Thomas Hearns ponders who wins between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Paquiao, and how each would do against himself, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Wifredo Benitez or Robert Duran.
on Tuesday to reflect on his on career as well as those of eight-division belt-winner Manny Pacquiao and six-time title winner Floyd Mayweather Jr.First, a brief look at the career of Hearns (61-5-1, 48 knockouts), who won six career title belts over as many weight divisions despite "never asking for a catch weight," according to his former trainer Manny Steward.
Hearns weighed 146 pounds when his second-round knockout dethroned Pipino Cuevas for the WBA welterweight belt in August of 1980. Then, Hearns rose to earn the WBC's junior middleweight belt with a 15-round, majority decision over Wilfred Benitez as a 153.5 pounder in December of 1982.
Next, Hearns climbed to light heavyweight and weighed 173.5 for his 10th-round knockout of Dennis Andries for the WBC crown in March of 1987. After that, Hearns dropped to 159.5 for his very next win, a fourth-round stoppage of Juan Domingo Roldan for the WBC's middleweight belt in October of 1987.
Two fights later, a 165.5-pound Hearns decisioned James Kinchen by majority decision for the WBO's super middleweight belt in November of 1988. Finally, Hearns weighed 189 pounds when he won the IBO cruiserweight title by unanimous decision over Nate Miller in April of 1999.
Hearns won another notable fight by second-round stoppage over former belt-holder Roberto Duran in June of 1984. Hearns lost by 14th round knockout to Sugar Ray Leonard in a welterweight unification bout in Sept. 1981, and by third-round knockout to Marvin Hagler in his bid for the undisputed middleweight crown in April of 1985.
In a subject-response talk with RingTV.com, Hearns mulled how Mayweather and Pacquiao would fair against each other as well as in the mix with himself, Leonard, Hagler, Benitez and Duran.
Hearns' thoughts on Mayweather:
"Floyd Mayweather Jr. is an excellent fighter. I will give credit where credit is due. I can not take anything away from Floyd Mayweather.
"Floyd Mayweather is a very smart fighter in the ring. He feints well, and he punches pretty good. I mean he's pretty active while he's in there."
On how Mayweather and Pacquiao would do against himself, Leonard, Hagler, Benitez and Duran:
"I think that he would do pretty good. He's got good head movement and I can't put him down. He's pretty active while he's in there. Floyd Mayweather is an excellent fighter. I have to give him his props. He could last.
"Manny Pacquiao, I think that he's a pretty good fighter too. I think that he would do well. He would do okay. I think that he would do pretty good."
On what his strategy would be in a fight against Mayweather:
"Against me, I would have to respect him. I think that he could go the distance with me. I would have to out-think him and definitely out-jab him. He's a shorter man, so he can't get to me.
"I would have to keep the jab on him and keep him at a distance and force him to use his head movement all of the time. Somewhere down the line, I would probably hit him with a couple of right hands.
"I would probably get him with a good right hand if not an average right hand. If I was to go to the body, you know that might play into what he is probably trying to do strategically.
"I think that if I got closer to him trying to land a body shot, that would be what he wants. So I think that my best thing would be to stay on the outside and just box him. But I think that he could go the distance with me."
On his strategy against Pacquiao:
"He would definitely have to come to me. I would probably just box him and keep boxing him and look for the shot. Yeah, definitely, I would box him and look for the opening. I would give him a good boxing lesson [laughs.]"
On who would win between Mayweather and Pacquiao:
"I would say that it would be an awesome fight between the both of them, but I think that Floyd should win the fight. If Floyd does what he's supposed to do, then I think Floyd wins and that he should be victorious.
"If he doesn't, then Pacquiao will take over the fight. Manny Pacquiao comes to fight. That's all that he wants to do. But I think that the only way that Pacquiao could win is by knockout of Floyd.
"The way that Floyd is going to win is to out-box Manny Pacquiao and to make Manny Pacquiao fall apart."
On whether either Mayweather or Pacquiao could beat him:
"[Laughs.] Listen, they're good fighters, right? Can't take anything away from those guys. But you know anybody who was in my weight division, you know, I would give them hell.
"They would have to be really fighting hard and be ready to absorb a lot of punches to beat me. Because, you know, I ain't going to let anybody just come in and beat me."
Lem Satterfield can be reached at lem.satterfield@gmail.com
Source: ringtv.craveonline.com
