Changing One's Mind on Fighters

[marbleheadmaui]

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.

I hear ya on everything you said. But I'd argue the Olajide, Dewitt fights he still won. And neither of those guys was a joke. As for your suppositions, even if I agree with them (which I largely do) woulda coulda shoulda just carries no weight with me...or only a little anyway (I am too often wrong in actual predictions). Hearns fought an excellent collection of fighters, defeated some true greats in Duran and Benitez and gave everyone he fought, including ATG's absolute hell.