@ 147 or 154. Does El Feo have any chance against the Hitman? I actually think this could be a harder than expected fight for Hearns. Rodriguez was a very tricky fighter, very slick, had a high workrate, good inside game, and was very well rounded. I honestly think he could have given Hearns a lot of trouble.
I won't go as far as to say Rodriguez doesn't have a chance, but I think he's a pretty clear underdog. A very clear underdog. He simply doesn't have the weapons Leonard had, and he's not outboxing Tommy at range. He was also pretty short - he was only 5'8. Granted, Hagler was around the same height, but Rodriguez doesn't have the strength and firepower of Hagler. I would give Gavilan a MUCH better chance of beating Hearns than Rodriguez. Gavilan was taller, tougher, and has a real shot of getting inside and grinding Hearns down. I just can't envision Rodriguez grinding Hearns down.
It wouldn't suprise me to see Rodriguez win, at any weight. Especially 147 where, in my opinion, Hearns is very overrated.
It wouldn't be a shock. Rodriguez was too good for it to be a shock if he won. I still feel like Tommy is the solid styles favorite though. I do kinda get where you're coming from about Hearns being overrated at welter. He really peaked at 154.
I think the thing here isn't the difference in quality, but the style match up. Hearns is just plain awful for Rodriguez. Rodriguez was good enough to beat Hearns, but I don't see an avenue for him to pull it off. It's as X said, he isn't outboxing Tommy, he isn't knocking him out, and I can't see him grinding Tommy down. Ever since I wrote the Tommy Hearns, The Thread on the ESB, I've always thought Hearns was every bit as good at 147 as he was 154. He was electrifying vs Cuevas.
It's funny how we can see things differently because I've always thought that LMR was perhaps one of the fighters at 147 better equipped to deal with Hearns in a lot of ways. Fast and bouncy on his feet, fairly elusive if herky jerky upper body movement, fast hands, an excellent if awkward body puncher, great at varying his combos upstairs and down with a bit of unorthodoxy, always throwing aggressive clusters of shots, flowing from defense to attack very effectively and a skilled infighter. He had a very long reach too for such a short, stocky torsoed fighter, something a lot of his opponents had bother adapting to, though still a few inches less than Hearns tbf. He was a great middleweight himself and beat a swathe of excellent fighters at 160 who were mostly bigger than him. It's a shame his title shot there came so late when he was well on the downside. And he was still outboxing the 6ft Benvenuti at long range, albeit in a fuck awful fight, prior to being uncharacteristically poleaxed. Which is what bothers me so much against Hearns, as do the Cokes fights. He was badly weight-drained against Cokes in the rubber match and iirc, ill prior to the first fight. And won the second fight going away. It's a strange affair, that series. A pity we don't have any available footage that I'm aware of, though I'm behind the times with that sort of thing and out of the game really. The available info on them does worry me though where a fighter like Hearns is concerned. I agree with X that Gavilan is maybe a bit better suited to the job. I might favour him actually. He'd certainly be still trying to swarm all over Hearns in the championship rounds where Tommy was more vulnerable in fast paced fights. I think Gavilan would have smashed Tito though.
I think I'm a bit hesitant due to El Feo's height. He was no taller than Floyd. Granted, Rodriguez was a heavier boned, and bigger man than Floyd, but traditionally shorter guys did badly against Tommy - Hagler being the exception, but El Feo didn't have Hagler's firepower. The Keed was damn near 6'0, he was taller than Leonard. He was also better suited for waring with Tommy.
And yeah, agreed on Gavilan vs Tito. We're talking two different levels of fighters in that one. Gavilan beats the Hell outta Trinidad.
You might be right pal, I dunno. Hearns definitely has plenty of tools to win the fight and Rodriguez likely isn't going to be able to take him out in quick order like Hagler. It's a long application job with him having to land a lot of shots mostly inside of Hearns's optimal range but I could see him getting it done if he can avoid Tommy's long range sniping, not an easy task obviously. But Hearns was hittable at mid to close range imo and tended not to really tighten up fundamentally against multiple punches, I'd say his defence was more reflexive and based on great footwork and distance control. Rodriguez was quite a spiteful puncher, and in volume too, if not a one punch artist. A decent attritional type I'd say, and he fought a lot of durable guys too. A fair chance that he might be able to at least rattle Hearns and make him a bit uncomfortable in that regard, especially in the later rounds if he gets that far. Maybe not though, who knows.
