Virgill Hill's Greatness?/Underrated?

[Perfect Plex]

Virgil defended his WBA 175lb Title 20 times overall in 2 seperate reigns. 10 in each reign. He also won the unified the division winning the IBF 175lb Title.

He was also 2 time WBA Cruiserweight Champion. And he won the WBA Cruiserweight Title when he was 42.

There some impressive accomplsihments & stats.

He also held wins over Leslie Stewart, Bobby Czyz, James Kinchen, Frank Tatex2, 25-0 Fabrice Tiozzo, Drake Thadzi ( Who beat James Toney in 97), 22-0 Lou Del Valle, 30-0 Henry Maske, Donny Lalonde, 30-0 Valery Brudov.

I do feel Hill is extremly underrated. Surely he gets a call into the IBHOF one day.

[Scott9945]

Underrated? Maybe. Greatness? Maybe not. But if Jose Torres is in the HOF I can't see why Hill shouldn't be.

[MickyHatton]

Virgil Hill was a great fighter, he will get in the HOF.

If I recall correctly he won his first world title after about 19 fights?

A lot of people will remember him for the Roy Jones defeat but he was way past his best by then and Jones way as good as they came at that point.

[TBear]

He was real good but being outboxed by Hearns either brings his greatness down or raises Hearns' up.

[MickyHatton]

He was real good but being outboxed by Hearns either brings his greatness down or raises Hearns' up.

Good point, I personally think it has little bearing overall.

Hearns could box and had all the physical attributes to be a great boxer, he just chose more often than not to fight and go for the KO.

Also If I recall correctly Hill had issues leading to that fight? I think it was a bereavement therefore there were accentuating circumstances.

That being said, its no disgrace to be beaten by a true great like Hearns albeit a slighter older version, after all he did fight on for another 15 years lol after that.

[TBear]

Good point, I personally think it has little bearing overall.

Hearns could box and had all the physical attributes to be a great boxer, he just chose more often than not to fight and go for the KO.

Also If I recall correctly Hill had issues leading to that fight? I think it was a bereavement therefore there were accentuating circumstances.

That being said, its no disgrace to be beaten by a true great like Hearns albeit a slighter older version, after all he did fight on for another 15 years lol after that.

Thats the truth and for the others here my point was not to lower Hill a notch, his accomplishments speak for themself. It would have been cool to see him Charles Williams, Dennis Andres and Michael Moorer unify. The were attempts but it never happened.

[Celtic_Warrior]

He was real good but being outboxed by Hearns either brings his greatness down or raises Hearns' up.

I think it brings Hearns greatness up as it proved he could box well, once again.

[Heavy Bag]

Well the reason he may not get the credit or exposure he deserved could be down to a number of things really.

First off, he never had a fan friendly style, fans & writers didn't find him great on the eye(Hill had a real good jab). Although his reigns were impressive and I agree are underrated, his opposistion fought during them reigns weren't the strongest to say the least.

And then you have the fact, that when he came up in his two biggest fights against Hearns & Jones, fights which people watched & fights which got alot of exposure he was beaten soundley by both via decision & KO.

But I do agree he is underrated, and deserves a IBHOF place. On a side note, he was also a world class amatuer.

[SNVDoublePunch!]

He was real good but being outboxed by Hearns either brings his greatness down or raises Hearns' up.

I can't imagine losing to Tommy Hearns ever hurts your legacy and I think it's easily Tommy's most confusingly underrated win. I agree with the TS, if he doesn't get into the HOF it's very sad. Hill had an awesome career really. Other champions could only dream of doing a double digit title defense, even in the worst of a division's era, let alone two of them, with a unification and a title in a second weight class. This is big time stuff here and it takes a great fighter to do it in any era, imo.