Changing One's Mind on Fighters

[Violent Demise]

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

[Andre]

Roy Jones-Old View-The greatest fighter of the last twenty years. An unprecedented combination of speed and power. First New View-Roy's technique was terrible, he fought very limited competition and he was never a warrior. It is easy to look flashy against one's athletic inferiors, but it doesn't mean much. Not a top 50 all-timer. New, New View-The more you look at who Roy beat, the better his resume is. Nobody really beat him before he was 35 and he showed how he came off disappointment against Montell Griffin in one glorious round. Father Time is what got Roy. Tarver didn't. A top 50 all-timer.
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The only one i'm going to comment on Marble, is Roy Jones Jr., was his competition really all that great when compared to the resumes of the top 50 all-time greats? Father- time you say? Jones was only 34 when he fought Tarver the 2nd time and nearly lost their first fight. In his next fight he was knocked unconscious by journeyman Glen Johnson, and then went on to lose his 3rd fight with Tarver. In my view, Jones Jr's opponents finally figured out his unorthodox style, and he hasn't won a meaningful fight against a top level opponent since then.

I think his unorthodox speed training and agility was the only thing that allowed him to get away with a lot of very wild stuff that many others couldn't even imagine doing at that time.
Traditionalists of solid ring work hate these types.

Once he actually believed his own hype and thought he was king he rode his merits instead of training even harder, With no traditional technique to fall back on his lack of explosiveness and still putting himself in the old positions didn't help. It was his own fault he slacked off instead he should of dropped right off.

[chinchekked]

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.

[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.