How much credit do you give Hearns for the Duran win?

[Barn]

I was thinking about this today for some reason.

I feel I have overlooked Hearns' win over Duran. I believe I was captivated by the total inevitability of the destruction as I watched it on tape. I saw the staredown, the height difference and thought about the style contrast and it was very clear what was about to happen, was the only way that fight could have went down.

I feel this may have contributed to me under-rating this win because when you sit down and think about it, and look at it as a win and ignore the style/height/power circumstances of the fight it really is a good win for Hearns.

Obviously this was a title defence for Hearns and Duran was the challenger, however it's easy to forget in the midst of the anarchic destruction that Duran held a portion of the WBA title in his last fight at JMW and only didn't have it anymore due to moving up and fighting Hagler and not defending it.(this is somewhat of an assumption but it's what I gather happened.)

This means that if Duran didn't move up to fight Hagler then this is essentially a JMW unification fight! Which would make it a very important victory.

Not to mention, Duran dispossessed a very good fighter in Davey Moore who had built up a nice little streak of defences going and was ranked highly at the time. Beating a fighter like him proves Duran was no joke at that weight at that particular time.

That's without even going to detail about his crazy exploits at 160 when he defeated Iran Barkley! At the end of the day, Hearns beat a removed from his prime but still very able Top 15 P4P ATG.

I'm not sure if this ever happened but I have a vague recollection of people saying "old, out of shape Duran" regarding Hearns' and I may have been guilty of it myself in the past, so I felt I should put things right here.

[Ray Corso]

Duran picking up the pennies, he just forgot that Tommy thought it was a fight!! Duran was nothing after the first Leonard fight. I know he had some good wins but he had losses that were tuff to watch when you think of him as a lightweight Champ! Macho R.I.P but he doesn't beat a prime Duran and some of the other crap fights like Paz???? Really??? Listen they all count on the record but you need to know what was prime because the less prime the less willingness is offord!! Duran is ATG lightweigh fightewr just as Tommy was a terrific competitor at 47!! Its not a big win for Tommy in my opinion but it beats the crap out of loosing to an out of prime Duran! Ray

[Bolo Punch]

Duran's physical prime was clearly when he reigned supreme over the Lightweights, the beginning of his Welterweight career when he set up his title shot and the fight vs. Leonard itself.

He could still hang in there with B-class fighters for the next decade, though, evident by his wins over Moore and Barkley and his respectable decision loss vs. Hagler.

I do give Hearns credit for getting Duran out of there, especially considering that it happened so quickly, as Duran could take a punch and was decent at slipping shots, but with all due respect, Roberto was nowhere near his brilliant best at the time of the fight.



EDIT: Btw, I realise that in the second paragraph it looks like I'm calling Hagler a B-class fighter. That's not what I meant. What I was trying to say is that Moore and Barkley were and that the Hagler fight was a decent result for Duran, considering, from what I gather, Hagler was the heavy favourite to knock Duran out.

[Cardinal Buck]

It's common knowledge that it's completely okay to overlook Duran's shortcomings while drooling over the Davey Moore and Barkley wins. Hence, Hearns' wom means nothing.

[rightsideup]

It's common knowledge that it's completely okay to overlook Duran's shortcomings while drooling over the Davey Moore and Barkley wins. Hence, Hearns' wom means nothing.

this win meant something at the time as tommy blew out the guy Hagler did not and that created tremendous interest in hearns hagler which turned out to be a classic.

[Bolo Punch]

It's common knowledge that it's completely okay to overlook Duran's shortcomings while drooling over the Davey Moore and Barkley wins.

Well if you consider the fact that Duran was, in essence, a blown up Lightweight for around half of his career, I think he done pretty damn well to stop Davey Moore and get a hard fought decision win over Barkley. You could hardly blame him for losing out to guys who were naturally a lot bigger than him.

[Capaedia]

Its not often a granite chinned concensus top ten atg is dominated and knocked out in two rounds.

The method is important, especially combined with the situation.

Better than Leonards win over Duran in my opinion.


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[TBear]

I give Hearns credit. Because he did what he did a lot, turn in an awesome display. With Duran however, he was a guy that constantly put on 30+ pounds between fights, not unlike Archie Moore. How that affected him we can't be sure of because in his two previous big fights Hagler & Moore, he was quite impressive. I remember thinking at the time that it was a bad fight for Duran, especially after watching Z. Gonzalez and him a few years previous. But after going the distance with Hagler and destroying Davey Moore, anything was possible, especially for a fighter like Roberto Duran.

[Cardinal Buck]

Well if you consider the fact that Duran was, in essence, a blown up Lightweight for around half of his career, I think he done pretty damn well to stop Davey Moore and get a hard fought decision win over Barkley. You could hardly blame him for losing out to guys who were naturally a lot bigger than him.

lol

.....

[$Bullsfam$]

I just don't understand how he can go life and death with Hagler who's arguably the greatest middleweight ever then in his next fight somehow he's shot.

Huge win for Hearns.


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