Leonard-Hearns 1989 Supermiddles-vs-2014 Top Dogs. Fact.

Id struggle to see Leonard or Hearns beating these guys. Leonard fought twice at super middle and one at light heavy. At super middle he fought Duran and Hearns. Duran coming to the end of his career and should never have gone so high in weight and Hearns while probably bigger at the weight was still not a natural super middle. The super middles would be too big and too strong for Leonard in my opinion. Id say Froch stops him, Ward smothers him and stops him late or by UD. He may grind out points wins over the others but could also see them stopping him.

Hearns, in my opinion, didnt fight anyone of note at the higher weights. Again I think the stronger guys nowadays would stop him at super middle or light heavy.

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Originally Posted by Silkeyjoe

Id struggle to see Leonard or Hearns beating these guys. Leonard fought twice at super middle and one at light heavy. At super middle he fought Duran and Hearns. Duran coming to the end of his career and should never have gone so high in weight and Hearns while probably bigger at the weight was still not a natural super middle. The super middles would be too big and too strong for Leonard in my opinion. Id say Froch stops him, Ward smothers him and stops him late or by UD. He may grind out points wins over the others but could also see them stopping him.

Hearns, in my opinion, didnt fight anyone of note at the higher weights. Again I think the stronger guys nowadays would stop him at super middle or light heavy.

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He fought and outpointed an unbeaten Virgil Hill at LHW .

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Originally Posted by Dark Lord Al

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Originally Posted by Silkeyjoe

Id struggle to see Leonard or Hearns beating these guys. Leonard fought twice at super middle and one at light heavy. At super middle he fought Duran and Hearns. Duran coming to the end of his career and should never have gone so high in weight and Hearns while probably bigger at the weight was still not a natural super middle. The super middles would be too big and too strong for Leonard in my opinion. Id say Froch stops him, Ward smothers him and stops him late or by UD. He may grind out points wins over the others but could also see them stopping him.

Hearns, in my opinion, didnt fight anyone of note at the higher weights. Again I think the stronger guys nowadays would stop him at super middle or light heavy.

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He fought and outpointed an unbeaten Virgil Hill at LHW .

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Im not sure Virgil Hill was that good and he also wasnt that big a puncher. It was a big win for Hearns but i wasnt overly impressed by him in it and then he went and lost in his next fight. I also believe Stewart left him after the Hill fight and thought he should retire.

Im not argueing who the better P4P fighters were I just dont think the guys could cope with the size and power of todays super middleweights. For example Hill weighed in at 173 for his fight v Hearns so I dont imagine he was more then 180 in the ring. Light heavies like Stevenson are probably close to 200 in the ring.

although I appreciate the glamour of the fab 4 and the historical relevance of the period - they will always be rated a lot more highly than they probably actually should be


id like to see them all fight each other, new and old, id like to see some of the SMWs from periods in between join in too


seems leonard and hearns and co are always considered the best but im not so sure, the 90s and early 00s supermiddleweights might have something to say about that too

I need to watch this fight again. Not seen fr 20 years or so. Till I read Four Kings a few years back I had always assumed they were in their late 30s when they fought such was made at the time about them being past it. In today's terms it was nothing !

I will watch later this week and come back

At the time I was a Leonard fan but in later years have come to appreciate how Marvelous Marvin did it all the hard way. He's my favourite now. But Hearns was the most exciting

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Originally Posted by erics44

although I appreciate the glamour of the fab 4 and the historical relevance of the period - they will always be rated a lot more highly than they probably actually should be


id like to see them all fight each other, new and old, id like to see some of the SMWs from periods in between join in too


seems leonard and hearns and co are always considered the best but im not so sure, the 90s and early 00s supermiddleweights might have something to say about that too

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But it wasn't just about SMW for these guys. Before they even got to that weight, every single one of them had achieved more in their careers than ANY of the modern day guys that were mentioned. They went up to those weights because there was nothing else to achieve lower down. SMW was probably the least significant part of all their careers. It's like they were ATG's twice over and had 2 careers each!

Leonard should not be considered a real super and light heavyweight. He was very selective who he chose as @Silkeyjoe said but Hearns was more natural at the higher weights. The new super middleweights may have won particularly Ward and a young Kessler but they were not greater than them p4p.

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Originally Posted by Primo Carnera

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Originally Posted by erics44

although I appreciate the glamour of the fab 4 and the historical relevance of the period - they will always be rated a lot more highly than they probably actually should be


id like to see them all fight each other, new and old, id like to see some of the SMWs from periods in between join in too


seems leonard and hearns and co are always considered the best but im not so sure, the 90s and early 00s supermiddleweights might have something to say about that too

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But it wasn't just about SMW for these guys. Before they even got to that weight, every single one of them had achieved more in their careers than ANY of the modern day guys that were mentioned. They went up to those weights because there was nothing else to achieve lower down. SMW was probably the least significant part of all their careers. It's like they were ATG's twice over and had 2 careers each!

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yeah I appreciate that, and something that all adds to the fairy tail


it was a fantastic time for boxing with 4 fighters making a massive contribution


all this makes people look back with rose tinted glasses tho and any conversation about who would win, them 4 or any other fighter from any other era and the answers from many is always the same

Right now the 147, 154 and 160 are so weak i do not think the glasses are ross tinted. I mean for fuck sake Cotto mw champion right now thats not a strong division Cotto good but please. Pac had close fights with Bradley and got leveled by career fw and lw in jmm who was also 40 years old. Mayweather in his last fight won but went tooth and nail with a man who not going into the books i do not think we have improved much from the 80's really. Only reason hw's can win now is the size difference kinda changes the game but at these weight classes i do not feel the craft has gone way up at all really just the pay for some fighters. Hearns was pretty good at lhw and smw but this era pretty good right now at 168 not the best but pretty strong and Leonard had ok wins at the weight but he really was nothing after mw just doing money fights.

Just watched the whole fight again . Wow I never remembered the fight being this good.

I remember thinking way back Hearns was robbed but , though I had him maybe 1 up (2 max) I can see how it was a draw.

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Originally Posted by Mark TKO

Just watched the whole fight again . Wow I never remembered the fight being this good.

I remember thinking way back Hearns was robbed but , though I had him maybe 1 up (2 max) I can see how it was a draw.

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You are an idiot.

you know where I am

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Originally Posted by Mark TKO

you know where I am

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Yes in idiotville.

I don't think they match up particularly well. And before people say "BUT ITS RAY LEONARD AND HEARNS", yeah, but by '89 they were both years out of their prime and quite honestly both guys weren't even true SMW's. SRL weighed in at 160 and Hearns at 162.

The SMW guys today are just too big for them to be as effective as they were IMO, and they were too far out of their primes when they were at SMW.

Andre Ward would have eaten '89 SRL alive.