather that he'd lose to Hearns at 147. It was his fourth weight class after all. I think Floyd fares very well H2H with everyone in history from 130-140, at the very worst he loses competitively to guys like Whitaker, Duran, Chavez (namely the Chavez at 135 who destroyed Rosario), and beats some ATGs like Arguello....but it changes once he gets to welterweight. Hearns peaked at 147-154 and had one of the best wins at 175. He was a bigger guy.

 

Wilfred Benitez was an ATG, and in/near his prime when Hearns beat him. Although everyone remembers the Duran destruction, Benitez was a better fighter than Duran at 154, comprehensively beating him when they fought. By most accounts, Benitez was more professional around this time period, training like a pro fighter should, with less of the bad habits.

Duran was the highlight reel KO but Benitez was the better win IMO. El Radar was closer to his peak and better suited for the weight. As said earlier, he was a better 154 lb. fighter than Duran.

I'm not really sure who I'd rate the higher between Mayweather and Hearns.

 

Well, in 2009, it was pretty obvious that Pac ranked higher than Floyd.

But that was six years ago and I think most (even Pac fans like myself) would agree that Floyd has moved up above Pac in the all-time rankings.

And back in 2009, Hearns would have ranked ahead of that Floyd, but I think since then, Floyd has surpassed the hit man as well.

Head to head though, I'd favour Hearns, and by a good margin.

 

Since 2009 how many wins does Floyd have over good fighters that were not past prime or green?

 

Hearns also beat Leonard, but was robbed. And almost beat Leonard at 147 too.

This is silly to say Floyd is greater than the hitman. It's a washout landslide for Hearns.

 

I think they are pretty close...wouldn't be mind blowing to see either one ahead of each other on anyone's list

 

Corrales, Castillo, Hatton, fat Marquez, old Mosley, old DLH and old Pacquiao are not better than Duran, Leonard, Benitez, Cuevas, Hagler, Hill.

I don't see how it's close because Hearns is greater based on competition. It seems kind of obvious because of how much softer Floyd's competition was.

Is anyone going to seriously say Floyd had tougher competition? And if they are not how can you say he's greater than Hearns?

 

He had good wins over Shane (who had just KO'd Marg and Mayorga),
Canelo ( future HOFer), Maidana (who had just ended Broner's run).

Oh, and Manny Pacquaio.

Not a prime Pac, but it was a good win for past-prime Floyd.



I'd much rather have a beer with Tommy than Floyd, but I think Floyd's resume overall, edges Tommy's.

 

Sure I'll give you Maidana who was at his peak. But is that really a Virgil Hill caliber fighter?

 

Just to add some extra details about how Hearns's resume gets overlooked:

-Mike Colbert was a top 10 ranked middleweight at the end of 1978. Hearns was an up-and-coming welterweight. Near the end of 1979, Hearns fought Colbert, after being outweighed by 6 lbs at the weigh-in, and completely dominated him.

-Bruce Curry was certainly not the fighter his brother was, but he was a good solid fighter, who eventually held a world title for a short period. A young Hearns took him out in 3 rounds. All you have to do is watch Curry's classic fight with Monroe Brooks to see that Curry was a skilled and talented fighter.

-Harold Weston was another solid top 10 contender that Hearns defeated on the road to the title.

-Angel Espada was a former world champion and another top 10 contender that Hearns beat on the road to the title. Unfortuately for Angel, he just couldn't handle the ridiculously heavy hands of Cuevas.

This is something that unfortunately we do not see enough of nowadays. Young contenders defeating other contenders on the road to their first title shot.

James Shuler was an undefeated young contender, in fact ranked #2 contender behind John Mugabi in The Ring at the time he fought Hearns on the undercard of Hagler-Mugabi. Hearns took him out in a minute.

Hearns defeated Dennis Andries for the WBC title at 175. Hearns had a title defense at 154, fought for a regional belt at 160, then went up all the way to 175 to beat Andries.

It seems that a lot of these solid victories get overlooked, and hell, even some of his wins that I'd rank much more than "solid" get overlooked, and probably due to the 2 high profile losses. But he happened to lose to a prime Sugar Ray Leonard, one of the greatest WWs ever, one of the most complete, versatile, and gifted fighters ever. And Marvin Hagler is one of the greatest MWs ever and also a very versatile fighter.

Wilfred Benitez wasn't just a good champion, nor was he merely the youngest champion ever. He was a great fighter, one of the best defensive wizards ever. Virgil Hill was a very good fighter, undefeated, and 175 was 3-4 divisions above Hearns's peak division. Hearns soundly outpointed him.

 

Floyd definitely

 

Such passionate stances on both sides. Each side saying the other side is crazy for choosing the other.

“It’s Tommy by a landslide”

“It’s Floyd… definitely”

“Tommy’s way better you gotta be out your damn mind if you think Floyd is better”

“Floyd is 49-0. Floyd is TBE." lalalalala “Better than Muhammad Ali”….l lalala

“Hearns faced much tougher competition in his day then Floyd did in this day…”

“Floyd managed to stay undefeated while Tommy lost his “0” vs SRL.. but that was a 15 round fight.. where Tommy was way ahead on pts after 12 rounds.. In Floyd’s era Tommy would have won a 12 round decision over SRL easily like Floyd did in most of his fights!

But would Floyd have been able to beat prime SRL so easily like Tommy did for 12 whole rounds? I doubt it!!

Floyd never had to go 15 rounds in his entire life!! How do we know if Floyd had to fight 15 rounds maybe he would have gotten stopped too like Tommy.. Having to fight in 15 rounds fights increases your ability to get stopped, so that has made it much easier for someone like Floyd to remain undefeated. If Tommy didn’t have to fight SRL over 15 rounds maybe he never would have lost and would have retired undefeated.

Tommy has wins over legendary world champions. Not just world champions. Floyd beat a lot of solid world champions in his career but it’s hard to know how Floyd would have done vs the fighters in Tommy's era. This poll indicates that a lot of boxing fans realize how brutal and how much tougher boxing was in those days and why they have Tommy ahead of Floyd as an ATG.

 

Hearns has a good resume but the nature of his loses clearly puts him behind Floyd.

 

Tommy Hitman Hearns by a mile Tommy never had to cheat either

The Hitman