If Hearns entered the Olympics in '80.

[SBleeder]

The 1980 team's 139 and 147lbers were Johnny Bumphus and Donald Curry. They were as good, if not better, amateurs as Hearns was. Not so sure he gets by them to even make the Olympic team. It's no certainty.

This is true. I'd favor Hearns over both of them, but Curry especially would give Hearns problems.

[Ray Corso]

You don't "enter", you box in to get there! As a young featherweight up to lightweight Tommy was so skinny he had NO power at all! He learned to stick & move and thats what he did, fast too!! It took him a while to mature and took some pretty good thrashing from Prior (as everyone else did too) before he started to win some tournys!!! If you saw Tommy then he didn't compare to the prior class of Leonard and Davis in his skill level and Bumpus was one of the most difficult guys to box in a 3 round match!! Hearns took some time to develop but thats what the amatuers are about.
He was more of the "featherMan" than the "HitMan"! But things changed. Ray

[Hitman Hodgson]

Didn't Hearns get battered by Aaron Pryor in the ametures? Howard Davis was the top ameture lightweight of the mid to late 70s wasn't he?

[Dynamite76]

I don't have the same confidence in Tommy winning in '80 as I did if Greg Page was trying to get to Moscow.He would have a very good chance, but Donald Curry, Johnny Bumphus, Davey Moore, and even Bobby Joe Young were tough to beat back then, so who truly knows.