Changing One's Mind on Fighters

[ICB]

Hearns was pretty good. Lost twice to Iran Barkley, and I guess he just had his number. But there's a couple other glitches in his career that make me wonder about him being 'great.'
He fought Doug DeWitt, nobody's definition of a great, or particularly good, fighter. He had skills and some mental lapses that held him back, and a very solid chin for most of his career. Hearns hit DeWitt with something like 22 straight punches at the end of the 2nd round of their fight and didn't hurt him: but Doug had a good chin and Hearns was having hand problems then. In the 7th round DeWitt landed several body punches and took it all out of Hearns.
Hearns fought Olijade and out boxed him, knocked him down. In the course of trying to finish him, Hearns got hit with a left hook that took his legs straight away. He had nothing and sleep walked the rest of the way against a guy that had less and didn't know what he had in front of him.
In my mind, his inability to take a punch and recover is what keeps Hearns from being a truly top-flight fighter. Granted, he could concievably overwhelm a guy like he did Duran (a better fighter), but, if that didn't work, he was waiting to be had. Thjis was true throughout his entire career, at every weight. McCallum would've beaten him, Toney, and a bunch of others.

Hearns had his faults. No denying that. You make some decent points. You consider him to be a good fighter. But his resume says otherwise. No matter what happened in the Olijade and DeWitt fights he still won them. And they were clearcut wins. Add Pipino Cuevas, Roberto Duran, Bruce Curry, Wilfred Benitez, Ray Leonard (that was no draw), Virgil Hill, Angel Espada and it ain't hard to see why he's pretty much consider great by most

And the very fact they were dominant wins speak volumes aswell, well maybe not against Wilfredo Benitez. But points wise is was pretty wide, and he was miles ahead against Sugar Ray Leonard in the 1st fight, and won the rematch but was robbed.

Tommy Hearns didn't have the best chin, but that doesn't mean he wasn't a great fighter. I mean Joe Louis and Wilfredo Benitez didn't have great chins either, but there still great fighters.

[Mars_ax]

Jones was one of the greatest. Yeah, he lost to Tarver and it was a slippery slope after that but don't think for a second Jones isn't an atg. Jones messed up when he dropped that weight to give Tarver the rematch, he got caught and itwas downhill. Don't be fooled...Tarver, Johnson, or any of those guys don't beat prime Jones.

Jones Jr. had a unorthodox style, (not unlike Prince Hamed) hit, but not be hit, that was hard, almost impossible for his opponents to crack. At first, he was head and shoulders above most of his competition, but eventually, his competition got better and figured his style out, Tarver being the first. Since then, Jones Jr. has become just another over-hyped, over-payed, has been.