Who has the best chance to beat Thomas Hearns out of fighters that fought below Welterweight?

Well, I arrived here in April 2007 having already long since become a former fan of boxing, so I certainly understand your loss of interest.

Duran and Pryor? I was certainly hoping that would happen, and it would've been an excellent idea for Duran to rebound from the Superdome debacle at NOLA with a catchweight superfight I think Aaron deserved and might've gone for. Even a defeat for the Hawk wouldn't have compromised his pair of superfights with Arguello, and the experience may have enhanced his ring quality.

I don't Roberto defeats him by being the heavier guy, but with superior skill and greater control as Pryor would be too wild. Aaron had greater reach, and he could move, but I don't see him choosing to do this, or continuing to do this if he does stick and run a bit. Excellent fight though, and it goes the limit.

 

World class

 

Styles make fights . Hearns had certain attributes that helped him destroy a better fighter, Duran, but were not as effective against a much lesser but bigger fighter in Barkley. Conversely, Duran beats Barkley.
It's simply how they matched up.
And it's been proven in boxing literally thousands of times. Another example is the hell both Norton and Frazier gave Ali in 6 different fights, yet they totalled and were koed by Foreman in less than 8 rds in three total fights.
Ali than embarrassed Foreman in 8 rds.
There's no way in hell Duran wins a decision over Hearns at any weight, and that style match up would favor the fighter with a half a foot height advantage, and over a foot reach advantage.
If Duran beat Hearns he'd have to ko him.
That would be very unlikely too at any weight simply because of his size disadvantages.
It doesn't matter how " spit shinned " he was.

 

Nobody.

 

yeah I don't know why that happens we love our eras and all that, but even loving my era of what I was into, the era today would not have been great even I were young again. The era now just does not have the great fighters. Social media and the promoters build up whomever they want to get money but no way can a four kings type era come up now. Or an Ali Frazier, Foreman. Robinson,Lamotta.. Joe Louis. The fighters today have not put in the fights or the time and they don't have those personalities, which came with so much devotion to the sport. The fighters now are devoted, but not like then. . Simpler times were better.
My Dad always spoke of his father (my grandfather) whom I never met. He was an italian immigrant who died a few years before I was born, but he would pick my dad up at the train station when my dad came home from college on Friday nights, and he had my dad wait longer because he was listening to the boxing on the radio at home. He must not have had a radio in the car, but he did have an old 1940s Chevy I heard, and it probably had no radio. On the broadcast-That must have been Don Dunphy and it was probably on Friday nights. I don't know much else. My Dad is now passed away, so I never really asked more about what fights his dad was listening to weekly on the radio. Those guys really relied on the commentators to say what was happening, and if they were not accurate then it really made a difference.
Somehow I can see this style of Pryor being easier to Duran than say it would be for Hearns, which is why I almost said if anyone smaller can beat Tommy the only one I could see is Pryor. His style mimics a little the energy of Marvin to use that to come forward and be aggressive and overwhelm. Now if Tommy could get some distance and land his right on Pryor? He might knock him out, but with Duran this aggressive style would fuel Duran to keep working his combination and almost swallow up Pryor in the later rounds and eventually this might wear out Aaron.. I agree with you.. I guess styles make fights.. But Pryor to me might have been the only one who might have had a chance against Tommy at lower weights... Just seeing how guys like Roldan did against Tommy and Marvin and Barkley. The aggressive guys who were willing to get hit and swing paid for it with getting hit but if they took it they could possible win. It was a gamble. Duran was not that way. He could use his inside ability to swallow guys up and start to take over and land his punches with his great instincts, but with Tommy, if he fights at all on the end of Tommy's punches he has no chance, and his style would not work against Tommy. Yet it would with Aaron.

A fighter almost has to fight unorthodox and gamble to beat Tommy. Not many guys will beat him fighting his rhythm since he starts to work the jab and the right hand comes. Many guys gave him tough goings if they started to land on him a little, but he would then land back and stun them and win the rounds. His enjoyment of landing opened him up to punches, but he did take a decent enough punch when he got hit, and he also moved his head enough to allude most flush punches. Many people said he started to use his left hook to the body more as he got older. Well I think that happened because he got older and he was more on the inside because of age and bigger weights, and he had to use it on the inside to even out the action. When he was younger he was faster and could use the jab all night and land his right. Later he had to get that left hook going, to fight more inside fights since it was harder for him to avoid fighting inside.
With Duran I think Duran had the best instinctive fighting ability of all the Four Kings. They beat him by keeping him out of their range and using speed. Marvin fought him a little more but used his jab and combinations and size to pull that fight out in the later rounds, but with Tommy it was about technical things. Use the jab and land the right and if a guy came at him, that gave him the opportunity to land his punches while he is getting hit pulling back. He was faster than Duran, but Duran had greater instinctive inside skills. But Tommy would not let Duran use those with his jab and keeping him outside and the few times Duran did land on Tommy with the right was when Tommy was closer and Duran did land, so Tommy had to reset and start to land from the outside.. Pryor on the other hand would be closer to Duran and Duran would be able to use his greatest assets down the road. I think I am talking too much. If you let Duran fight like Barkley did in reach, well Barkley did not let him Duran fought him there Barkley knows no other way to fight and yet he landed that great left on Duran still which spun him around, Duran will win no matter how big the guy is with that style, but if you keep him out of that range like Benitez or Hearns or Leonard in fight 2, he cannot use his magic. Look what he did to Cuevas. And the Barkley fight people wonder why he beat Barkley and Hearns didnt. Well Barkley fought Duran where Duran fought his best. Leonard fight one. etc. Hearns, fighting on the inside against Barkley was a necessity since Barkley was so unorthodox it threw Tommy's rhythm off, so he had to go to the left hook and he almost got him out using the jab and that left hook, but he got hit as he was landing.

 

styles are a great thing. I remember Evander saying Foreman was so slow, but that made him deceptive. He said Foreman knew that when you pulled back from a punch you would come back and that is when he would land. He said many guys don't have that sense. George did. Frazier just came forward and George could unload his full power, and yet Ali knew not to give George that.