Better Fight Hearns Leonard 1 or 2

[Skip b]

Since there is a Hearns thread around; which do yall think was the better fight.....


Fight one is a classic a brutal war, but when we hear about Hearns Leanard it seems the second fight is forgotten or not talked about; fight 2 was far far more brutal they brought out the primes in eachother and one of the few wars where you got the feeling both fighters were willing to kill eachother for the win.....I liked fight two more they both were goign for the gusto with the shots they landed, Hearns storming, then Leonard storming back all fight; and then the brutal knockdown SRL got up from to stand tall and almost stop Hearns by the end of the fight, easy choice for me

 

[patscorpio]

I liked the first one better mostly because of the comeback and definitive ending of it. The second fight is a classic..underrated in the fact that no one really talks about it and it doesn't the airplay the first fight gets. It gets its stigma because of the draw

 

[patscorpio]

1st fight



2nd fight

 

[Axum Ezana]

hearns won the 2nd fight had it a draw on cards and the 2 knock downs gave hearns the edge.

 

[David_TheMan]

1st fight easily, better drama and the turn around, just better story and entertaining element IMHO.
Its why I like Ali - Frazier 1 as a fight better than Ali - Frazier 3 , even though 3 was the far more brutal fight

 

[Skip b]

hearns won the 2nd fight had it a draw on cards and the 2 knock downs gave hearns the edge.

You see how robberies fukk up boxing history; Heaarns is a legend but that a win over SRL would have etched him as a top 20 great; IDK if he is one without that win.....

This robbery is where boxing began to take a turn for the worst.....This fight rarely gets talked about cause of that shyt

 

[Skip b]

I liked the first one better mostly because of the comeback and definitive ending of it. The second fight is a classic..underrated in the fact that no one really talks about it and it doesn't the airplay the first fight gets. It gets its stigma because of the robbery

Fixed

 

[H.I.M.]

115-113 LEONARD in the 2nd fight

Thought Leonard boxed alot better in the 2nd fight than in the 1st and it was just a more competitive back & forth, where as the 1st fight the rds that both were winning were lopsided in both guys favor...Sugar was getting straight dominated in the 1st 1/3rd of the fight, then Hearns got caught lackin in the middle rds with a shot that he didn't recover from until around the 10th if i recall. Then boxed Sugar up for the next 2-3 rds like the early part of the fight until he got caught lackin again and put away. The 1st fight had better overall entertainment value and was more aestetically pleasing even though none of the rds were really competitive going either way.

 

[LauderdaleBoss]

The 1st fight was more dramatic, but the 2nd fight was more entertaining due to the constant ebb and flow back and forth action.

I think its a tie, really. Both are classics for different reasons.

 

[HamAndEgger]

Easily the 1st fight. Both guys still in their primes, Hearns looking as if he was going to grab the win though Leonard kept creeping back landing on Tommy and buckling him in the mid rounds. What's crazy is if the fight happened today with 12 round standard Tommy would've won. He was ahead on all the scorecards going into the 14th round and Leonard gutted it out and took Tommy out. Awesome fight. The 2nd fight wasn't "bad" either but it was also 2 shells of their former selves.

 

[patscorpio]

Easily the 1st fight. Both guys still in their primes, Hearns looking as if he was going to grab the win though Leonard kept creeping back landing on Tommy and buckling him in the mid rounds. What's crazy is if the fight happened today with 12 round standard Tommy would've won. He was ahead on all the scorecards going into the 14th round and Leonard gutted it out and took Tommy out. Awesome fight. The 2nd fight wasn't "bad" either but it was also 2 shells of their former selves.

i think hearns was still effective at the point...because he went on to beat virgil hill, took his zero, and become light heavyweight champ..now if this fight was after the 2nd fight with iran barkley..then id agree with you on the bolded

 

[Erratic415]

2nd fight probably actually had more consistent sustained action, as the 1st kind of had a lot of lulls in action (particularly rounds 9 thru 12).

1st fight was them at (or much closer) to their peaks though, as you can't really get a better matchup than 1981 versions of these two ATGs at 147. It had more significance because of them being prime, and great shifts in momentum, so I guess I'd go with the first over the 2nd on an all-time list.